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Manage the content flood
April 21, 2004
Enterprise content management software is not only for big companies. Small firms can use it too, RADHA BASU finds out.
Imagine five billion pick-up trucks stuffed with paper. That's how much new information is created in a year.
Thanks to the Internet boom and the ubiquitous use of computers in offices, companies are among the worst hit when it comes to battling the digital deluge.
A study by the School of Information Management and Systems (Sims) at the University of California, Berkeley, last year reckoned that a staggering five exabytes of information was created in 2002 alone. Of that, as much as 92 per cent was digital content, stored on magnetic hard drives.
According to the SIMS website, five exabytes is the digital equivalent of the amount of information stored in half a million libraries the size of the American Library of Congress, which stores about 19 million books.
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| Enterprise content management software makes it easier to manage information flow. |
Or five billion pick-up trucks.
Small wonder, then, that the enterprise content management software (ECM), which helps harness all the information flow has now become a big market. (See related story below).
According to an International Data Corporation report published last month, the global ECM market is set to grow nine per cent annually - from US $2.65 billion (S$ 4.77 billion) in 2003 to more than US$4.1 billion in 2008.
The biggest annual growth - of 13.2 per cent - will be in the Asia-Pacific.
Mining content for business value
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"Earlier digital content was always locked up in individual silos which could not communicate with each other."
- Mr Sanjay Aurora, managing director of Interwoven |
Ironically, companies want a way to combat the digital deluge they have created.
Mr Sanjay Aurora, managing director of Interwoven, one of the biggest ECM vendors in Singapore, said that companies want to know not only how to store data, but how to mine the information and turn it into a business advantage.
'Earlier digital content was always locked up in individual silos which could not communicate with each other - there were separate systems for documents, for web content and so forth,' pointed out Mr Aurora.
Next-generation solutions now go beyond stand-alone IT-friendly repositories to 'fluid, collaborative, business-friendly ones, where employees can easily retrieve and act on information to get business advantage', he said.
Getting companies to beat time-to-market deadlines, helping them work with customers and partners in virtual workspaces and adding context to content stored digitally are some of the newer things that ECM products are doing, he added.
Interwoven counts big names like DBS Bank, Citibank and Standard Chartered among its 23 customers here.
Unlocking information from isolated silos is also a key priority at Documentum, another ECM vendor, said its technical director, MrVincent Oh. As is having a single well-linked library information and strong security features.
Another useful feature of new ECM products is that it allows users to manage dynamic content, said Fuji Xerox, which has teamed up with Documentum, to offer more end-to-end solutions here.
Fuji Xerox software marketing manager Kua Pet Ie said: 'ECM allows you to create, manage and publish web content with ease, without the knowledge of programming, and make it reach customers effectively and cheaply.'
WHAT IS CONTENT MANAGEMENT?
Enterprise content management (ECM) refers to the technology tools and methods used to capture, manage, store, archive, deliver and eventually destroy business information. Data includes everything from menus to a portfolio of investments.
Most big ECM vendors today sell packages to manage six types of content. These are: Documents, including Microsoft Word files, Excel spreadsheets: tools provide workflow routing and audit checks Web content Digital assets, including audio, video and other multimedia files Collaborative content. Ttools that provide virtual workspaces for employees to work together from disparate locations E-mail Archived records
BATTLE THE CONTENT BULGE
There is a dazzling array of enterprise content management software (ECM) around. But the local take-up rate for it is slow.
Cost is the biggest barrier, ECM vendors said. ECM?provider Fatwire is one of the only vendors to offer ECM?products for small companies. The company's senior project manager, Mr Ramesh Jude Pachamuthu, said Fatwire's low-cost, low-entry product, Spark pCM, costs US$25,000 (S$42,000) per server for a 25-user package.
Most solutions in the market from both Fatwire and Interwoven start from about $75,000, quite out of the range of small companies. Top-of-the-line solutions may cost as high as a million dollars.
Fuji Xerox's software marketing manager, Ms Kua Pet Ie, said that costs make it a must for companies to 'prioritise their ECM needs'.
'You can do the implementation in phases, with what's most important first,' she said.
Mr Sanjay Aurora, managing director of Interwoven agreed. 'If you are a design house, for instance, you may be more interested in digital asset management products, that typically deal with large multimedia files. A core document management system may not be that important to you.'
Here's how to prioritise:
Identify. What are your ECM needs? Do you want to cut down document retrieval time, or want six people to access the same document at once or manage large multimedia files? A law firm, for instance, would require a good document management solution. A design house, on the other hand, may want one for digital asset management.
Plan. Think ahead based on your needs. It is difficult to change tack half-way through the roll-out.
Go easy. Pick a system that is scalable and can be rolled out in phases across different departments.
Link up. Choose a system that can integrate easily with your existing office systems such as those for accounting or operations.
Buy wise. Many ECM vendors sell applications tailored for specific departments such as marketing, finance or sales.
Be inclusive. In systems that require regular updates, such as for dynamic content and those that must capture institutional knowledge, ensure that staff key in the necessary data into the system. Avoid systems that cause information to be stuck in stand-alone silos.
Be clear. Capturing data is not enough. Always ask yourself how the data/ECM system adds value to your business and drives business initiatives.
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