Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems offer today’s global businesses an extensive range of services, solutions, and techniques, which capture, store, manage, and preserve information. ECM systems allow businesses to use that information to optimize business workflow.
End-users for ECM consist of organizations in every industry, including manufacturing, transportation, aerospace and defense, energy and utilities, telecommunications, information technology, healthcare, retail, public sector, and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI).
Why Are Enterprise Content Management Systems Essential?
The demand for ECM has steadily increased over the past decade to help business leaders make informed enterprise decisions, such as outsourcing or hiring in-house, determining product or service pricing, and managing invoices.
The best Enterprise Content Management systems streamline performing multiple crucial functions that enable businesses to continue to flourish in a fast-paced, competitive, and global marketplace.
Features Businesses Look for In Enterprise Content Management Packages
While ECMs once might have received the label of “filing system,” they do so much more today. It is a full-functioning system that works along with and throughout the lifecycle of all of a businesses’ content. It captures vital information, then publishes and archives it as needed. Finally, and according to a businesses’ needs and after a defined retention period, it deletes those files to avoid redundancy in having defunct files to manage.
The essential benefit businesses seek with an ECM system is its ability to eliminate all the downtime used to search for files, such as vendor invoices that are past due or a customer’s purchase history.
Here is a breakdown of some of the most critical features to look for in an ECM system.
Workflow Automation
Streamlining business processes through workflow automation is a vital step in generating strong ROI, and the best ECMs can do that by:
- Providing streamlined accounts payable (AP) processing capabilities
- Managing new employee hires, onboarding, and benefits enrollment
- Tracking customer leads and prospects
- Onboarding new clients, customers, or accounts
- Approving purchase requisitions
Various Delivery Options
Not all businesses are ready to leap to the cloud, so most businesses appreciate the opportunity to choose between on-premise, cloud, or hybrid software options.
Enterprise Resource Planning Capabilities
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) allows businesses to search and retrieve documents or files without logging into the ECM, thus providing massive gains in productivity. The ECM is a silent connector. The right ECM means that employees will never need to sift through emails and physical files, hard drives, or shared drives to find a crucial piece of information.
ECMs Provide Crucial Support
There are so many additional benefits that the right partner in ECM can provide, so it is well worth digging deeper to learn more about this essential software.