This is the first in a set of papers on content management and the larger enterprise content management (ECM) environment. Its focus is on some of the reasons and rationale behind deciding to implement an ECM or electronic documents and records management system (EDRMS) solution within your organization. This undertaking is no small feat and will consume a large amount of resources in the beginning, but it will reap significant benefits in the long run.
With the ever-increasing demand within the corporate environment to do things faster and more efficiently, many companies view ECM as a solution. It is, in fact, an enabling technology that provides an organization a toolset to capture and manage objects (such as documents and electronic media) – the corporate intellect – through their lifecycle. An ECM solution is an underlying technology that provides a repository of corporate knowledge built on the company’s business processes.