The Future of Content Management Is “Cloudy”

At DocuWare, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the role of the cloud in our long-term strategy. While cloud office automation won’t solve every business problem, we believe it is crucial to solving many of the day-to-day workflow and content management challenges that modern organizations face.

They say that a clock is right at least two times a day.  

But a technology company needs to have a higher batting average than that; after all, users are relying on technology innovation to help them survive more and more frequent waves of business disruption.

So it was reassuring to come across statistics in one of the most recent AIIM surveys (What Underpins the ECM Name Game?) that reinforced the wisdom of some of the cloud bets we’ve made.

Consider responses to this question by 231 companies. The data not only reinforces the critical role of the cloud in future content management strategies, but it also supports another bet we’ve been making about cloud – that organizations will need flexible and hybrid models of cloud deployment.

In the same survey, when asked “How well do your existing IM/DM/RM systems meet your needs in the following core areas?” the need for a new approach to content management is clear. Here are the percentages that responded “fails to meet our needs” and “struggles to meet our needs.”

I think this frustration is tied to another core data point – 38% say their current system fails to meet their cloud capability needs. So when you evaluate potential vendors for cloud office automation, ask the following questions: 

• Is the cloud offering complete, or under-developed?
• Is the product usable out of the gate, or does its user interface require a Ph.D. to understand?
• Is the underlying infrastructure globally available, rapidly scalable, redundant, and fast?
• Is security and data privacy a priority or an afterthought?
• Is integration possible through industry standards or expensive, propriety methods?
• Is there a proven track record of success?

The future is indeed “cloudy.” Bet on it.