It's time that CIOs create new ECM blueprint

Sandeep Sehgal

What is your Enterprise Content Management (ECM) strategy for the future? Is it targeted towards a hybrid architecture that supports multi-organization ecosystem content and different data formats that are evolving? Well, we know it’s an imperative but, the relevance would always say the main objective is to deliver right content in the right context at the right time.

Innovations is driving the ECM market. Simpler document sharing tools that work anywhere, anytime and are inherently mobile friendly with file sync and share options work well and are of value to users when connected to secure repositories.

Let's look at some of the key progressions changing the world of ECM in the coming times:

Consumerization of enterprise

As per recent study conducted by a global community of information professionals, more than three-quarters of business executives surveyed said they need to embrace mobile applications fast, or get left behind or find employees using workarounds of their own under the radar of the IT departments. However, four in ten organizations don't yet allow mobile access to their content for security concerns.

ECM providers are building platforms for cloud scale and mobility support. Though mobile may not be popular for every business just yet, the good news is that ECM’s presence in the cloud is more active.

Rise of non-textual business content

As per an assumption by a leading research analyst firm, “By 2017, nearly 50% of all business content will be non-textual, which will require organizations to invest more widely in analytics as part of content management”. Growth of audio and video content is likely to be the largest component of this change.

ECM Systems will need to have the capability to store metadata such as Duration, Bit Rate, Frame Rate, Codec, etc. In addition ECM Systems will need to support appropriate viewers which can stream this content to end users based on the bandwidth available and the device being used to view the content.

Non-humans will create and consume content

Emerging technologies are not only addressing the means by which to manage the growth and diversity of content types, they are also ensuring that smart machines can assist in analyzing, discovering and using the vast volumes and diversity of information.

These smart machines will have the ability to understand and discover meaning of content, tag this content with metadata, and also store this appropriately with ECM systems. These machines will also be in a position to respond back to received communication with minimal or no human intervention.

Hybrid content architecture

Companies are fast moving some of their business content to the cloud. This next-generation approach involves storing content both on-premise and in the cloud, with seamless access for users of the system. Hybrid ECM meets the CIO’s demand for control and compliance, while freeing business users and external collaborators to be more productive.

These trends will support massive shifts in work habits, enterprise models, content types, and IT infrastructure. This new thrust can put you in charge of your content strategy and provide flexible, hybrid options to meet your ECM needs.

CIOs need to examine the extent of impact of these trends to their respective organizations and need to do the legwork to ensure that they are riding the wave of change.

The author is AVP, Product Management, Newgen Software