Using enterprise content management systems to achieve your goals

In the age of information mobility, how can organizations best handle information?

It’s an understatement to say that today’s most innovative organizations are dealing with information overload, departmental silos and productivity roadblocks. As companies invest more heavily in data collection and warehousing, they’re struggling to build systems to make sense of it all. With more data comes more ambiguity.

In today’s information age, the success of an enterprise data strategy boils down to one word: structure. You need a plan in place to make sense of the volumes of data that your internal teams are collecting.

An enterprise content management (ECM) system can help by creating a central repository and well-defined workflow for your information. With a well-planned ECM, teams can feel secure that their insights will be quickly accessible to their key stakeholders and systems. The bottom line is that you’ll be able to make decisions faster.

An ECM will support your organization in achieving the following 4 goals:

1. Improved efficiencies

Enterprise content management systems help to boost profits while reducing costs. By consolidating your information in one place, you’ll eliminate the likelihood of time- and money-wasting redundancies across teams. You’ll also be able to accelerate the pace of learning within your organization: the more resources you’re able to share, the more employees will be able to build upon one another’s work to drive innovation.

2. Streamlined security

In today’s bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture, information security is a major pain point. Even though company leaders are excited to give their team members more flexibility in their work, they’re equally worried about the corresponding risks. When employees are using different devices to share information, they’re exposing the company to potential vulnerabilities. An enterprise content management system reduces this risk by creating a central repository for data — meaning that security standards are enforceable across all types of devices.

3. Enhanced document management

Document management can be a pain for large organizations. Let’s say that your product team is sharing engineering specs with a team of IT professionals, and multiple people share access to a single document. It’s very easy for one person to override another’s work, and as a result, version control is a serious challenge — not to mention the potential loss of work resulting from these overrides.

Enterprise content management systems make it easy to see who’s accessed what, in addition to the changes that have been implemented. These systems promote ownership and accountability, so that you can spend more time focusing on what needs to be done and less time dwelling over who did what and when.

4. Automated business processes

An enterprise content management system will take care of managing the details involved in various business processes, so that your teams can focus their time on staying creative, innovating and generating ROI. The less time that employees spend searching for information, the more time they have to explore new business areas and strategies for your organization.

With features like automatic filing and contract management, important documents will always be accessible for your team — providing a strong productivity boost across your organization.

Final thoughts

An enterprise content management system can be customized to your organization’s exact needs and big picture goals. Before making your choice with a system, you’ll need to consider the learning curve associated with getting things up and running. ECM systems can be as challenging or as straightforward as you’d like them to be. Make sure to take the time up front to analyze how you’re planning to define your strategy, so that you can quickly — and efficiently — onboard your team. Soon enough, these processes will become second-nature.

IT professionals need to be constantly vigilant to a changing landscape.