Content management serves as the glue that ties back-end and front-office systems together, providing a platform on which companies can build their enterprise resource management strategies.
Content management is the sum of the processes and systems involved in the creation, review, management, distribution, archiving and destruction of digital and physical information.
South African companies need to start considering how they will integrate content management with their mainline applications.
Paul Mullon, Marketing Director, Metrofile.
Content management is a complex discipline that draws together strands - such as knowledge management, document management, forms processing, record management and workflow solutions. It provides managers and employees with a single window into the enterprise`s structured and unstructured information.
Most companies have a vast range of content sources: from paper-based documents, legacy archiving media such as microfiche, electronic office documents and electronic databases through to Web log files and call centre recordings. Successful CRM implementations depend on giving sales and service representatives access to customer information stored in all of these formats.
However, most CRM packages only provide users with content stored in structured databases - generally information such as account number, address, invoices and receipts and contact details.
In most instances, representatives cannot use the CRM package`s interface to access content such as letters between the company and its customers or contact centre voice recordings. These forms of content contain critical information about a customer`s history.
Likewise, ERP users could also benefit from access to unstructured data such as paper documents as they are the basis of financial, production, HR and other processes. If ERP data is not captured correctly or is out of synch with information contained on paper-based waybills and invoices, a company cannot plan and manage its resources correctly.
Content management tools allow companies to digitise non-electronic content, store and manage it centrally, and give users access to it from a browser or traditional graphical user interface. This enhances productivity and accuracy in content-driven business processes.
Integrated management of structured and unstructured data is the key to providing workers with the knowledge they need to perform their functions more effectively as well as increasing the efficiency of business processes that create and depend on content.
The consolidation of critical structured and unstructured data through content management tools also gives managers an overall view of the business and its resources, providing a powerful tool for strategic decision-making.
ERP and CRM vendors will start to partner closely with content management services and product suppliers in the coming months to offer their customers solutions that pull together disparate silos of information.
South African companies need to start considering how they will integrate content management with their mainline applications. This is the direction that international companies are following, and it will be critical to future competitiveness.
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