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What is Enterprise Content Management
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software is an enhanced document management system. Like document management, an ECM solution helps you capture, store, and retrieve your paper and electronic data in a single electronic location. Then, add in the ability to manage a larger variety of content, automate processes, track statuses in real-time, and integrate with your current business applications, and you have an ECM solution.
ECM has evolved over the years, so there’s a good chance you’ve heard of terms like document management, and most recently, content services. Whether you call it document management, enterprise content management, or content services, at their core, all of these solutions have a similar goal, which is to help you be more efficient, save money and time, and have better visibility into the vitals and pulse of your business operations.
An ECM solution is very versatile. If your organization is burdened with paper overload or has difficulty locating the correct documents in a timely manner, ECM is worth your consideration. Additionally, if you struggle to keep up with compliance regulations as levels of compliance and required audits increase, ECM will be very beneficial for you. This is because with an ECM solution keeping track of your information, you can provide remote, secure access to critical documentation easily, and at a moment’s notice.
With an ECM solution, you can slash your paper consumption significantly, and reduce your printing and shipping fees in the process. You may even have more space than you know what to do with after you eliminate all those old filing cabinets that once held your paper documents.
When you can instantly access necessary documents at a moment’s notice, you unlock a considerable amount of free time. How you spend that time is up to you, and chances are, you’ve got no shortage of important tasks to complete. With ECM, productivity is a given.
Your ECM solution provides you instant access, which gives you real-time 360-degree visibility into the status of all your requests and transactions. As a result, you can serve up faster, better customer service than ever before, which is sure to be an advantage over your competitors.
Whether you travel, work from home, or on-the-go from meeting to meeting, ECM allows you to keep life moving. Staff can gain access to secure information anywhere, anytime. Mobile access provides managers the ability to easily approve things. Plan for your future and invest in ECM in the cloud.
ECM is an effective way to minimize risk in your business processes. ECM solutions enforce security policies while keeping track of all activities that occur on your documents. They also can report and audit both information you already have and may need. Another perk of ECM is their ability to automate retention times and records management.
Data drives organizations, so it’s desirable to have a lot of it, but the more you have, the easier mistakes are. When you have high volumes of critical information, incomplete, duplicated and misfiled documents become more commonplace. ECM will help you to get organized and streamline your business processes so that these mistakes can be eliminated.
Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) wanted to digitize content, develop automated processes, and get the rest of their organization on board to become more efficient. OnBase Software, an ECM platform, helped them accomplish their goals today and future needs.
Lower business processing costs, improve efficiency, increase compliance, lower risk, and/or enhance collaboration and customer service with an enterprise content management (ECM) solution.
Content services platforms help unify siloed and disparate systems into a seamless, secure, and highly searchable work environment that enhances collaboration, reduces costs, and optimizes workflows.
Do you know the difference between old and new Enterprise Content Management (ECM)? If the answer is no, fear not and get ready to learn with this guide to terms, stats and tools that will get you up to speed on content services in no time.
