Introduction
Since ECM is a convergence of once separate technologies and disciplines of information management, it becomes difficult to nail down a definition. A working definition of ECM is however the first step in establishing an enterprise content management strategy, if we are to provide infrastructure to support services to that end.
ECM Definition
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) connotes a unified framework for managing, web-enabling and personalizing delivery of all disparate forms of content across the enterprise, regardless of their classical modes of creation, storage or presentation.
Enterprise connotes a scope that is comprehensive, representing and entire organization's needs for the targeted services. The focus is on "core" services, that is, services at the heart of operations, services that departments have in common, regardless of differences between departments. An "Enterprise" system is one designed to gain the maximum benefit that can be derived from the advantages and economies of scale - in this case, scaled to extend across the entire enterprise.
Content refers to any work-product that can be created, modified, stored or retrieved employing an organization's digital infrastructure. Content refers not merely to the content of web pages, but extends to include all manner of digital objects; documents, designs, templates, data structures, data values, graphics, audio and video files, curricular material, etc. These various types of content, while dissimilar in terms of means of production, targeted mode of output, original purpose, etc, nevertheless share characteristics that enable them to come under the control of a unifying mechanism. They can be digitally stored. They can be transported over a common network infrastructure. They can be described in ways that permit search and retrieval across boundaries of content-type, medium or department of origin.
Management refers to the directed and purposeful employment of an organization's resources; the smooth and efficient handling of tasks related to the creation, transformation, storage, preservation and retrieval of the component elements that contribute to, and result from, an organization's efforts. The ECM approach is inherently robust, for it combines distributed storage with a centrally managed framework. The ECM approach is inherently scalable; a result of its innate capability to incorporate additional repositories (and new content types) into its organizational framework.
The term ECM, does not represent just a product or a suite of products, nor simply a group of technologies. While ECM includes the aggregation of once disparate approaches to the information management (Document Management, Collaboration, Knowledge Management, Digital Asset Management, Web Content Management), the ECM concept represents more than simply the sum of their overlapping characteristics. It is the systematic re-thinking of the approach to the creation, management and distribution of all data stored outside of traditional integrated information systems (ERP, SIS etc.).
Purpose
ECM incorporates and implements the business rules that govern the processes needed to create, acquire, store, index, secure, search, export and transform digital assets. The key goal of an ECM system is to increase the integration and automation of processes that support Internet delivery.
Benefits
ECM joins the organization's digital assets together through the mechanism of a unifying descriptive framework. This is an "enabling" infrastructure, enabling work done in one part of the organization to benefit from similar relevant work performed in another part of the organization. It enables the discovery, description and enumeration of assets produced as a natural result of the university's educational mission; assets that have significant value to the organization itself as well as potential value to a broader market beyond the university.
Source
White paper, written by Michael J. Halm and Michael Pelikan, from Penn State entitled: "Enterprise Content Management Systems: Beyond Digital Asset Management and Web Content Management Systems". I would encourage anyone interested in this opportunity domain, especially for higher ed, to read this excellent paper.
