Ema Releases Comprehensive Research Report On Enterprise Content Management
Study reveals many organizations have little or no content management discipline; emergence of online content types adds to challenge
BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 31, 2007, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), the leading independent IT management research and consulting firm, today announced the release of its in-depth and independent study on Enterprise Content Management. The 62-page research report "Enterprise Content Management: Toward a New Content Paradigm"
explores enterprise content usage patterns, business drivers, expectations, preferred vendors, distribution requirements and more. EMA is offering this report for purchase, as well as free access to a number of ECM resources, at www.enterprisemanagement.com
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) consists of a broad collection of disciplines that enable a business to create, acquire, store, index, deliver and delete a wide variety of content. It is a critical part of information technology, providing the ability for businesses to access structured information, meet legal and compliance requirements and serve customers. From a basic paper-based filing system to state-of-the-art electronic asset storage, ECM is essential to any business.
For this January 2007 study, EMA Senior Analyst Andi Mann used various survey instruments, as well as personal interviews, to poll a wide variety of enterprises. This research report:
o Outlines the traditional taxonomy for different types of enterprise content
o Examines the current state of ECM, including business drivers, outcomes, usage patterns, purchasing intentions and more
o Investigates penetration and impact of a number of new online content technologies
o Relates ECM disciplines to business goals
o Profiles many significant ECM vendors and products
"Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a rapidly evolving field within IT management," said Mann. "In addition to the challenge posed by traditional content such as documents, images, forms and videos, today's enterprise must be able to address new online content technologies like web pages, blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS feeds in their overall ECM strategy."
A sampling of key findings from EMA's in-depth quantitative and qualitative research into ECM documents that:
o Online content technologies are rapidly overtaking traditional content-instant messaging is already more popular than fax, and corporate blogging will triple in 12 months-even though most companies are not prepared for them.
o Overall, enterprises are very happy with their ECM effectiveness and cost-benefit-more than 80 percent rate their ECM solution as being effective with at worst a neutral cost-benefit.
o Enterprises are implementing ECM primarily to improve access to information, collaboration and productivity. By contrast, cost reduction and regulatory compliance rate last and second-last respectively as expected outcomes from ECM deployments
o E-mail is by far the most used content delivery mechanism, ranked most important by almost 90 percent of enterprises, beating both Web pages (66 percent) and hardcopy delivery (50 percent).
o Many organizations have little or no content management discipline. 82 percent of enterprises use network file servers as their primary content repository; 60 percent use e-mail folders; 14 percent have no formal content repository at all.
In addition to the research report, EMA is providing a number of no-cost ECM resources to help enterprise IT professionals learn more about this rapidly evolving technology area.
EMA's Enterprise Content Management Solutions Center is a comprehensive online resource that offers an introduction to ECM and its key concepts, as well as the ability to search and compare objective profiles of more than a dozen ECM solutions side-by-side. Access to this valuable resource is free of charge and available now. To register for the Solutions Center, visit: http://itsolutions.emausa.com/register.php?ls=ecmitscpr0107
EMA's Mann will share highlights from this new research study in a free, one-hour Webinar titled "Enterprise Content Management Trends: From Traditional Documents to Emerging Content Types" to be held on Tues., Feb. 27, 2007, at 12 noon MST. To sign-up for the Webinar, visit: http://www.emausa.com/ema_lead.php?ls=ecmwebpr0207&bs=ecmweb0207
About Enterprise Management Associates
Founded in 1996, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) is the leading independent industry analyst and consulting firm dedicated to the IT Management market. The firm provides IT vendors and enterprise IT professionals with objective insight into the real-world business value of long-established and emerging technologies, ranging from security, storage and service level management (SLM) to the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), virtualization and service-oriented architecture (SOA). Even with its rapid growth, EMA has never lost sight of the client, and continues to offer personalized support and convenient access to its analysts. For more information on EMA's extensive library of IT Management research, free online IT Management Solutions Center and IT consulting offerings, visit www.enterprisemanagement.com.
