Enterprise Content Management [ECM]

Every day, organizations create a huge volume of unstructured content that includes customer profiles, purchase orders, employee records, financial reports, forms, scanned invoices, contracts, quality documents, engineering drawings and e-mails, among others. The challenge of handling paper, digital content, records and documents is mounting. Studies have shown that unstructured content comprises 80% or more of all corporate information and is growing at anywhere between 65% and 200% per year depending on the industry sector.

At most companies, digital and paper-based content often exist in a state of unmanaged chaos. This content is stored in multiple locations, such as local computer drives, file shares, file folders and file cabinets without a consistent taxonomy for identification. This makes it hard for users to find and reuse the content they need for their daily tasks. The result is time wasted searching for and re-creating information. It also promotes less-efficient practices, such as using e-mail as a document collaboration tool. Organizations cannot create and deliver business value without a centralized way of controlling content that support their business. Furthermore, IT teams have difficulty protecting information assets and sensitive documents from unauthorized access.

Organizations are adopting an Enterprise Content Management platform to address the business challenges associated with unmanaged information. Enterprise Content Management Solutions improve business productivity and agility by providing better access to information and creating a foundation for sharing, securing and reusing this content throughout the enterprise. An Enterprise Content Management platform allows companies to reduce data hardware and software costs while integrating key information in unique ways to exploit new opportunities or quickly adapt to new business requirements.

A comprehensive Enterprise Content Management solution meets the above challenges and promotes the following benefits:

• Lower overhead needed to support physical documents;
• Reduces the labor required to complete critical document-intensive processes;
• Greater collaboration fostered by real-time access to content;
• Increased leveraging of knowledge assets;
• Eliminates the delays and inefficiencies inherent to manual processes;
• Empowers customer service representatives to resolve issues on the first call using accurate and timely data;
• Provides customer self-service with secure Web-based access to important documents;
• Better support for governance, risk and compliance initiatives by enabling secure access to content, standardized business practices and retention of content based on policies;
• Improved litigation readiness and reduced litigation risk.

Enterprise Content Management [ECM] provides the technology you need to create, capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver all the content, records and documents related to your organizational processes. ECM solutions allow you to maximize both the value and quality of your enterprise content in order to improve your overall business performance.

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SoftExpert Enterprise Content Management Suite offers within one integrated platform the content management capabilities required to manage all types of enterprise content, including business documents, vital records, paper-based information, digital assets (images, audio and video), e-mail, forms, reports and more. The solution also enhances teamwork with project management, forums, real-time instant messaging and collaboration. To complete the offer, SoftExpert ECM Suite also provides a fully integrated Business Process Management Suite that allows customers to streamline everyday business activities, connecting and sharing knowledge across the organization.

The following are some of the main technologies and features of SoftExpert Enterprise Content Management Suite:

Content Capture – The solution architecture facilitates integration with other products through out-of-the-box connectors and Web Services that allow users to capture information based on any data source.

Document Imaging and Recognition – End-to-end scanning process that captures documents and metadata together, enhanced recognition through OCR technology and batch loading of content into a fully searchable document management repository.

Content Creation and Authoring – Allows for controlled document drafting through integration with industry-standard authoring tools to create office documents, engineering drawings (AutoCAD, Pro/E, Solid Edge, SolidWorks), rich media and others.

Content Indexing – Content can be automatically categorized with full-text indexing and extensible metadata capabilities, complying with the enterprise taxonomy.

Document Management Library Services – Integrated ad-hoc workflow to ensure proper approval processes, version and revision control, and check in / check out functionalities to eliminate simultaneous changes to content.

Content Collaboration – Provides a secure team-based workspace for people to share and edit documents and projects directly from the user’s browser while maintaining revision control.

Content Lifecycle Management – Manages the process of moving content through stages such as “drafted,” “reviewed,” “approved,” “released,” “archived,” “cancelled,” “outdated” and “disposed”.

Enterprise Search Capabilities – Easily searches and retrieves information across federated repositories using advanced technology, including full-text, search term highlighting, metadata and dynamic categories.

Conversion Services – Provides automated content publishing in multiple universal formats, such as portable document format (PDF).

Content Notification Services – Manages alerts, such as revision changes, document publishing and expiration, document archiving or workflow tasks by e-mail, system to-dos or on a mobile device.

Workflow/Business Process Management – Provides a well-integrated platform for automating complex content-driven and collaborative business processes, boosting productivity by using electronic forms to gather information throughout the process.

Records Management – Extends the solution beyond electronic records to integrate the management of physical records with electronic content, allowing for retention, disposal and protection, as well as auditing policies associated with business records regardless of location or type.

Digital Signatures – Provides managers and other reviewers with a regulatory-compliant way of signing documents, while providing the equivalency of a paper document signature’s authenticity through the XML or CMS signature standard type.

Information Rights Management – Comprehensive security that controls access and editing rights through user-based, role-based and account-based privileges including out-of-the-box SoftExpert Rights Management or integrated with LDAP, SSL, access control lists (ACLs) and digital certificates.

SoftExpert SharePoint Connector – Fully integrated functionality of the SE Administration module that allows users to create personalized views of SoftExpert components in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS 2007) as a web part.

SoftExpert ECM Suite provides all of these components and more. It enables you to effectively and efficiently capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver digital and paper-based content. Any authorized person - employee, customer, vendor or partner - can manage and work on your documents, records and processes safely and securely anytime, anywhere.

SoftExpert ECM Suite develops a proactive compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices, OHSAS 18000, ISO 9000 Quality Guidelines, Sarbanes-Oxley, DoD 5015.2, MoReq, ISO 15489, HIPAA, AIIM Standards and Recommended Practices, ESIGN, 21CFR Part 11 Electronic Records and Electronic Signatures. It guarantees compliance for a variety of industries, including pharmaceutical and medical devices, government, financial services and manufacturing.

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Return on Investment in Enterprise Content Management

Increasingly, Enterprise Content Management is seen as a bottom line enterprise application and technology with objectives identified as reducing administrative costs, improving efficiency, and enhancing profit.

Commonly, when enterprise professionals discuss the ROI of an investment, they are mostly thinking of "financial" benefits. Today, organizations must also consider the "non financial" benefits of an investment.

Financial Benefits include impacts on the organization's budget and finances, e.g., cost reductions or revenue increases.

Non Financial Benefits are the so-called "intangibles", "soft", or "unquantifiable" benefits of an investment. These benefits include effects on business operations and productivity.

SoftExpert ECM Suite produces positive impacts on business performance and strategic goals. These include improved customer satisfaction, better usage of current and archived information, and shorter cycle-time.

The benefits calculation for ECM can be both direct, like paper or archival cost savings, and indirect, like productivity or improved quality. Both should be measured for ECM business case efforts.

IDC has estimated that the typical enterprise with 1,000 knowledge workers wastes $2.5 million to $3.5 million per year searching for nonexistent information, failing to find existing information, or recreating information that can't be found, while Gartner estimates that a Enterprise Content Management can reduce overall document-related costs by 40%.

SoftExpert Enterprise Content Management [ECM] Suite provides the following benefits:

Financial ROI:

Non Financial ROI:

Remember! ROI is never calculated in a vacuum. The ROI you project for your ECM initiative will probably be different the ROI you ultimately achieve, because there are so many factors-employee turnover, new competitors' initiatives, vendor changes-that can impact the ROI of your project. In this case, keep in mind that ROI is not always measurable in dollars and cents!

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