An Insurance Perspective: SharePoint As ECM? It Depends

By KeyMark, Inc.

Well, it seems that everyone is talking about Microsoft SharePoint these days. Whether SharePoint is your intranet portal, business intelligence tool, collaboration platform or business form package, insurance organizations are proliferating SharePoint across their organizations nearly as quickly as it can be implemented.

But, the question that begs is this, “Is Microsoft SharePoint my ECM Platform?” If only it were that simple.

Enterprise platforms have been chosen for years by insurance companies for Content Management. Three letter acronym corporations have dominated the large insurance space with the promise of enterprise infrastructure for content, while frequently addressing strictly claims or strictly underwriting. These legacy ECM implementations have become niche implementations susceptible to a new enterprise message from Microsoft. No longer constrained by the idea of a centrally controlled & administered, heavily-customized ECM solution, Microsoft offers a content platform that promises ease of distributed administration through team sites, project sites, departmental document libraries and more. Reduced IT burden, lower maintenance, and even a strong SaaS offering are all part of the Microsoft message giving insurance organizations a lot to consider when reviewing their content management strategies.