"Enterprise Content Management (ECM)"
The AIIM defines1 Enterprise Content Management, or ECM as, “the technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization’s unstructured information, wherever that information exists.”
Enterprise Content Management is most often used when referring to content of any form (email, web, scanned paper, bills, data streams) imported into or generated from within an organization. This includes security such as access control and permissions, versioning, archival and exposure to outside processes.
Enterprise Content Management System Components
Capture
The Capture category of ECM is also known as “input” and the technologies used range from simple information capture to complex systems with automatic content classification.
Manual Capture
- Barcode
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Optical Mark Recognition (OMR)
- Handprint Character Recognition (HCR)
- Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)
Document Imaging
Document imaging involves scanning analog documents and digitzing them into digital equivalents. Functions like “despeckling” for removing spots and dust and skew adjustment improve the results of this conversion.
Forms Processing
- Paper Forms–Paper forms can be ingested via OCR and HCR or can make use of multiple-choice questionnaires that use OMR.
- Web Forms and e-Forms–With properly defined structure, web and other electronic forms can be captured.
Manage
Manage components of Enterprise Content Management are used for processing and using the information captured by the previous step. Through a standardized interface, the following components are called by other components in the ECM system:
- Database for data storage
- Access authorization and authentication systems
Document Management
At this level, document management involves the following functionality:
- Search (including full-text and metadata)
- Filtering
- Roles-based Security
- Keyword Search (using free-format keywords attached during data ingestion)
- Auditing
- Version control
- Document check in and check out
- Encryption
- Collaboration
Store
Separate from the “Preserve” step that includes long-term archival, the “Store” step os for the temporary storage of information. This step is commonly handled at the infrastructure-level by the operating system or ETL tool.
Preserve
This component deals with the long-term protection and preservation of content. On-line, accessible storage methods such as storage networks are preferred, but it is not unheard of to archive on Microfilm, optical disk and digital tape backup.
Deliver
The delivery phase of Enterprise Content Management is used to display and/or present information from the “Manage”, “Store”, and “Preserve” components. Delivery can encompass one or more of the following output methods:
- Web with comprehensive formatting and layout
- XML (eXtensible Markup Language) for great flexibility in usage
- PDF (Portable Document Format) commonly used for client download or presentation
- Custom Applications
- Within other Applications