As companies increase in size, so does the data and paperwork required for handling the massive number of employees.
Managing this enormous amount of data manually becomes difficult. Imagine having to move from one part of the organization just to retrieve one document.
This is where Enterprise content management or ECM systems come into the picture.
What are the ECM systems?
Also referred to as document management or records management, enterprise content management is the complete process of managing the enterprises’ documents.
These documents can include unstructured data such as Word documents, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, images, etc. ECM stores and arranges this data in ways that make it accessible to the right people.
The driving force behind the implementation of ECM systems is to reduce risk and improve efficiency, productivity, and customer service.
Enterprise content management systems achieve this aim by eliminating the dependence on paper documents and organizing unstructured data according to particular business needs.
In general, we can say that these systems are designed to:
- Reducing dependence on paper and improving process visibility
- Increase productivity and improve customer service
- Reduce business risks
Enterprise content management or ECM is an umbrella term that encompasses the technology, method and strategy used for managing business data. This includes capturing, accessing, integrating, measuring and storing the information.
Why should you invest in ECM systems?
Enterprise content management systems provide you with a centralized platform where you can control how the data is stored and distributed through the organization. The systems also help reduce clutter while increasing visibility and accessibility of data and processes.
Essentially, enterprise content management systems help you with:
- Archiving information and accessing it as and when you need it.
- Reducing paperwork and make record-keeping more efficient and quick.
- Eliminating ad hoc processes that could expose your enterprise to regulatory compliance.
Full-fledged systems provide us with features such as content taxonomies, auditing capabilities and other workflow controls and security mechanisms.
These systems can also be used to identify duplicate content, enabling the organization to store a few copies of one type of document rather than hundreds.
Conclusion
In conclusion, ECM is becoming increasingly important and complex in recent years. Data breaches and financial frauds have made information governance essential to help protect the organization’s reputation.
Like other systems, ECM tools and strategies too are developing and evolving to meet the changing requirements of the organizations looking for integrity and agility.
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