Developing an ECM strategy

An enterprise content management (ECM) strategy is an organization’s approach to storing, centralizing, and sharing its documents and other assets. It includes the use of tools that enable the origination, creation, editing, management, review, publishing, search, retrieval and applied use of information regardless of the initial source or format.

An ECM strategy typically addresses:

• Content capture and indexing
• Asset repository management
• Accessibility and availability
• Security
• Lifecycle management
• Systems integrations
• Scalability
• Ease of use

Why organizations need enterprise content management strategies

The proliferation of information stored in disparate forms and locations — photos and videos on smartphones and connected devices, instant messages and emails on work PCs, spreadsheets and documents in the cloud, etc. — makes consolidation a necessary but challenging endeavor.

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• Case management
• Enterprise search
• Records management

The goal of an ECM strategy is to organize this data for ease of access.

Whether implementing an ECM system for the first time or upgrading to a new system, a knowledge-based organization needs a formal plan to ensure that program requirements are met and end users’ needs are addressed. An enterprise approach to content management should enable the streamlining of business processes, eliminating bottlenecks.

Ultimately, an ECM solution provides knowledge workers the information they need to make the best possible business decisions.