Enterprise Content Management

From the early days of managing image files or individual documents to today’s comprehensive solutions that aim to centrally manage any asset, regardless of type, Enterprise Content Management today represents the culmination of decades of product evolution, cross pollination and consolidation.  While the term is much maligned today due its broad scope and lack of a succinct definition, there is no question that ECM plays a leading role in strategic planning for enterprise customers of all shapes and sizes.

Over time, ECM has gradually stratified into a vendor taxonomy of three subcategories: Digital Asset Management (DAM), Document Management (DM), and Web Content Management (WCM). While the latter two categories deal with more or less what their names imply – documents like PDF’s and Word documents for DM, HTML, Javascripts, et al for WCM, DAM is most often used to handle rich media files such audio or video clips. The umbrella term ECM, which encompasses the three subcategories, refers to products that have abilities across at least two of the subcategories (preferably all three) and are suitable for large scale, enterprise class implementations.

But while the battle is still being waged to master the three subcategories of WCM, DM and DAM, the real drivers behind ECM purchases today are emerging from less traditional directions. While the drivers are not the ones that have typically moved product in the past, they are no less important.  In fact, in many instances there is a renewed emphasis on content management initiatives because of the dual trends of integration and compliance. Both of these drivers are playing a bigger role not only in how today’s enterprise vendors sell their products, but in determining the overall product direction.

Compliance in particular, which RedMonk covers in detail as a critical macro level business driver, has made the leap from a check box on ECM product evaluation sheets to a critical go or no factor in product decisions for customers faced with significant internal or external regulatory, governance, and compliance challenges. Likewise, integration is proving to be a hugely important factor in the decision making process, as companies are seeking to leverage their content across the enterprise in a variety of applications. To accomplish this, they need a central management point and the ability to integrate on a bidirectional basis with other repositories and applications. But make no mistake, ECM is a true category and is only growing in importance.