12/05/2016

AIIMWhatisECM?WhatisEnterpriseContentManagement?

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W hatisEC M

What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?

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IndustryWatch
Reports

EnterpriseContentManagement(ECM)isthestrategies,methodsand
toolsusedtocapture,manage,store,preserve,anddelivercontentand
documentsrelatedtoorganizationalprocesses.

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Glossary

Itsnotenoughtomanagecontent.Theabilityto
accessthecorrectversionofadocumentorrecordis
important.Contentmustbemanagedsothatitis
usedtoachievebusinessgoals.
EnterpriseContentManagementisthesystematic
collectionandorganizationofinformationthatisto
beusedbyadesignatedaudiencebusiness
executives,customers,etc.Neitherasingle
technologynoramethodologynoraprocess,itisa
dynamiccombinationofstrategies,methods,and
toolsusedtocapture,manage,store,preserve,and
deliverinformationsupportingkeyorganizational
processesthroughitsentirelifecycle.
Captureboilsdowntoenteringcontentinto
thesystem.

More,"Whatis..."
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Imaging
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Manageiswhatyoudonexttoit,soitcanbe
foundandusedbywhomeveritisintended
for.
Storingitmeansfindingitanappropriate
homeinyourinfrastructure,beitaformal
contentmanagementsystemorother
informationsolution.
Preservereferstolongtermcarearchiving,
ifyouwillthepracticeofprotectingitsoit
canbeutilizedhoweverfarintothefuturethe
organizationneedsittobeavailable.
Anddeliverisallaboutputtingtheinformation
intherightpeopleshandsrightwhenthey
needittobethere.

Yournextstep:

FreeChecklistforaSuccessfulECM
Implementation
Managingcontentishard!MakinganECM
implementationworkrequiresplanningandattentionto
detail.
Downloadthischecklisttolearnthe14stepstoa
successfulenterprisecontentmanagement(ECM)
implementation.

Documentmanagementeventuallywassubsumedintocontentmanagementinno
smallmeasurebecausethereismoreinformationavailabletoustodaythanever
before,andmostofitisnotbeingcreatedbyus.Thankstothemainstreamingofa
wholerangeofsourcesliketheWeb,thumbdrives,smartphones,cloud,etc.,the
needhasacceleratedtodealwithinformationofallkinds:notjustintermsofmore
mediatypesliketextvs.imagesvs.voicefiles,butalsointermsofhowstructured
andthushowreadilymanageditallis.
Structuredinformationisinformationthatishighlydefinedandnotonlyisintendedto
beprocessedbyacomputerprogram,butreadilycanbelikemostoftheinformation

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AIIMWhatisECM?WhatisEnterpriseContentManagement?
heldinrelationaldatabasesandacteduponbylineofbusinesssolutions.
Unstructuredinformationis,well,informationthatdoesnothaveafullydefined
structure,andmostlikelywillbereadandusedbyhumans.Asexamples,thinkof
mostoftheinformationproducedbycommonofficeapplications(wordprocessors,
presentationprograms).
Semistructuredinformationisinformationthatliessomewhereinbetween,like
invoices,purchaseorders,andreceipts,whichcontaindatatobecomputerprocessed
butwhichcomeinformatsandlayoutsthatfirstneedtobeidentifiedandclassified
ataskthatoftenishandledbyhumansbutincreasinglyisbeingautomatedasthe
toolsimprove.
Thisallbecomesimportantwhenyouconsidertheeffectonyourbusinessthatnot
managingtheseelementscanhave!Diminishedutility,lossoftime,lossof
productivity,possiblenoncompliancewithregulationsorcorporatepolicies,theriskof
seriousbusinessinterruptionifkeyrepositoriesdieornaturaldisastersstrikenone
ofthemhappyoutcomes!
Effectiveness,efficiency,compliance,andcontinuityallcombine,indifferent
proportions,todrivethebusinesscaseforcontentmanagementinmost
organizations.
Transactionalcontentmanagementtargetsprocessesthatfocusonenacting
businessorbringingaboutadecisionorendresult.Theseprocessesarenotfocused
oncreatingcontent,butusingcontenttohelpdriveactionsanddecisions.
Examplesincludeinvoiceprocessing,applicationprocessing,employeeonboarding,
accountspayable,insuranceclaims,patientcharts,andtheprocessingofpermitsand
loans.
Wetalkabouttransactionalcontentmanagementhereratherthanundercontent
managementbecauseitusuallyrequiresalotofworkflowconfigurationand
integrationwithothersystems.Beingcontentoriented,though,itjustaseasilycould
havebeenlistedundercontentmanagementasthenamesuggests.Forcharting
purposes,thinkofitasoccupyingaspacerightalongtheborderbetweentheprocess
andcontentdisciplineswhicharefairlytightlytiedtogetheranyway.
ECMisanongoingandevolvingstrategyformaximizinghowyourcontentistobe
used.
ThisinformationistakenfromthebodyofknowledgethatcomprisesAIIMsCertified
InformationProfessional.

ContentandDocuments
Unstructuredcontententersanorganization'sITinfrastructurefromavarietyof
sources.Regardlessofhowapieceofcontententers,ithasalifecycle.Followa
documentthroughitslifecycleasviewedthroughtheuseofECMtechnology.
1.ElectronicUnstructuredData:email,instantmessage,textdocument,
spreadsheet,etc.
2.ElectronicForms
3.PaperDocuments/Forms

Scanning
Papergenerallyenterstheorganizationthroughascanner,orsometimes,a
multifunctiondevice.Incentralizedscanoperations,largevolumesofpaperareput
intothesystembydedicatedworkers.Indistributedoperations,smallervolumesof
documentsarecapturedwithlowervolumescannersormultifunctiondevicescloserto
theirpointofcreation.

DocumentImaging
Softwarecapturestheimageofthepaperdocument.Increasingly,electronic
documentimageshavethesamelegalstatusasapaperdocument.

FormsProcessing
Businessformsareingestedintothesystem.Mostformstodayare"structured"the
locationoftheformelementsareknown.Theabilitytoprocessunstructuredforms,
thosewithoutapredefinedformtemplate,isimproving.

Recognition
Technologiesthatallowpaperinformationtobetranslatedtoelectronicdatawithout
manualdatainput.Recognitiontechnologieshaveprogressivecapabilitiesfromoptical
characterrecognition(OCR)tointelligentcharacterrecognitions(ICR)andare
importantforconvertinglargeamountsofformsorunstructureddatatousable

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informationinacontentmanagementsystem.

Categorization/Taxonomy
Ataxonomyprovidesaformalstructureforinformation,basedontheindividualneeds
ofabusiness.Categorizationtoolsautomatetheplacementofcontent(document
images,email,textdocuments,i.e.,allelectroniccontent)forfutureretrievalbasedon
thetaxonomy.Userscanalsomanuallycategorizedocuments.Criticalsteptoensure
thatcontentisproperlystored.

Indexing
Anessentialpartofthecaptureprocess,createsmetadatafromscanneddocuments
(customerIDnumber,forexample)sothedocumentcanbefound.Indexingcanbe
basedonkeywordsorfulltext.

DocumentManagement
Documentmanagementtechnologyhelpsorganizationsbettermanagethecreation,
revision,approval,andconsumptionofelectronicdocuments.Itprovideskeyfeatures
suchaslibraryservices,documentprofiling,searching,checkin,checkout,version
control,revisionhistory,anddocumentsecurity.

RecordsManagement
Contentoflongtermbusinessvaluearedeemedrecordsandmanagedaccordingtoa
retentionschedulethatdetermineshowlongarecordiskeptbasedoneitheroutside
regulationsorinternalbusinesspractices.Anypieceofcontentcanbedesignateda
record.

EmailManagement
Asthedefactostandardforbusinesscommunication,removingemailsfromtheserver
andsavingthemtoarepositoryisn'tenough.Emailmustbeclassified,stored,and
destroyedconsistentwithbusinessstandardsjustasanyotherdocumentorrecord.

WebContentManagement
Webcontentmanagementtechnologyaddressesthecontentcreation,review,
approval,andpublishingprocessesofWebbasedcontent.Keyfeaturesinclude
creationandauthoringtoolsorintegrations,inputandpresentationtemplatedesign
andmanagement,contentreusemanagement,anddynamicpublishingcapabilities.

DigitalAssetManagement
Similarinfunctionalitytodocumentmanagement,DAMisfocusedonthestorage,
tracking,anduseofrichmediadocuments(video,logos,photographs,etc.).Rootsof
thetechnologyareinthemediaandentertainmentindustry,currentlyexperiencing
growth,especiallyinmarketingdepartments.Digitalassetstypicallyhavehigh
intellectualpropertyvalue.

Repositories
StructuredandunstructuredthecoreofmanyECMsystems.Thisiswherethedata
residesandwheremuchofacompany'sinvestmentinECMresides.Arepositorycan
beasophisticatedsystemthatcostshundredsofthousandsofdollars,orassimple
asafilefoldersysteminasmallercompany.Thekeyistohaveinformationthatcan
befoundonceitisplacedinthesystem.

Storage
Contentneedsto"live"somewhere.Storagetechnology(opticaldisks,magnetic,
tape,microfilm,RAID,paper)provideoptionsforstoringcontentonlineforrapid
accessornearorofflineforcontentthatisn'tneededoften.

ContentIntegration
Enablesdisparatecontentsourcestolookandactasasinglerepository.

Migration
Asstoragemediaages,contentmustbemovedtonewmediaforcontinued
accessibility.

Backup/Recovery
Backingupcontentinvariousformatsand/orlocationshelpstoensurebusiness
viabilityinthefaceofadisaster.

Search/Retrieval
OneofthegreatestbenefitsofastrongECMsystemistheabilitytogetoutwhatyou

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putin.Byhavingstrongindexing,taxonomy,andrepositoryservices,locatingthe
informationinyoursystemshouldbeasnap.

Syndication
Distributionofcontentforreuseandintegrationintoothercontent.

Localization
Recastingcontentbasedontheneedsandculturalmoresofdifferentglobalmarkets.

Personalization
Drawingonataxonomyandbasedonestablisheduserpreferences,varioustypes
andsubjectsofcontentcanbedeliveredviauserdefinedpreferences.

Publish
Contentgetswhereandtowhomitneedstogothroughanumberoftools.Content
canbedeliveredviaprint,email,websites,portals,textmessages,RSSfeeds.

PaperElectronic
Portal,Intranet,Extranet,Email,Fax

Security
Restrictsaccesstocontent,bothduringitscreationandmanagementaswellaswhen
delivered.
1.DigitalRightsManagementpreventstheillegaldistributionofrightsmanaged
contentbyrestrictingaccesstocontentdowntothesentencelevelaswellas
granting/restrictingpermissionsforforwardingandaccessingcontent.
2.DigitalSignaturesensurestheidentityofadocumentsender,andthe
authenticityofthemessage.
3.PKIusesapublicandprivatekeypairheldbyatrustedthirdpartytotransact
businessoverthepublicInternet.

Collaboration
Collaborationtechnologiesenableindividualusers,suchasemployeesorbusiness
partnerstoeasilycreateandmaintainprojectteams,regardlessofgeographic
location.Thesetechnologiesfacilitatecollaborative,teambasedcontentcreationand
decisionmaking.

LongTermArchival
Contentthatmustbepreservedoverdecadesmustbesavedtomedia,suchas
paperandfilmbasedimaging,withlongevitytomatch.

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