AIIM Study Reveals ECM Drivers

Information Management Journal, Jan/Feb 2005 by Swartz, Nikki

AIIM International's biannual survey of current and potential end users of enterprise content management (ECM) technologies reveals that 60 percent are still in the early stages of understanding ECM. ECM refers to the technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to business and organizational processes.

AIIM surveyed 220 users and prospective users during the first six months of 2004 about the status of ECM deployment within their organizations, perceived obstacles to implementing ECM technologies, business drivers, and implementation plans for the next 12-18 months.

The survey titled "Industry Watch Study: Why Enterprise Content Management? Why Now?" also found that organizations are beginning to realize that ECM technologies represent a core piece of the information infrastructure - a piece that is critical to compliance and cost-reduction.

Other key findings include:

* User project interests over the next 12-18 months focus on records management and archiving image processing (41 percent), forms handling (36 percent), and information capture (36 percent).

* User technology interests include: Web content management (45 percent), scanning and image processing (41 percent), records management (40 percent), and electronic document management (36 percent).

* Risk reduction and cost control rather than revenue growth - are clearly driving user interest in ECM technologies.

* The biggest obstacles facing potential ECM end users are justifying the improvement (23 percent) and change management (22 percent).

* More than 25 percent of end user organizations have not even begun implementing ECM.

"Clearly, ECM technologies are moving from the department to the enterprise," says John Mancini, AIIM president and survey author. "User organizations are beginning to realize that ECM technologies represent a core piece of their information infrastructure - a piece that is critical to compliance and cost-reduction."

The full survey results can be accessed at www.aiim.org/viewpdfa. asp?ID=28967.