For many enterprise organizations, content management systems (CMS) positively transform and, in some cases, revolutionize the way they work. These software systems aid retail, healthcare, legal, hospitality, and other organizations, helping manage the stream of documents, forms, and other resources that are essential to everyday operation.
The last issue of Digital Publishing Solutions explored the growing CM industry and discussed the benefits of a CMS. A well-implemented and active CMS rewards users with streamlined business processes, remote staff and customer collaboration, easily retrievable content, security, report management, email management, regulatory compliance, and boosted customer satisfaction.
Now, we look at some of the challenges new enterprise buyers experience as well as product highlights from a handful of the CMS suppliers.
Informed Shoppers
Overwhelmingly, software vendors say the typical enterprise customer knows a bit about CM and the options available. With a surge in the quantity and quality of available technology, CMS options are daunting to sift through.
Companies must examine their operation and evaluate some key fixes they would like to address regarding the way they store, manage, retrieve, and/or collaborate on content. It is also important to research suppliers through trade shows, sales support, RFPs, and satisfied customers to find the right fit for their business.
"You can count the number of enterprises that don’t know about CM on one hand," notes Eric Kuhnen, director, product management, Astoria Software. "So, our efforts are not focused on the whether or not a CM system is a valuable solution to managing technical documentation. Instead, we educate prospects by showing how Astoria On-Demand drives results right to the bottom line––how implementing our solution affects cost, productivity, and new business initiatives."
Debbie Black, manager of strategy and planning, IBM Enterprise CM, sees a change in the maturity of the enterprise content managment (ECM) market. "Two years ago it was all just CM, departmental use. We’ve seen an acceleration. Customers are starting to implement solutions for different applications."
"Customers usually don’t come looking for an ECM package. They come looking for a very specific solution," adds Black. "For example, someone in insurance will come with a need to update their claims management capability. Only after they have done this a half dozen times do they look at ECM."
"Many new customers that we attract have had a previous document or CM product/system in place which they are either looking to replace or to which they are adding capabilities," says Harold Hockman, director of professional services, DocFinity—a product of Optical Image Technology, Inc."Therefore, most have some knowledge of what a repository is, how to index documents, and how to search for documents. Those organizations that are seeking to add workflow, integration tools, or customized applications may require supplemental knowledge and training, which our professional services staff is well-equipped to provide."
"Customers are aware of the needs that surround the CM value proposition, like being able to easily find digital assets, reuse them, and manage them in a central repository. In fact many customers are evaluating often the first step, a brand center or otherwise known as a media repository," says Greg Dierickse, senior product marketing manager of interactive content solutions, EMC Corporation.
"Next they are looking to automate the processes to create the content and publish across multiple channels," adds Dierickse. "The key is to simply align these needs to the business requirements and deploy in a step function. The customers often gain some immediate benefits from better management of the content and then move quickly to expanding their deployments to tackle a variety of uses. Their CM deployments can quickly become very vital once a few successes are achieved."
"Many customers are consulting with systems integrators or industry analysts to develop their shortlist of CM vendors," notes Frankie Basso, VP of marketing, Systemware. "The Systemware approach to new enterprise customers is to concentrate on the specific needs of customers and the solutions or services that can provide immediate and long-term impact to the client."
Xerox, among other vendors, typically introduces new customers to their products, beginning with a needs analysis. "[This is] followed by an introduction to a tailored solution for the problem, typically DocuShare for basic document management and CPX for business process automation," states Sri Chilukuri, director of product management and business development, Xerox Corporation. "Very often, the tailoring also involves introducing the customer to specific additional software modules such as records management or enterprise workflow if fulfillment of the customer’s needs dictate so," he adds. Lastly, we often introduce one of our experienced implementation partners––who have implemented similar solutions in the past––to the customer to help with the implementation, deployment, and training of the customer’s final solution in a quick and cost-effective manner."
Vendors Shine
According to Gartner, Inc., 56 percent of the market, as measured by total software revenue, is held by EMC, IBM, and Open Text. In Gartner’s new report, IBM was recognized as the leading ECM vendor in worldwide software revenue for 2006.
When IBM acquired FileNet, the company evaluated what customers were using and how. They found that the products and capabilities each brought to the table—the actual tools beneath the surface—addressed different segments. IBM, for example, focuses on report management, such as the technology behind online banking, while FileNet does not. To help address the two product lines, IBM installed a federation capability allowing users to use the same API to access data, and put consistent user interfaces in place. Soon the interfaces will be updated with Web 2.0 technology.
Just as IBM notes the strengths of its ECM suites and of FileNet, they also recognize, "Some business partners are really entrenched in specific industries," says Black. IBM finds strength with its partner community. "IBM is not going to be everything and all things to all people."
Sifting Through the Options
There is an enormous array of varied and specialized CM options available, many featuring specific benefits to select enterprise arenas. We spoke with a few vendors, some of which have made an indelible mark on the industry, and some that bring fresh, new initiatives to the table.
Astoria Software’s On-Demand is a fully-hosted solution for building and delivering dynamic product documentation. "It is designed and built specifically to handle content conforming to the DITA standard in its native, XML-based format [with] no document chunking or any other kind of arbitrary content slicing. Therefore, Astoria On-Demand suffers none of the performance limitations common to our competitors in systems with large numbers of objects," says Kuhnen.
"Simultaneous review is an important collaborative feature in Astoria On-Demand," adds Kuhnen. "A content object sent out for review may be annotated by any reviewer at any time, even while another reviewer is annotating the same object. Astoria On-Demand also has a very capable workflow engine, including the ability to define parallel flows in a business process. Integration with email systems allows Astoria On-Demand to notify users when they have tasks to complete, and the system embeds links to those tasks or to the content objects in those notifications."
EMC Corporation offers the Documentum ECM Platform and Interactive CM (ICM) technologies. Dierickse says they currently have about 1,500 ICM customers and 3,000 ECM customers.
"EMC Documentum ECM Platform is the world’s first major ECM offering based on a completely unified architecture, representing a significant innovation over today’s more loosely integrated platforms and raising the bar on customers’ expectations for an ECM platform," notes Dierickse.
"ICM is a set of technologies for managing the production process and content types that deliver compelling communications," he explains. "Whether it’s a Web page that combines a variety of rich media types, such as a Flash animation and streaming video, a PowerPoint presentation with still images and audio clips, or page layouts for marketing collateral that will be rendered for multi-channel distribution, the variety of interactive content formats presents challenges that go beyond traditional CM."
Hyland Software Inc. serves approximately 6,000 enterprise customers with its flagship OnBase suite for ECM. OnBase is a modular suite of applications that includes document imaging, workflow, document management, records management, and COLD/ERM. The application is available on-site or as a hosted SaaS option, OnBase OnLine. The scalable suite uses the same code base, user interface, content repository, and security and administration modules.
A key component of IBM’s ECM products is taking content and making it active. "Part of the reason IBM has the customers they have is due to their focus not just on storing, managing, and controlling the content. [The company] is really focused on making the content active and helping the customer derive more from their content," says Black.
DB2 Content Manager is the core ECM software offering from IBM. Additional solutions include OmniFind Enterprise Edition which provides secure enterprise search, FileNet P8 which has a scalable platform, the DB2 CommonStore for Exchange Server for archiving email and attachments, DB2 Content Manager OnDemand for Multiplatforms with enterprise report management, DB2 Document Manager, and DB2 Records Manager. The company’s portfolio is designed to help transform business with improved productivity and streamlined compliance.
With 1,900 system deployments at a variety of companies, director of product marketing, Ian McClure says Interwoven’s WorkSite solution stands out because it enables team-based collaboration and document management.
"Enterprise customers still have different perceptions of CM," states McClure. "Some believe it is the file system on their desktop, others think in terms of email or groupware systems. Still others think of a database or archiving systems. But these do not address the aspects of team collaboration, backoffice applications, legal matters, contracts, or document-centric business processes."
"Project teams, departments, or enterprises can rely on WorkSite MP to version and secure content of various types while supporting collaboration between remote or external team members," says McClure. WorkSite MP provides the means to automate processes, adhere to corporate compliance guidelines, and reduce the time and money invested in managing content and processes. WorkSite document management works with the tools people already know and use every day, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes, and BlackBerrys so people can use WorkSite immediately, with little training."
Knowledgeone (K1) Corporation offers a new genre of application system, based on the .NET model and designed around service oriented architecture (SOA). "Out-of-the-box it runs multiple applications concurrently including records management, document management, imaging, workflow, asset management, HR management, help desk, complaints management, and customer relationship management. It uses a common user interface for all applications and the user can do almost everything in just ten screens," notes Frank McKenna, CEO and product designer, K1.
"It is a Web based product—all user functions are thin-client—enabling users to work from any location that there is an Internet connection, i.e., from the hotel room in Hong Kong. It includes workflow, versioning, check-in, check-out, and email enablement together with electronic document capture and scanning."
Open Text Corporation offers the flagship Livelink collaboration and CM software. More than 15 years ago, Open Text launched the first Internet search engine technology, today the company supports millions of users worldwide. Built on a common platform with a common data structure, Livelink is scalable and designed to minimize risk, improve productivity, and heighten efficiency—all with a low total cost of ownership (TCO).
Optical Image Technology offers scalable DocFinity workflow, document, and CM software. Hockman tells us that there is a total of about 2,000 DocFinity systems live and in use in various capacities.
"Rather than searching manually through multiple filing cabinets, employees can locate documents in the digital repository quickly and easily with a process similar to an Internet search," he explains. "The features that make DocFinity products stand out from the other document and CM solutions are our strong workflow component, Web services integration tools, and the fact that DocFinity is customizable to meet the unique needs of each business."
"DocFinity Administration Security, which is a feature of the DocFinity Core and the main building block to a DocFinity system, permits the system administrator to determine who can access which documents," explains Hockman. Documents in the DocFinity repository can be assigned user rights with the option to restrict entire folders.
RSD America, Inc. has seen CM deployment growing in the last five years, driven by regulatory compliance and customer service. The company’s CM solutions are made to address both of these issues and more.
"[Our] content solutions not only provide the functionality, scalability, compliancy, and cost effectiveness to realize a solid ROI, but also our open architecture enables corporations to build specific desktop and portal applications that provide them with a competitive edge," notes Byron N. Maynard, manager, customer relations, RSD America, Inc.
Helping to better categorize and manage content within CM systems, SchemaLogic is an information management company specializing in Business Semantics Management. "The enterprise language, or semantic, unifies corporate information management systems, enabling employees to find everything about an area of interest no matter how it’s described. Unlike search, auto-classification, or CM solutions, SchemaLogic provides the ability to build a common language to describe corporate information," explains Jeff Dirks, president and CEO, SchemaLogic.
"Our typical customer has already deployed some type of CM system, however, enabling enterprise-wide collaboration while maintaining governance still remains a challenge for any organization," says Dirks. "At the core of this problem is a common, systemic root cause; companies have connected information systems to enable them to exchange content, but these systems are brittle and complex because they don’t reference an enterprise-wide language, or semantics standard, that describes content in a common precise way. The challenge this creates is an inability to utilize and manage content effectively across a diverse, distributed work force that often uses different terminology to describe the same thing."
The foundation of Systemware’s solution is the Systemware Content Server. "Our content servers have virtually unlimited file storage capabilities allowing unprecedented control over the type and amount of information stored in the repository, as well as powerful indexing tools for efficient and accurate access, archival for complete information lifecycle management, and connectivity throughout the extended enterprise. The content in the Systemware repository can easily be integrated with external applications and business processes through a SOA architecture and delivered through an intuitive user interface," notes Basso.
Xerox Corporation has over 5,000 DocuShare customers worldwide, many have more than one system installed. DocuShare is a flexible, Web-based solution designed to increase productivity and allow enterprise-wide information control without increasing demands on IT.
"Xerox DocuShare is comprised of two distinct ECM products on one unified technology platform—DocuShare, for basic content services, and DocuShare CPX, for advanced content and business process management," notes Chilukuri. "Both products support users at varied levels, such as guest, read-only, and full contributor—all from a single server. They also help users manage content and information by expanding imaging capabilities that allow for higher volume image capture—at least one million images per day. Additionally, DocuShare can be integrated with a broad range of imaging and scanning devices—not just Xerox products."
Xerox’s DocuShare enables collaboration through Web-based functionality. "It links workers, teams, constituents, and partners in a productive and controlled environment through swift asynchronous collaboration and enhanced routing and approval capabilities," says Chilukuri.
DocuShare’s capabilities include Web-based collaboration; spontaneous communication between external constituents and internal teams via wikis, blogs, and portals; and integration with common portal applications such as Microsoft SharePoint.
Jim Till, CMO, Xythos Software, Inc. says that Xythos offers low cost, low complexity BCS products that allow the safe creation, access, sharing, and deployment of information.
"Xythos sets itself apart by being the only company that offers a CM solution that is technology-independent and open standards-based," says Till.
"Xythos is server, database, and hardware-agnostic, intuitive, and easy to use. There are no server or client requirements." says Till. "Xythos offers a robust yet intuitive system for organizations who desire workflow, search, library services, Web-enabled document classification and retention—but do not want to absorb the cost or complexity of more traditional enterprise CM systems."
"More than three million licensed users now depend upon Xythos’ Internet standards-based products to access, store, and manage their documents and files," adds Till. "Xythos is helping organizations effectively address a growing list of compliance requirements, reducing the cost of CM by employing open standards-based solutions."
Committing to a CMS
Most CMS vendors understand that content needs to be more than just digitized, indexed, and stored properly. Today’s systems allow for the easy retrieval of assets and the ability to work with them collaboratively from various locations. CM systems can take your content and make it dance.
"I believe that enterprise customers understand that they need a solution where all business documents can be stored to provide an enterprise view, however they will grow by business unit," says Maynard of RSD America, Inc.
"Therefore, the solution needs to address the basic architectural concerns across the enterprise—compliant capture and storage, scalability, reliability, ease of maintenance, TCO—while providing the specific user capabilities required—Web access, print distribution, workflow, email archival, data extraction-that individual business users require to do their jobs better."
These vendors represent a handful of available CMS options; the strengths of the technology are vast and can vary by industry need and enterprise scale. Enterprise customers need to evaluate their needs, research and seek out a good match, and commit to implementing and using a CMS.
