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The future of Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

A robot managing a box with documents

Does your organization have to deal with high volumes of content and data? Do you have enterprise digital experience needs? And do you have highly complex structured and/or unstructured data to manage? Then keep on reading because we constantly keep innovating in Enterprise Content Management to make your life easier! 

What is Enterprise Content Management 

Enterprise Content Management, or ECM, is a combination of tools, strategies and methods to capture, organize, store, deliver and manage both structured and unstructured content within an organization.  

Structured data: data that is highly organized and fits a specific data model, making it predictable. For example, customer information in a database with fields for name, address, and phone number. 

Unstructured data: data that doesn’t have a predefined data model, making it more difficult to predict. Examples include emails, videos, and social media posts. 

In Enterprise Content Management we have to deal with different types of content, data and related processes. Let’s have a look:  

Digital Workplace & Collaboration 

This part focuses on working together to enhance productivity, communication, and flexibility in work environments. For example, a self-service portal in a multinational company allows employees from different regions to access HR documents and submit requests without delays. Or an insurance company that allows its customers to use the self-service portal to review their policies online or report car-accidents via standard forms 

Digital Business and Operations 

This part of ECM is often characterized as digital, case-oriented working. For instance, a government agency might use ECM for case management to track and process citizen applications, ensuring all necessary steps are taken, performed in time, all required documents are accessible, and workflows are streamlined. 

Security and Compliance  

While we’re working, we make official decisions and keep records to stay compliant. These records are organized in a specific way so we can easily find them later. Plus, it is important to take security seriously. Only certain people or roles can access, change, or delete specific information. 

Now, let’s find out how digital innovations in Enterprise Content Management can help organizations be compliant, optimize processes, and increase employee satisfaction.  

From Legacy Systems to Modern Content Management 

Legacy ECM systems are known for their overly complex solutions for rather simple challenges in enterprise content management. They often offer little to no flexibility to build an environment that meets specific business needs. Today, we live in an era where these legacy systems are replaced by modern solutions that promise an effective and efficient way of information management. 

Innovations in Enterprise Content Management 

Integration and collaboration 

Nowadays, companies use many systems for their different business needs. Think of an ERP system that manages critical business documents, a CRM tool for customer-related documents, and an HR system for employee records. It is crucial that all these systems talk to each other and always have the latest data.  

By enabling this access, organizations can highly benefit from enhanced information and collaboration between departments. 

Process automation 

By automating your processes, you will see a significant decrease in workload. This allows teams to focus on what matters most: growth and innovation. Think of automated data capture, workflows to streamline content-driven processes and automated tasks with related notifications and alerts that keep employees informed about deadlines.  

Cloud-based approach 

Moving to the cloud enables organizations and their users to quickly access the right information at the right time, from any device and place. Besides, you can scale your environment based on demand, ensuring you always have the right capacity for your digital content.  

Low-code platforms 

Organizations start to see the value of solutions that enable them to quickly build applications without extensive coding knowledge or experience. At the same time, applications must meet specific business requirements and need to be easy to modify. 

Some promising low-code ECM platforms are Nuxeo, OpenText Core and Microsoft Power Automate.  

Artificial Intelligence in ECM 

And last but not least, Artificial Intelligence (AI). We all know it is becoming an increasingly important part of digital experiences but how can we make the most of it?
Especially now with the new European AI Act, which is the first comprehensive regulation on AI.  

AI can help you find the information you are looking for quickly by making use of large language models (LLM). By using large datasets, AI can recognize, translate, predict, and generate text or other content. Examples that can save you a lot of time are direct translations that help you create localized content or summaries of longer pieces of text.  

It can also support optimizing content. Think of AI solutions that provide recommendations for readability and quality and that help you ensure everything is effective and clear.  

Interested in AI for case management? Read this blog.  

Why constant Innovation is key in ECM 

In this blog we have seen some highly beneficial innovations in enterprise content management. Why is it so important to keep up with these ever-evolving changes?  

  1. Adapting to changing needs: Content management needs keep evolving and continuous innovation ensures that your ECM system can adapt to new business processes, regulatory requirements, and technological advancements.  
  2. Improving efficiency: Innovative ECM solutions can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance collaboration. This boosts overall productivity and allows employees to focus on more strategic activities.  
  3. Enhanced security: With cyber threats constantly evolving, it’s crucial to stay ahead with innovative security measures. Regular updates and new features in ECM systems can help protect sensitive information from unauthorized access 
  4. Ensuring compliance: Innovation can help you stay compliant by automatically updating policies, tracking document changes, and ensuring all content management practices meet current standards. 
  5. User experience: by automating processes, enhancing collaboration and efficiently making use of tools like AI, you can make it easier for employees to access and manage content. This leads to higher adoption rates and increased employee happiness.  

Enough reasons to explore the possibilities of modern ECM solutions! Contact us today to discuss your specific ECM challenges and discover how we can help you transform your content management strategy. 

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