In 2017, Gartner analyst Michael Woodbridge of Gartner created a stir in the content management world with this pronouncement in The Death of ECM and the Birth of Content Services.
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is now dead (kaput, finite, an ex-market name), at least in how Gartner defines the market. It’s been replaced by the term Content Services, a strategic concept that covers three aspects, namely Content Services Applications, Platforms such as the cloud, and Components.
Well, is ECM really dead? We certainly don’t think so. But what many DocuWare customers are doing with content – HAS outgrown the traditional definitions and requirements, hence the need to rename it so it more comprehensively describes the functions it serves.
Content Services are still relevant today
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Content Services continues to be a useful term when it comes to describing current business requirements. In 2019, AIIM published a report, State of the Industry — Content Services.
According to the report:
“Every organization — regardless of industry — is now a technology organization. But rising information chaos is a very real and strategic threat to the ability of organizations to succeed, or even survive. An effective Content Services strategy is key to addressing these challenges.”
DocuWare offers a preconfigured cloud solution that fits the content services model exactly. Preconfigured cloud solutions are offered for employee management and invoice processing.
Content Services defined
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At DocuWare we rather like this definition: Content Services is a way to intelligently and efficiently capture information, send it to the right person, department, or process using digital channels, usually through the cloud. When you invest in this software, you can be sure that you are getting a solution that keeps pace with changing compliance requirements from GDPR to HIPAA, while remaining cost effective and scalable.
Find out which Content Services solution is the right fit
While business processes run differently in every organization, they share key requirements and decision points. Digital archiving, office automation and paperless document management rank high on this list. These “must-have” common denominators automate central process quickly and cost-effectively.The labels that industry marketers put on technology do not matter very much to end-user organizations. The companies that we work with at DocuWare do not care so much whether solution we provide is called document management, content management or content services. What they DO care about are the answer to the questions below.
Does the solution have both on-premises and cloud options?- Is there functional transparency across both the on-premises and cloud versions? (i.e., from a user perspective, do they work the same way!)
- Are there “preconfigured” business applications for core functions like employee management and invoice processing to get you started?
- Is the solution easy to deploy or will you need in-house IT expertise to kick start it?
- Can you buy applications “by the drink,” or do you have to buy an entire monolithic platform?
- Can the solution be seamlessly integrated with other application such as Microsoft Outlook, SAGE, QuickBooks or your ERP?
