The phrase "enterprise content management" (ECM) has been appearing
with increasing regularity this year. But is this a real
development in the content management world, or is it just
rebranding to revitalise a slowing market?
Going enterprise-wide
Enterprise content management has
gained considerable credibility in the market since its launch at
AIIM 2001. AIIM even refers to itself now as the "enterprise
content management association"'.
Many of the content management software vendors focus on the idea
that everyone in an organisation needs access to unstructured (that
is, non-database) content, and that all the content in the
organisation, whatever its source or purpose, should be managed by
an ECM system.
This is hardly revolutionary. Many of the document management
vendors that have been in business for more than a decade, and
which have been profitable for much of that time (unlike many of
the newer content management vendors), have been trying to pass on
this message for much of their life. It is largely the newer,
Web-focused vendors that are beginning to realise that a wider
scope for content management is actually a good idea.
Some of the newer vendors have even dared to suggest that the
concept of retaining a single source for any piece of content is
also valuable. If you ask the document management vendors, then
they would agree - because they have also been preaching this
message for many years.
However, very few organisations have attempted implemented
enterprise-wide document or content management. It has usually been
confined to the areas that have had an urgent need to place tight
control on their content. Examples include full documentation and
 | | "A complete ECM solution from one
vendor is a great idea, but it currently remains just that - a
great idea" | | | | | |
| | Source: Ovum | | |
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audit trail information in pharmaceutical companies; engineering
organisations managing international design and build projects;
organisations managing large and rapidly changing Web sites; and
other key areas where managing content effectively is core to
running a sound business.
What is ECM?
Enterprise content management software
provides a set of tools and processes for managing all types of
content, from simple documentation through to interactive realtime
video, throughout its life from creation, through updating and
distribution, to archiving.
A fragmented market
A complete ECM solution from one
vendor is a great idea, but it currently remains just that - a
great idea. All the technology pieces are available from a range of
vendors. Some are even close to offering all of the functionality
from one source. However, few of these are affordable as an
enterprise-wide solution available from everyone's desk.
The content managed by most mainstream content management vendors
is limited to textual information, with some graphics and usually
simple images. They provide a range of facilities for doing this
effectively. The storage of large volumes of rich media (such as
audio, video and complex image files) has generally been left to
specialist software tools, simply because it involves many
difficult issues well beyond those of the management of simpler
content.
Once you move outside the enterprise to deliver content to
suppliers and customers, the issue of retaining control over your
content also arises - you do not want it copied and distributed
freely by others. You have incurred significant costs creating the
content and, in many cases, will be trying to gain revenues from
that content. If it can be copied and redistributed by others, then
you will lose financially.
All these elements must be covered in any enterprise content
management system. The complete range is covered by the following
technology solutions, but, despite the marketing hype, no one yet
covers them all:
- document management
- Web content management
- e-commerce
- digital asset management
- digital rights management
Document management
Document management has been
saddled with a name that has given a very misleading idea about
what it does. It has not just been about managing "documents". Many
document management products can cater for any type of content -
for example, images, diagrams, CAD/CAM, pictures, audio and video.
However, very few functions are provided for the latter two, apart
from storage and retrieval.
Rebranding of document management to content management has
succeeded in raising the profile of traditional document
management. Many of these vendors have also added Web publishing
facilities, although some of these amounts to little more than
making document management facilities available over the Web. A few
can actually manage the construction of complete Web sites.
High-profile organisations that have been operating in this space
for more than ten years include FileNET, Documentum and Open Text.
Documentum offers a significant range of the technology components
required for ECM, but it is prohibitively expensive for
enterprise-wide implementation.
Web content management
Since the coming of age of the
Web during the mid-1990s, an increasing number of start-up
companies have recognised that creating, managing and delivering
content to a Web site is not a trivial task. Ensuring that the
right pieces of content are delivered on time, that the site is
continually refreshed with new content, and that the right content
is shown to the right person, are all difficult and time-consuming
tasks. Therefore, vendors have developed software to help the
beleaguered Webmaster.
A typical organisation in this space is Interwoven, whose software
is aimed at complex site development. However, it is aimed
principally at groups of Web developers rather than
enterprise-wide. Crossover companies such as Stellent, whose main
focus has been managing documentation, now provides strong Web
publishing facilities, as well as delivering a significant slice of
ECM at a reasonably affordable price.
E-commerce
Many vendors that started in the Web content
management world have moved towards e-commerce and have added
significant transactional functionality to their content management
tools. This adds the ability to manage a Web site with
transactional capabilities. Vendors have also added sophisticated
personalisation facilities, so that sites can be assembled in
realtime to meet the needs of individual users. Typical vendors in
this space include Vignette and BroadVision.
Digital asset management
Digital asset management (DAM)
solutions have arisen in parallel with many of the systems already
described. They also are perfectly capable of handling text and a
wide array of more conventional media files. What distinguishes the
digital asset management solution is its ability to handle video,
audio and complex image files. This is something that most standard
content management software offerings struggle with. Standard
content management software can store and manage the metadata and
source-rich media files, but have little or no capacity to
transform, analyse or generally manage the distribution of rich
media. Vendors active in this area include Artesia and
Bulldog.
Digital rights management
Digital rights management
(DRM) adds important functionality to all forms of content
management by securing your rights to your content. You can prevent
others from duplicating your content at various levels; for
example, by locking the content and publishing via Adobe, you can
stop the document from being printed. However, doing this with rich
media is more difficult. This clearly needs to be addressed if the
future of digital asset management beyond the company is to be
secure.
However, many of the technical problems have been resolved, and the
biggest player in DRM is IBM, which offers a comprehensive
solution. Many other smaller vendors offer specific niche
solutions.
Convergence?
No single vendor has yet achieved true
enterprise content management. The closest offerings in terms of
functionality are usually far too expensive to be regarded as a
true enterprise-wide solution. Many of the solutions that are
affordable only address a relatively small segment of the total
solution. Convergence between document and Web content management
is essential if coherent ECM solutions are to be created within
user organisations. A complete and affordable technology solution
is a long way off, but there are clear signs of deepening
relationships between major organisations in the content management
market.
IBM is the vendor closest to offering a truly comprehensive ECM
solution, because:
- It is already firmly in the document management market with its
own product, and has made moves into the Web-focused area It has
relationships with Vignette and Interwoven in Web content
management and is pushing into e-commerce content management It has
its own DRM solution The IBM Lotus software provides a genuine
enterprise-wide solution to some of the ECM technology
requirements
In the content management market:
- Vignette and FileNET are working together to link Web-focused
content and traditional document management Documentum is expanding
its portfolio of offerings into Web content management Vignette,
BroadVision, Documentum, as well as many other vendors, are
starting to provide portal software
The movement towards portals provides a Web-based delivery
mechanism that can truly provide enterprise-wide access to
functions such as content management. A portal demands to be
available and used by an entire organisation, and therefore
provides the ideal delivery mechanism for enterprise content
management.
In the digital asset management market:
- Artesia has relationships with several leading players in the
content management world, including Interwoven and Vignette
Artesia is participating in the Vignette-led eXtended Content
Management (XCM) Alliance, which is looking at the challenges of
integrating content management solutions
Artesia offers an integrated solution with InterTrust for digital
rights management.