New Realities for Mid-Market Content and Document Management
Mid-size organizations have frequently found themselves in the rather awkward position of being "stuck in the middle" when it comes to finding the right solution for effectively managing, publishing and sharing online content, digital documents and other mission-critical assets.
Large content management solution providers have proffered solutions that—though they may be sized appropriately for the Global 2000—don't always effectively scale down to meet the needs of organizations with finite IT resources, limited budgets and tight integration timelines. Conversely, lightweight tools that let knowledge workers publish content to the Web are available in abundance. However, they simply don't provide the robust functionality such as security, workflows, versioning and compliance support necessary to bring order and accountability to information-management processes. However, new options exist for mid-size organizations as well as small business and even departments within large enterprises. These entities should carefully evaluate and choose content and document management solutions. Software designed specifically to meet the unique requirements and preferences of mid-market organizations have matured, while price points have dropped. These products now provide true alternatives to complex and costly solutions that have prevented many organizations from confidently taking the next step to solve their information management challenges.
CM/DM Realities
Consider your ideas about content and document management solutions and measure them against these new realities:
- It's no longer a $500,000 proposition, or even a $50,000 proposition, to adopt an effective, standalone or integrated content and document management solution. Scalable solutions, built on industry standards with out-of-the-box functionality, are within reach of most organizations.
- As technology has evolved, user complexities have been overcome. The tasks associated with creating, editing and publishing content and documents, supporting collaborative projects and managing dynamic Web properties are being automated and distributed to many people inside organizations. This is enabling new efficiencies and cost-savings, without burdensome up-front training or ongoing support—while removing the threat of project failure due to lack of adoption.
- To support rapid implementation and use among mid-market companies, content and document management solutions are delivering environments familiar to IT staff (such as the Microsoft Windows operating system, the .NET Framework, Microsoft databases, application servers and developer tools) and also to business professionals (such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and Windows Explorer).
- Finally, mid-size companies can take advantage of advanced features once associated only with enterprise-level content and document management solutions. These include support for translation and localization to reach new global markets; compliance support to meet government or industry mandates; and structured information indexing that provides powerful search options to reduce the time it takes knowledge workers and site visitors to find information.
The "Solution Evolution"
This all amounts to good news for any mid-sized organization seeking to better manage Web content and document strategies. Solutions such as Ektron's, built with the mid-market in mind, have evolved to yield significant and measurable benefits, letting you gain competitive parity and even an advantage against larger, more resource-rich organizations.Integrated content and document management solutions provide new reasons to consider adopting a solution that can help leverage your information assets. Consider these benefits now within reach of mid-size organizations.
Standards-based interoperability: Relying on non-proprietary, industry-standard approaches ensures integration timelines and cost limits can be met, while also reducing long-term burden on IT.
User adoption: When distributed knowledge workers can easily contribute to Web site and document management strategies, project success is more assured.
Value: Solutions that respect real-world IT budgets and deployment timelines, while also delivering a solid depth of functionality, offer high value to mid-size organizations.
Multiple content and document delivery options: This enables your organization to support new modes of distributing information, including RSS feeds, blog publishing and multi-site content management.
Globalization: Robust multilingual capabilities support requirements to enter new markets and leverage new business opportunities.
Corporate automation: Not just a passing buzzword, efficiency is a mid-market mandate to ensure maximum employee output and long-term profitability. (Ektron solutions support Web-based collaboration to help organizations meet this imperative.)
Compliance: Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and other legislation put pressure on organizations to ensure appropriate internal controls and reporting systems. The mid-market can answer this call with a compliance-friendly content and document management solution.
Ektron's software solutions streamline business and publishing processes and help organizations unlock the value of corporate information. At the same time, Ektron's solutions enable organizations to lower content- and document-lifecycle costs, comply with regulatory requirements and unify the efforts of distributed knowledge workers. Ektron has more than 13,000 customer integrations worldwide, including Intel, Pfizer, Celestica and Unilever. Headquartered in Amherst, New Hampshire, Ektron has offices throughout Europe. Visit www.ektron.com to find out how Ektron helps organizations manage people, process and information