10 Reasons Why Enterprise Content Management is Important for Your Business in 2014

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Enterprise Content What? Let me explain. Basically, ECM (or Enterprise Content Management) is the management of all your business information of whatever type, location or source in a cohesive and integrated way. Let’s break it down:

  • Enterprise – A business, organization, profit or not, any group structure set up to achieve some goal.
  • Content – All the information, in paper or digital form, all the financial, customer, product, research, all the knowledge, that the enterprise uses in its day to day operations.
  • Management – You know what that means, right? We all know it could be better.

More on this here: ECM: Understanding the Terms and Abbreviations Associated with Enterprise Content Management.

Make Sense? Well there is a treasure trove of ECM technology that you can use to make a difference in this coming year. So why does your business need this now?

Here are 10 Reasons Why Enterprise Content Management is Important for Your Business In 2014:

  1. Tablets, Tablets, Tablets
    In 2013 over 250 Million Tablets were purchased. This is expected to go to 375 million in 2014. What does this mean? The people who use your business content; you, your executives, staff, customers and even vendors expect and desire the information in tablet friendly form. How do you get there? The answer is ECM!
  2. The Cloud
    Storing your information in the Cloud makes more and more sense. Adoption rates are exceeding 75%. But without a clear and well organized process for placing, and more importantly, retrieving your valuable content the Cloud is nothing more than a black hole. Yes you guessed it, you need Enterprise Content Management.
  3. The Millennials are Coming
    The huge 27% of the US population born between 1983 and the early 2000 are people born and raised on the internet who all expect data in an internet style format. Whether they are your valuable employees, burgeoning customers, or just plain Social Media fans who influence their parents’ buying decisions: don’t waste their time with paper or the like. I won’t say it again, you know what you need.
  4. Great Customer Interaction
    What if your customers could interact with you online? They would love it right. Of course only if it is done well. The key to getting this right is in a well-designed ECM plan.
  5. Great Vendor Interaction
    Vendors too! Improve your supplier relations and organization by using ECM.
  6. Make Your Accountant’s Life Easier
    Do you get tired of seeing your accountant in your office for a week or weeks every year? Guess what, they do too. Quite frankly they would rather be spending time consulting and helping you improve your business. Wouldn’t it be nice if all the papers that support and prove your business operations went into digital information the moment they entered the door? Wouldn’t it be even nicer if many of them were electronic from birth? There are many ways to accomplish this with ECM technology. Make your life and your account’s life easier, happier and check it out.
  7. No More Paper Please. Paper Less at least
    Well I guess we’ve already made this case but just in case you are not convinced. Stop here, and walk around your office, plant, or store. How many pieces of paper, forms and documents, should be digital from day one? Go ahead count them and while you’re at it calculate the time they waste. Electronic forms and documents are just too easy to ignore. Learn the keys to achieving a Paper Less Office.
  8. Your Website is Sitting Still
    Back in the day, I mean just a few years ago, it was OK for your website to be a static brochure for your company. Not anymore. To reach your goals, connect with your customers, make a difference, your website has got to be dynamic and alive. Costs too much or your web designer too slow? With a good website content management solution, you can gain control.
  9. By Now You Must be Hiring
    No? Maybe soon, or next quarter? But that’s just part of the challenge. Turning your new hires into productive employees is the big task. So how do you go about it? Word of mouth? An outdated employee manual? There really is a better way. An effective company portal, built on Microsoft SharePoint or similar platform to bring your employees into the digital age.
  10. Tell Me
    Have I inspired you? Tell me your ideas for managing all your business information with Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in 2014!