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What is enterprise content management?

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Overview

Enterprise content management (ECM) is a comprehensive approach to organizing, storing, and utilizing an organization's diverse information assets. It encompasses the strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, deliver, and govern content across an enterprise. This content can include documents, images, videos, emails, and any other form of digital information crucial to a business's operations.

ECM systems serve as centralized repositories for all of an organization's content, providing a structured framework for managing the entire information lifecycle—from creation to archival or deletion. These systems are designed to streamline workflows, enhance collaboration, ensure compliance with regulations, and improve overall operational efficiency.

Enterprise content management

How has enterprise content management evolved?

Growing out of the document management systems of the 1990s, ECM platforms were originally designed to bring an enterprise layer to the automation of core back-end, document-focused processes. Despite addressing important business functions, many ECM implementations were under-utilized because the solutions were originally focused on the technology rather than the business processes and people using it—with organizations more interested in getting control of their content than enabling what people could do with it.

This led to systems that were excellent at capturing, storing, and managing content but were difficult to use and labor-intensive for the end-user—often requiring them to change their work processes to accommodate the system. As a result, the enterprise content management system became primarily a system of record—which was great for control and governance of official business records—while isolated silos of information spread throughout the organization as users created new content in their preferred systems.

These solutions created a repository—a single source of truth—where content could be stored, managed, searched and retrieved. And as more and more content (structured and unstructured) was created, enterprise content management software evolved to provide users with the content they need, in their preferred applications, at the time they need it—ensuring content is searchable and accessible for users, auditors, and compliance. Plus, today’s tools allow for flexible deployment—on-premises, hosted, or SaaS—and provide advanced analytics to drive insight and action based on data within the content.

Why is enterprise content management important to businesses?

  • Improved efficiency: ECM systems centralize information, making it easier for employees to find and use the documents they need.
  • Increased productivity: By centralizing content and making it easily accessible, employees spend less time searching for information and more time on value-adding activities.
  • Better decision-making: ECM provides quick access to accurate, up-to-date information, enabling users to make more informed decisions faster.
  • Higher-quality customer service: With quick access to customer information and related documents, businesses can provide faster, more personalized customer service.
  • Enhanced collaboration: Enterprise content management offers teams a central platform to work on documents simultaneously and share information seamlessly, all while maintaining version control.
  • Stronger information governance: Get the tools you need to manage content’s entire lifecycle, from creation to disposal. This ensures information is properly managed, reducing risks associated with data breaches or non-compliance with regulations.
  • Tighter regulatory compliance: Meet document retention and data privacy requirements with secure storage, access controls, and audit trails.
  • Scalability: ECM supports the ability to securely process as many objects per day as required (potentially into the millions).

What core capabilities should you look for in an ECM solution?

Organizations continue to require the core functionality that enterprise content management software provides. Expanding to a content services approach takes ECM a step further, giving organizations a new way of connecting content to digital business—delivering tools end-users can use to easily work with, share, and collaborate on content.

The most effective enterprise content management solutions use content integration to give users access to the right content within the applications they’re already using today, such as SAP®, Microsoft® 365, Salesforce, Guidewire, and SAP SuccessFactors®. At the same time, advanced ECM tools build on control and governance functionalities to enable secure information-sharing and collaboration across the enterprise and with external partners.

Other content services to take advantage of include:

  • Content capture: Allows you to digitize physical documents and collect digital content from various sources. Content capture may include technologies like optical character recognition (OCR) for converting scanned documents into searchable text.
  • Deep, out-of-the-box integrations: Minimizes the need for application switching by integrating ECM tools with the lead applications teams are working in every day.
  • Workflow/business process management: Automates and optimizes business processes involving content, such as approval processes or invoice processing.
  • Collaboration tools: Facilitates team collaboration on documents and projects, often including features like simultaneous editing and commenting.
  • Search and retrieval: Allows users to quickly find content with powerful search capabilities, including full-text search, metadata search, and faceted search.
  • Mobile and remote access: Enables secure access to content from any device or location, which is increasingly important in hybrid work environments.
  • Records management: Ensures long-term content preservation, retention schedules, and defensible disposition in compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
  • Information governance and compliance: Supports policy enforcement, audit trails, and role-based access controls to manage risk and meet regulatory standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
  • Analytics and reporting: Provides insights into content usage, user behavior, and process efficiency to guide continuous improvement.

What’s new with enterprise content management?

Enterprise content management software needs to keep pace with market demands by delivering new functionality to help businesses elevate information management and boost ROI.

Advanced capabilities include:

  • Cloud-based ECM: Many organizations are moving towards cloud-based ECM solutions, which offer greater flexibility, scalability, and accessibility.
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) tools: With an AI content assistant and machine learning, organizations can improve content classification, search capabilities, and process automation—plus leverage advanced analytics for new content insights.
  • Widespread integrations: Enterprise content management systems are increasingly integrated with popular collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack to improve workflows and user adoption.
  • Multi-cloud support: Leading ECM platforms support hybrid and multi-cloud environments, giving organizations the flexibility to optimize performance, avoid vendor lock-in, and maintain compliance across cloud providers.

What enterprise content management tools does OpenText have to offer?

OpenText offers a comprehensive suite of enterprise content management tools that can help organizations improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance compliance. By providing a centralized repository for digital content, automating workflows, and enabling secure access, OpenText empowers businesses to make better use of their information assets.

Explore how OpenText’s market-leading enterprise content management software can transform your business:

OpenText™ Content Management
Securely govern the information lifecycle by integrating with leading applications, such as SAP®, Microsoft® 365, Salesforce, and SAP SuccessFactors®.

A Leader in content platforms

See how OpenText, a Leader in content platform providers, ranks in The Forrester Wave™: Content Platforms, Q1 2025 report.

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OpenText™ Content Management

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