7 benefits of using enterprise content management

Document management might be the driving force across the organization, but it is not a full-cure for all the processing business transaction concerns. Individuals still need access to information such as emails, documents, notes and files – residing outside of document management to do their job.

This is where the Enterprise Content Management system (ECM) comes into the picture. Once fully implemented, many companies can experience benefits that reach beyond the day to day process improvements and they ponder how they ever operated without it. Irrespective of the size of the business, ECM can form a vital part of a company’s strategic initiatives. From providing consistency in outbound context, automating paper based processes, understanding regulatory and compliance concerns, to managing intellectual property and improving collaborations with colleagues, more organizations are utilizing Enterprise Content Management system to streamline their current business processes.

Importance of ECM

The right ECM system is a strategic tool to enhance efficiencies, data security and minimize paperwork. It helps to improve user satisfaction, and reduces searching for required information in disparate systems. Integrating systems curtails the need to switch applications to complete work, as well as automates the processes surrounding the content for further efficiencies.

Different type of content requires some unique functionality such as file plan management, warehouse management for storing digital and physical records; WYSIWYG editors, templates, layouts; robust transformation for video files like taking Adobe Photoshop files and converting them to various formats, sizes and resolutions; and static, dynamic publishing models for websites. Such independent CMS share a common set of functionality and services. Depending on the business application’s needs, any content management features can be enabled or disabled within the single platform.

Integrated ECM delivers a full comprehensive collection of ECM functionality, including web content management, imaging and document management, records management, and digital asset management, - all in a single platform and reduces the need for integrations between numerous ECM components. Combining the architecture on a single code base, API and Security model removes pre-requisite integrations, thus, harnessing a common IT infrastructure, and diminishes support and application development costs, plus, minimizing expenses, enhancing user experiences, and facilitating simple maintenance, upgrades and training.

Top reasons why your company needs enterprise content management software

Keep track of all the information

Having a large quantity of critical information is a necessity and looked for, but it can lead to problems. Sometimes, you might find yourself frequently shuffling through an endless supply of documents that might be incomplete, duplicate or filed incorrectly. In this case, the ECM solution serves as a savior. Using an ECM solution helps to unlock the ability to have secure, complete document management, while making the documents easily searchable and centralized. Plus, each document will be automatically linked to the appropriate accounts, thus making for a smoother experience.

Minimize operation costs

Today, companies are going through the digital journey. And, an efficient way to do that is by using an ECM solution. You can magically reduce the consumption of paper. You will have the advantage of unlocking all the financial gains that come from fewer shipping and printing fees. Less number of papers will also free up extra office spaces that can be used in a better way! Even employees would feel the difference when they can reallocate the resources to more valued tasks.   

Content management, governance and compliance

Managing business documents are a big concern for any organization. Companies subject to industry regulations, compliance requires ECM software to capture, manage, index, store, retrieve and dispose files after a predefined period. With a tailored implementation, ECM can support compliance with regulations related to specific industries, including Finance, Banking, Healthcare, Defense, Food Administrations, etc.

ECM functionality also supports compliance, managing records storage, reducing the filing and archiving process while helping companies escape the long-term burden of ever-increasing off-site storage costs. Plus, easy retrieval of digital files also means that employees are ready for new moments when they have to consult the archived records to resolve a concern.

Furthermore, ECM tools can log all the actions, providing an organization with all the ability to manage and maintain an auditable record of all the changes into the documents within the repository.

Business process management

Companies can use ECM to create workflows that span the departments to back the drawn-out enterprises and inter-enterprises business processes. These traditional ECM tools developed to easily integrate common productivity applications including Microsoft Excel, Word, so that employees can use these tools for viewing and modifying the content in the context of a workflow.

Many ECM software tools provide techniques and tools to help both the technical and non-technical users to define the business processes. Many applications provide audit controls to trace each step of the process and analytic abilities to help classify inefficiencies and streamline business procedures.

Improve customer service

Once you unravel the instant access, you get in-time visibility into the status of transactions. This helps you to attend to your customer’s needs faster than ever. Your customers will enjoy being able to complete the forms and make requests online. Plus, the extra time that your solution will offer can be redirected to attending to customers. In this way, the company will be able to provide quality service and customized experiences your competitors will envy.

Data security

Any document filled out with a pen and paper is definitely not a secure method. A quick glance at the open folder can give you a good impression of the employee’s salary, security details and many other sensitive information. Plus, physical records can be destroyed, lost or be taken away, thus, eliminating the only known copy of the document.

All these issues can be addressed by using an efficient ECM software. Having an ECM software will help you keep the HR data safe from the ground up. Starting from access to employees archives, secure user based sign in, to databases and documents, files can only be granted to those with elected permissions. And, using cloud-based ECM software, files are backed up on a secure and always-accessible server. In case of a mishap, the information critical to keep your business running will always be there over the internet.

Saves time

The more amount of information you possess, the more time consuming it is to keep a track of all the information. This is one of the primary reasons to let ECM solution step to help simplify the process. Using an ECM solution will effectively organize the documents, making them easier to find an extension and save you the time. As a result, you can increase productivity by allocating your time to more critical tasks. You can save a lot of time and energy, all thanks to the ECM solution.

Conclusion

​ECM is increasingly observed as a means to minimize the segregation between processes and systems, helping companies to understand the highly complex IT environment involved in competition today. ECM is here to stay. Advantages of ECM are many. The use of next generation enterprise content management tools, expands on the strengths of traditional ECM, while enhancing the availability and value of information across the enterprise.

ECM along with documentation management is reshaping the way organizations manage data. Future with data management looks very promising. To be at an advantage, industries will have to use the power of ECM driven processes and systems. If measured intuitively, it could change the way services are being delivered.