What Is Enterprise Content Management? Or, What Is ECM?

By Jim Wanner

It’s a funny thing that after 20 years in this industry I had to put on my thinking cap and contemplate a good answer to this question. I guess when we start out in an industry we keep things simple, and after it becomes second nature, we tend to overcomplicate what should be an easy answer that rolls off of our tongue.

So what is enterprise content management? (Drum roll, please.)

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the capture, storage, and retrieval of paper and electronic documents and data in a centralized repository. The justification for this type of solution normally involves saving time, reducing costs, gaining a competitive advantage, and/or addressing a compliance issue. To save time and money capturing data, system designers may utilize optical character recognition (OCR) technology to remove data from paper and automate indexing. If the information is captured from electronic systems, identifying the metadata required for indexing may be found in the data itself. In many cases, the entire solution is automated by workflow technology, and productivity reports are produced to show end users, managers, and executives the results.