Enterprise Content Management: An Integrated Perspective on Information Management

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is an emerging concept involving numerous software vendors, consultants, and information management practitioners around increasing market potential. However, there exist yet few academic reports on ECM from the viewpoint of organizational system implementations. This article analyses 58, mainly practitioner-oriented, case narratives of ECM projects and implementations to identify a framework of major issues that require managerial attention in organizations. The main areas covered by the framework are: objectives/impacts sought with ECM, enterprise model to be supported by ECM, content model, technological infrastructure, administrative resources and practices, and change management issues. The issues identified in this framework serve information management practitioners to facilitate ECM development from the viewpoint of the enterprise. Comparing the concept of ECM with related research on information resource management, electronic document management, and knowledge management, we argue that ECM represents a modern, integrated perspective on information management.