Integrated ECM solutions: where records managers, knowledge workers converge.

• Author: Franks, Patricia C.
• Position: FELLOWS FORUM

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By using examples from Gartner's 2015 "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management," this article offers a brief introduction to three ECM systems, provides examples of integrated solutions used by knowledge workers, and discusses the contributions records managers can make to support business processes.

There are numerous challenges to ensuring that captured data is useful. As noted by former U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald J. Hedges in a 2016 presentation, "The Positive Power of the Destruction of Data," data is voluminous and distributed, is fragile yet persistent, takes many forms, and is created and maintained in complex systems.

Data can be found on personal computers at work and home; laptops, smart phones, and tablets; networked devices (i.e., the Internet of Things); digital copiers; removable media (e.g., disks, flash drives); and with third-party providers. Increasingly, content resides within an enterprise content management (ECM) system--on premises, in the cloud, or both--and is in continual use by knowledge workers, whose jobs primarily involve creating, distributing, or applying knowledge.

The Need to Understand Content's Value, Use

Knowledge workers must understand the value of content to the organization and be able to handle it responsibly regardless of their role within the information life cycle--whether as creator, user, or manager. At the same time, records managers must be able to provide access to the right content--regardless of its status as information or record, its format, or its location--to the right person at the right time and in the right place.

The integration of an ECM system with other business solutions establishes a point of convergence for knowledge workers and records managers:

1. Having the ability to categorize content without referring to a records retention and disposition schedule allows knowledge workers to focus on their core business function while complying with records management policies.

2. Understanding how the ECM system is being used enables records managers to design better rules and workflows to perform their tasks.

   ECM as the Basis for Integration

   AIIM first defined ECM in 2000 and has expanded upon its description several times. Currently on AIIM's website, ECM is described as "the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes."

   Anand Rao, in a 2007 white paper "Knowledge Management using Enterprise Content Management System," wrote, "Content generated by the organization, once effectively tagged and stored for efficient retrieval, forms the knowledge bank of the organization."

   This paper reinforces that ECM was not a new product category, but an integrative force. Integration can take place between an ECM system and applications a vendor already offers, creates specifically for the system, or acquires in order to differentiate its product from others on the market. Integration also takes place between the ECM and the products of other vendors.

   Gartner's 2015 "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management" ranked ECM vendors as leaders, visionaries, challengers, or niche players based on seven application areas:

1. Document management

2. Web content management

3. Records management

4. Image-processing applications

5. Social content

6. Content workflow

7. Extended components, including mobile applications, digital asset management, search, analytics, and packaged integration capabilities.

   By using examples from the Gartner report, this article offers a brief introduction to three ECM systems, provides examples of integrated solutions used by...