The impetus for purchasing an Electronic Content Management (ECM) system is typically the need to store and retrieve a large volume of scanned documents. Consequently they're often purchased when an organization starts scanning on a large scale or when a scanning project has gone awry because the scanned images can't be found easily. There is also increased interest in ECM at the moment because they are a key technology that enables Digital Transformation.

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A good ECM system will enable you to retrieve the exact scanned image you need in seconds.  

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Having thousands, millions, or billions of documents that once required walking, bending, stooping, reaching, searching, or worse, to retrieve, now instantly available at your fingertips is typically more than enough to justify the investment in an ECM system. However once people begin researching these systems, they begin to realize all the other things a good EMC system is capable of. Things like:

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Storing all kinds of content - In addition to scanned images, they should be able to store all kinds of born-digital content including Office documents, videos, 

Capturing paper easily - 

Collaboration

E-forms/Forms management

Workflow

Case Management

Business Process Management (BPM)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Records Management

 

They're really the software that you've been missing all along.

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Benefits:

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But where do you begin?

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Scanned images can be saved and retrieved in two ways:

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1 As PDFs, TIFFs, JPEGs, or other types of image files to a server or other type of storage using descriptive names. Scanned images are most commonly saved as PDFs these days.

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or

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2 They can be imported into a line of business (LOB) application like an ERP, CRM, or HR system (if your particular application supports scanned images, if not see below *) or into an Electronic Content Management (ECM). Once imported, they're stored and available for quick retrieval from within these systems. The file type, location of the images, and image naming are then dictated by the system.

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The main purpose of an Electronic Content Management (ECM) system is to store and enable fast retrievals of scanned images and other types of content - in addition to scanned images, good ECM systems are able to store many types of "born digital" content including Microsoft Office documents, born digital PDFs, cell phone photos, videos, e-mails, and much more.

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* Some LOB applications do not support scanned images directly but most can be "image enabled" which means that an ECM system with this capability can be integrated with it. This is typically done by adding a button to the LOB application. When you want to see the documents (scanned or born digital) or other content relating to what you're viewing in the LOB application, you simply click on the button and they appear.

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And like with all of our work and projects, we are always on call to answer questions.

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We've got actual robots to show you how they work and how you can apply it to your organization and department. Call us today to get started, 610-398-9080.

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 Is it ECM?

A Document Management System?

An Imaging System?

Content Services?

 

Even File sharing, Cloud and Online storage get tossed around in this mix. There are many terms for the systems that people primarily think of as storing and retrieving scanned images. The most current term is Content Services. "Content" because, as mentioned above, they can store much more than just scanned images and things that are traditionally thought of as documents.

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We'll call it ECM because that's the term most people are familiar with.

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Beyond storing "content" and enabling fast retrieval of it, what else can ECM do?

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In addition to being able to store a wide variety of content ECM should have tools for:

Making capturing content easy (scanning software

Workflow

Forms

Collaboration

Records Management

Case Management

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Where does everything live and where can I retrieve my stuff from?

ECM systems are available in both "On-Premise" and "Cloud" - aka Software as a Service (Saas) - versions. This refers to where the software and content lives not so much where your content can be retrieved from and on what devices as you'll see below. Some manufacturers make only one type, some make both.

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With Cloud versions, there is no software to install, everything works through a web browser or an App.

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With an "On-Premise" system, your content lives on your servers. With a Cloud version, your content is hosted for you in the cloud.

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Both On-Premise and Cloud versions of a good ECM system should allow you to retrieve your content from any location and on any device.

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To lean more about choosing which option is right for you click here.

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Sophisticated functionality

Sophisticated security to protect what they hold including access control and auditing

Integrations with LOB applications