AIIM Survey Probes User Confusion About Enterprise Content Management And Business Process Management
AIIM, the international authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM), reveals the results of its survey of end user views on the connection between Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Business Process Management (BPM) technologies.
AIIM surveyed nearly 500 end users on their views of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and Business Process Management (BPM) technologies in September 2004. The ECM-BPM Technologies End User Survey was sent to AIIM E-DOC Magazine subscribers, Transform Magazine subscribers, and the EbizQ.com house list for response. The survey consisted of 21 questions with respondents representing a variety of industries. The largest group of respondents was government (21 percent), including defense, public services, and local government officials. Other large respondent groups were from banking, finance, and insurance (17 percent), and manufacturing (8 percent).
"Users are confused about the connection between ECM and BPM technologies," notes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "Workflow technologies were clearly a subset of document management and imaging. As these technologies have evolved into BPM and ECM, there continues to be a relationship between the two. However, users clearly view BPM not as a subset of ECM, but rather as a separate, but related area of business technology."
According to A.J. Hyland, 2004 Chair of AIIM and President and CEO of Hyland Software, "There is an 'I'm from Mars, you're from Venus' phenomenon out there when users and suppliers talk about these technologies. There needs to be a greater focus on the outcomes that can — and are — being achieved by end users rather than on technology labels. As an industry, we need greater focus on educating end users about the potential benefits of ECM and BPM technologies."
Among the specific findings:
- Users are confused about ECM and BPM technologies. Only half of the end users surveyed reported that they fully understood the term ECM technology, although other AIIM research indicates that understanding of this term is growing among end users. There was even more confusion about BPM technology solutions, with only 47 percent of end users reporting that they fully understand the term. By contrast, the survey indicates that respondents understand workflow, document management, and even enterprise application integration.
- Users see limited connections between ECM and BPM technologies. Sixty-four percent of the respondents viewed ECM and BPM as two separate initiatives that intersect from time to time. They are seen as complementary and overlapping, but distinct.
- Users have varied implementation experiences with ECM and BPM technologies. End user respondents reported that more than 50 percent have undertaken BPM solutions to address departmental projects. By comparison, 42 percent have undertaken departmental projects using an ECM solution. Interestingly, the survey found that only 11 percent of end users have deployed and implemented an enterprise scale initiative using BPM technologies, while 17 percent have used ECM solutions.
- Users rate productivity and costs savings as extremely important business process drivers. End users cited increased productivity, reduced costs, and increased customer satisfaction as extremely important potential benefits of ECM and BPM technology solutions.
- Users identify key obstacles to ECM and BPM deployment. Planning and managing implementation and justifying the investment to senior management are the key obstacles that end users identified in implementing either ECM or BPM technology solutions.
- Users view ECM and BPM implementation challenges comparable to other major software implementation challenges. More than 50 percent of end users surveyed state that the implementation of ECM and BPM technology solutions present exactly the same challenges or similar challenges to other major software implementation challenges.
- Users cite finance and internal/administrative business processes as important reasons for BPM implementation. BPM technologies could be used to address business processes across a variety of functional areas within enterprises, with finance, internal/administrative processes, and human resources as top beneficiaries.
About AIIM
AIIM, the international authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM), is
leading the way to the understanding, adoption, and use of ECM technologies.
These technologies, tools, and methods are used to capture, manage, store,
preserve, and deliver content across an enterprise in support of business
processes. As a non-profit association for more than 60 years, AIIM provides
industry news and information, educational events and professional development,
market analysis, industry standards development, publications, regional
chapters, and executive networking. Complete information about AIIM is
available on the Web at www.aiim.org.