Definitions




  • Late 2005: The technology used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes
  • Early 2006: ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization's unstructured information, wherever that information exists.
  • Early 2008: The strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization's unstructured information, wherever that information exists
  • Early 2010: The strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM covers the management of information within the entire scope of an enterprise whether that information is in the form of a paper document, an electronic file, a database print stream, or even an email
  • March 2017: The Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) proposed replacing "enterprise content management" with "intelligent information management". IIM is defined as "the strategies, methods, and tools used to create, capture, automate, deliver, secure, and analyze content and documents related to organizational processes. IIM refers to the management of content AND data, not just content itself."

The latest definition encompasses areas which have traditionally been addressed by records- and document-management systems. It implies the conversion of data to digital and traditional forms, including paper and microfilm.

ECM, as an umbrella term, covers document and web content management, search, collaboration, records management, digital asset management (DAM), workflow management, and capture and scanning. It manages the life cycle of information, from initial publication (or creation) through archival and eventual disposal. It is delivered in four ways:

  • On-premises software (installed on an organization's network)
  • Software as a service (SaaS): Web access to information stored on a software manufacturer's system
  • A hybrid of both on-premises and SaaS components
  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Online services which abstract the user from infrastructure details like physical computing resources, location, data partitioning, scaling, security, and backup

Benefits to an organization include improved efficiency, better control, and reduced costs. Banks have converted to storing copies of old cheques in ECM systems from the older method of keeping physical cheques in warehouses. Under the old system, a customer request for a copy of a cheque might take weeks; a bank employee had to contact the warehouse where the right box, file and cheque were located. The cheque would be pulled and a copy made and mailed to the bank, which would then mail it to the customer. With an ECM system in place, a bank employee could query the system for the customer's account number and the number of the requested cheque. When an image of the cheque appeared on-screen, the bank could mail a copy immediately to the customer; usually while the customer was still on the phone.

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