ECM Primer

What Is ECM:

AIIM International is the global authority on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) - the technologies, tools, and methods used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver information to support business processes.  AIIM promotes the understanding, adoption, and use of ECM technologies through education, networking, marketing, research, standards, and advocacy programs.  We are an AIIM Certified Practitioner, which keeps us on the cutting edge of the rapidly developing and merging technologies that comprise ECM.

Fundamentally, ECM is about business and organizational processes--not technology.  ECM is filled with alternatives because the underlying businesses are themselves varied and complex.  Take a look at AIIM's ECM 101 Poster for an overview of the needs and solutions involved.  For a quick download, view the ECM 101 Poster JPEG version.  For detailed study, download the full ECM 101 Poster PDF version.

But ECM implementation is not an all or nothing proposition -- digital solutions are inherently modular -- start with what you need most and build from there.  Nor need it be complex with the increasingly user-friendly technologies available today.  We can help you find powerful, easy to use and cost-effective ECM solutions that will quickly pay for themselves.

What Are The New ECM Market Realities:

The major ECM challenge is no longer technological, but rather how to assess the business user's requirements and efficiently satisfy them with the best products from the myriad of available technical solutions.  This is the role we fill -- translating ECM complexities into practical solutions that businesses can actually afford and use.

This is done against the backdrop of exponentially increasing data generation, reporting and retention requirements--what AIIM terms a "Content Explosion":

The impact of increasing data volumes is particularly crucial fpr regulated businesses and in litigation.  See our Litigation Management page for more information on compliance and litigation management solutions.

In The Manual for Complex Litigation, 4th ed., the USGPO comments as follows on the volume of electronic data out there:  "The sheer volume of such data, when compared with conventional paper documentation, can be staggering. A floppy disk, with 1.44 megabytes, is the equivalent of 720 typewritten pages of plain text. A CD-ROM, with 650 megabytes, can hold up to 325,000 typewritten pages. One gigabyte is the equivalent of 500,000 typewritten pages. Large corporate computer networks create backup data measured in terabytes, or 1,000,000 megabytes: each terabyte represents the equivalent of 500 billion typewritten pages of plain text."

But as staggering as the sheer volume of digital data may be, it would be inconceivably more difficult, costly and impossible to deal with it in paper format.

Traditionally, many ECM suppliers have focused on what they think businesses want:  Functionality, technology features and price.  While these are important factors, what most users actually consider to be most important is:  Speed and ease of implementation (user friendliness) and a fast, solid ROI (not just a low price without functionality).

Note also the trend for businesses to make ECM system investment decisions by the CEO instead of the CIO.  Early ECM decisions by CIO's were focused on the technology aspects of satisfying internal user needs.  Today, CEO's are making these decisions primarily with an external customer focus:  How to obtain, fulfill and deliver an order for a product or service, and how to strengthen the customer relationship in the process.

Industry leaders, such as General Electrics, are implementing concerted outward-looking ECM programs to digitalize relationships with customers and suppliers.  This will result in external ease of use and internal cost savings to increase margins or allow external price cuts.  Competitors who do not take advantage of ECM realities will increasingly find themselves at a disadvantage.

How Does All This ECM Stuff Impact Me:

At your own business level, you likely face a "Content Explosion" from outside customers, insurers, governmental agencies, and other sources, and from inside as you try to manage, store, preserve and deliver the external data along with the data you generate internally.

The results are the "Four C's"--the primary drivers of ECM systems and decisions:

• Collaboration

• Continuity

• Compliance

• Cost

Collaboration involves how staff and customers stay connected and productive (or not), a increasingly difficult task in the Content Explosion.  Would your customers rather deal with someone who can immediately find the relevant documents and answer their questions, or who tells them they will get back once they find the file?  Would your rather pay your staff to do productive work, or look for files on a crisis basis?

Continuity includes disaster and litigation risk management in addition to customary storage and preservation considerations.  Recall the photos of the post-crash World Trade Center with paper shreds filtering down?  Companies with offsite data storage were better positioned to continue after the disaster than those which did not have this ECM continuity feature.  Lack of a defined litigation response plan can spell disaster:  Consider how Bill Gates own E-mails hurt his case, and the record-setting sanctions being awarded against companies who cannot comply with discovery requests in a digital format.

Closely related to litigation risk management is the increasing variety and scope of regulatory Compliance requirements.  HIPPA, Sarbanes-Oxley, the Patriot Act, and a variety of other regulatory guidelines impose severe penalties for non-compliance.  The scope and applicability of these regulations may not be readily apparent.  For example, if you think Sarbanes-Oxley is applicable only to publicly-traded companies, consider the following excerpt which shows the broad Federal jurisdiction:

...whoever knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document or tangible object with the intent to impede, influence or obstruct the investigation or proper administration of any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the United States or any case filed under Title 11, or in relation to or in contemplation of any such matter or case, shall be fined under this Title, imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both.

Cost considerations require that the ECM solution be efficient, i.e., cost effective.  As shown more fully in the Financial Analyses page, the vast disparity between the costs of handling paper and working with images is usually sufficient to allow a digital imaging system to literally pay for itself.  AIIM has determined that the fully burdened cost of dealing with a printed page is 70 cents--ten times what management estimates, and multiples of the cost of dealing with a digital image.  How many pieces of paper does your business handle each year?

The cost of capturing the initial image is less than the cost of the first paper copy.  After that, the cost disparity rapidly increases each time the document is again handled.  How many times does your business re-handle the same piece of paper (if it can find it)?

Where Do I Stand ECM-wise With My Competitors:

See our vertical Case Studies on how leaders in your industry are using digital ECM systems to improve performance and operating margins, and determine how your business fits in.  Read more.

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