Organizations are drowning in content. They don't know what they have, and they can't find what they need when they need it. While they spend significant time and money to manage content stored among a host of disconnected systems, their efforts are less than fully effective. The data explosion will continue.
Managing Enterprise Content:
Why Architecture Matters
A WHITE PAPER
An Introduction to Total Content Management and the ASG-ViewDirect® Suite Managing Enterprise Content: Why Architecture Matters
Executive Summary ever. The repository and the services that support it must integrate content across applications and platforms, manage billions of items Organizations are drowning in content. They don't each year, and provide complete security and access control. know what they have, and they can't find what they In this complex, challenging environment, companies that do their need when they need it. While they spend significant homework when evaluating ECM solutions will discover a very time and money to manage content stored among important truth: architecture matters. Functionality is important, a host of disconnected systems, their efforts are less but other questions are of equal importance: How tightly integrated than fully effective. The data explosion will continue. are an ECM suite's functional components? Does the complete solution scale to support the volumes of data generated by modern Without full content integration, organizations enterprises? Does it address multiple hardware platforms and storage risk legal and regulatory noncompliance and the devices? Can it give users a logical, single-system view of content that undermining of business operations. Enterprise is distributed across multiple repositories and hardware platforms? content-a critical corporate asset-delivers little or Are myriad content types and formats supported? Is the content no value. stored in a device-independent format that guarantees portability Content management solutions that capture, manage, store, but still maintains the legal integrity of the original document?preserve, deliver, and dispose of content have been available for This white paper explores the implications of architecture on the years. More accurately, systems that deliver partial solutions for repository and presentation technologies that are at the heart of managing content have been widely adopted. These are primarily true enterprise content management. It introduces the concept of standalone, departmental solutions that focus on document total content management (TCM) as a comprehensive guide for management and collaboration and address only a fraction of the formulating a content management strategy. Finally, this paper true enterprise content management challenge. As organizations presents ASG-ViewDirect®, a software suite that brings TCM to life.have realized the costs and inefficiencies of maintaining multiple, isolated systems, the need for an enterprise-wide solution has become apparent. However, according to recent research by The ECM ChallengeEnterprise Management Associates (EMA), many organizations have What is content? It's structured and unstructured information. It's little or no content management discipline. 82% of enterprises use email and instant messages. It's records of all transactions. It's images, network file servers as their primary content repository; 60% use photographs, and audio and video files. It's spreadsheets and word-1 e-mail folders; 14% have no formal content repository at all. Vendors processing documents generated by individuals at their desktops. It's have rushed to expand their offerings to include components like statements, bills, checks, invoices, and reports generated by critical email management, workflow, and records management. Leading business applications. Research shows that this content is growing by vendors also have a broader perspective on content, providing as much as 200% per year, and the risks of managing it ineffectively integrated management of desktop documents and the voluminous, are growing even faster. Or, to look at it another way, organizations diverse content of enterprise applications. can expect the content they generate to double-or even triple-Driven by increasingly demanding requirements for regulatory year over year. and legal compliance, the enterprise content management (ECM) The rising tide of enterprise content is typically scattered around the landscape is changing. Organizations are seeking integrated solutions globe in disparate repositories, on different platforms, and in many for all structured and unstructured content, across multiple, disparate different formats. In a recent survey, 43% of companies had more repositories an... [download for more]
