EnterpriseContentManagement

There are many definitions of the term "enterprise content management" (ECM). The general consensus, however, is that ECM systems encompass a number of the following elements:

• WebContentManagement (WCM or WCMS)
• DocumentManagement (DM as native filetypes)
• RecordsManagement (RM indexing and retrieval)
• DigitalImageManagement? (documents and records > images)
• DigitalAssetManagement (DAM especially multimedia files)
• Archiving? (Offline Retention? or Destruction)

Some definitions include more specialized tools (properly subsystems of the big CM system) such as:

• AccessControl
• WorkFlow
• CollaborationTools? (Authoring Systems)
• LibraryServices
• SearchEngine
• MetadataManagement? ( Classification and Taxonomy )
• Localization? ( Multilingual Versioning )
• DigitalRightsManagement
• DataWarehousing/DataMining
• VirtualRepositories?

Still more ambitious ECM definitions would include Portal applications, behind which the above applications would be found, as well as:

• eCommerce?
• CustomerRelationshipManagement (CRM)
• ProductLifecycleManagement? (PLM)
• BusinessProcessManagement (BPM)
• EnterpriseResourcePlanning (ERP)
• EnterpriseApplicationIntegration? (EAI)
• eLearning?
• FinancialServices?
• HumanResources (HR)

The Portal provides IdentityManagement? and a SingleSourceOfTruth, the permissioning system that controls access (single login) to the content and to the applications for the entire enterprise.

At present, the ECM market is evolving rapidly, and there are as many definitions for these products as there are vendors.

More resources:

• Annual series of white papers on BestPractices in EnterpriseContentManagement from KM World magazine: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
• Enterprise Applications - definition of terms provided by AIIM covering the field of enterprise content management (and more)
• Global ECM market still likely to consolidate - Brice Dunwoodie reports on a recent Ovum report on the future of enterprise content management vendors.
• More vendor consolidation despite ECM market growth - IDM reports on a recent Meta Group report covering the future of enterprise content management (ECM).
• "ECM" -- Don't buy it - Jim Howard talks about the difficulties of implementing enterprise content management (ECM).

Up to CmsGlossary.