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The idea behind ECM is to ensure that corporate knowledge is transformed into best practices that drive the success of future initiatives. Traditionally, content generated in various organizational processes have been kept in the form of unstructured information-neither shared nor optimally used. ECM has evolved in the past few years to manage an organizations unstructured information in whatever form it may exists.

According to a Forrester Research report in 2005, the market for ECM license software will exceed $3.9 bn in 2008, growing at a CAGR of 19%, thereby outpacing the overall software market. The firm says that it is the "recognition by $1 bn-plus companies that ECM is the requisite technology for addressing their compliance, governance, and process efficiency needs" that is fueling growth.

According to Gartner, total software revenues for the enterprise content management market in 2006 grew by 12% and the market is expected to grow by 10% per annum in the next four years.

What drives ECM?
The two main drivers behind this sustained interest in ECM are exponential increase in information that requires a system to manage unstructured content, and secondly, the ability to store, access, search and dispose off content in a controlled environment.

The driving forces behind record management are compliance, cost containment & continuity. In the last two years,Web content management franchise has expanded significantly. Over the past decade, the Web has evolved as a venue where people meet, collaborate and conduct business. This has put pressure on vendors to innovate.

Unlike many other application areas, ECM touches all aspects of a business and all functions of an organization. Though solutions have traditionally been built to address the challenges faced in one, or a few areas, it has been necessary to integrate them with enterprise-wide applications. This means ECM is a perfect area to get into for players like IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft. And they have done just that. These four vendors hold more than half of the overall ECM market share.

Other important vendors are Alfresco, Interwoven, Vignette, Xerox, Hyland, and of course, Microsoft, whose SharePoint is known to most users.

Strategic Deployment
As far as usage of ECM technology is concerned, every organization decides upon a system only after carefully assessing its own specific needs. The vendors too have there own definitions of ECM, which are primarily tailored to suit their specific capabilities. But the customer wants a focused business solution with a quick payback. Every year something better and easier- to-use is expected to hit the marketplace. Simply waiting for a better system, means added complexities due to burgeoning volumes of uncontrolled and unused information. A sensible longer-term migration strategy mitigates the risk of fast technology changes.

Today the basic features and functions of document technology are mature, reliable, stable, secure and also affordable. In most industries document technology makes the essential difference in staying competitive.

Sandeep Sharma
sandeeps@cybermedia.co.in

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