Enterprise Content Management Systems

Enterprise CMS is a term that describes the digitization of all the information that a company needs to perform day-to-day operations. ECMS encompasses electronic documents, images, PDF files, databases, software, cloud-based applications and any other electronic data that a company needs to enable its employees to serve its customers. This practice is fairly new; it evolved from the digital data delivery systems of the 1980s and 1990s. It makes companies much more efficient and allows them to deliver documents to employees and customers immediately. In the past, fulfilling requests for backlogged documents could take weeks or months.

For example, a bank that has implemented an ECMS on its network will have image files storing all of the paper checks it has issued. In past decades, these checks would be physically stored in a warehouse, and when a customer requested a particular check, the request could take weeks to fulfill. First the bank would have to contact the warehouse to locate the particular check in question, and then the bank would have to mail the check to the customer. With modern ECMS implementations, an electronic copy of the check can be located within seconds, and a hard copy of the check can be mailed to the customer right away.

Enterprise CMS networks are typically used in a business-to-employee context. They provide the data employees need to serve customers and clients, and they access the ECMS on an internal network or intranet. Implementing an ECMS is a very time-consuming and laborious process. It costs thousands of dollars to put together an ECMS, but the investment soon pays for itself as the business begins working much more efficiently. A company can pay for the entire cost of an ECMS implementation within one month of finishing the network, simply by becoming more productive in general.

Because ECMS is a fairly new tool, its definition has evolved quite quickly over the short time that it has been around. In 2005, ECMS was defined simply as a technology used to protect, handle, collect and store information related to a business’s operations. By 2010, the definition had grown to include different formats of electronic document storage, including paper documents that had been converted. This conversion is a key detail of the definition of ECMS because it includes examples of older technology, such as microfilm data storage.

John Trinh has been writing for 10+ years. He first delved into the world of writing when he wrote his first article for his university's paper.