WCM vs.ECM—What’s Right for your Organization?
This may be the year that Enterprise Content Management (ECM) finally becomes a reality. It’s certainly been promoted by major industry analysts, who have been forecasting a time when there will be all-encompassing solutions to manage all types of unstructured content, including documents, records, audio/video and more.
Before jumping on the ECM bandwagon, it is important to understand what ECM really means in the context of your organization’s needs. I’d suggest that in many cases, instead of an expensive ECM system, what you really need is much simpler, affordable and agile: Web content management (WCM). Here’s why:
First, despite the claims of some vendors, ECM systems are often not a unified platform, but rather a collection of applications that can talk to one another. Creating a common architecture and platform for the various components of an ECM solution is more difficult and expensive than most vendors would like to admit.
Second, can any one vendor really provide a solution that meets the disparate needs of the various personas, divisions/departments and industries involved with all kinds of content? In September, 2003, AMR Research wrote, “[We have] been skeptical about the combinations of the terms ‘Enterprise’ and ‘Content Management’ for some time— primarily because we see both our customer needs and the systems that serve them as various and fragmented—by departmental function and by industry.” Third, have you analyzed what kind of content is giving you the pain? Is it regulatory compliance and audit requirements? Are IT costs too high, and you hope consolidation of content repositories will reduce these costs? Is the “Webmaster bottleneck” reducing efficiency and slowing time to Web? All of these are valid issues, and all fall under ECM. But focusing on your business problem can steer you toward a practical, tailored solution.
When WCM is Right for You
In many businesses, the first and most overwhelming need is to break the “Webmaster bottleneck” that occurs when a centralized group is responsible for all aspects of creating, updating and maintaining the myriad Web properties that organizations have in place. Companies want to:
- Simplify the Web content updating process;
- Automate the updates instead of using a manual process;
- Reduce the time it takes to get updates to the website;
- Free IT to focus on developing new functionality and production support issues;
- Automate the archival of content for compliance and legal issues; and
- Provide an audit trail of content changes.
Once you’ve determined that what you really need is a WCM solution, there are several key items to keep in mind while selecting a vendor. First and foremost, ROI is King! Identify all the costs associated with implementing your solution. A recent study by AIIM showed that most clients expected to spend less than $200,000 for the complete solution (including services). That’s a whole lot less than any full ECM solution.Consider not just software costs, but also implementation services, yearly maintenance fees, additional hardware or software required, training and ease of use, or adoption. This last item is of particular importance. A key goal is to increase operational efficiencies and reduce costs. If the solution is not easy to use, people will simply circumnavigate it and continue to place demands on your IT team.
Look at what your users want. Results from several studies have consistently shown that the three biggest issues are the same, whether the person is a technical or a business user. The table below enumerates these concerns, and illuminates the differences between the perspectives of the two constituencies.
Choose a vendor that is mature and financially stable, and with a solution that will be able to grow with you as your needs change. Look for solutions that are standards-based and support emerging technologies such as Web services and a heterogeneous hardware environment. Your IT infrastructure will change over time, and you will want your solution to support you as you change and grow.
Finally, talk to as many customers of your potential vendor as possible — preferably those that are most similar to your organization (size, industry focus, etc.). Find out if the customer service organization is responsive, if requests for enhancements are well received, and if the quality of the product meets expectations.
With this knowledge in hand, you can shop for an affordable and appropriate solution for your organization, without breaking the bank.
Merant develops and markets solutions for change management, including Merant Collage® for Web content management. The company can be reached toll-free at 1-800-547-7827, or send email to info@merant.com. For more information on Merant Collage, visit http://www.merant.com/Products/WCM/collage/home.asp