What is the future of content management?
The transformation from traditional ECM models to a cloud-based equivalent hasdeveloped continuously over the years, with an accelerated transition towards cloud platforms recently. The inherent historical problems associated with ECM led Gartner to consider how technology might shift to the cloud in the digital age. The research company came up with a new concept of Content Solutions that would be cloud-enabled, flexible and dynamic. Rather than accepting a stand-alone system, companies would design their bespoke versions.
The terminology is less important than the realisation that the business environment is evolving, and more and more businesses are choosing cloud solutions or hybrid alternatives to help them handle huge volumes of data, applying the most cost-efficient and simple approach.
By establishing content management in the cloud, budgets are freed from the restrictions of heavy technology expenses, but it is not only the IT department that benefits from cloud-based storage. The cloud makes it easier to automate the technologies needed for accounts payable, contract management, correspondence management and invoice processing.
Customers are taking advantage of solutions’ flexibility and many organisations are merging their previously separate content, process and collaboration functions in the cloud.
Some firms also believe that the subsequent step for cloud technology development will be using robotics and AI to gain useful business insights from the stored content, as they would from big data. The more immediate solution is to integrate content management with business processes, thereby liberating businesses to achieve more.
There is no doubt that content management is changing fast. What’s important now is that we focus on what’s important to our customers. Our job is to help our customers reduce risk and costs, increase workload efficiency and improve organisation agility.
Greg Griffith - Senior Product Manager - Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa
