ECM software — especially for large businesses — can be an expensive, heavily involved purchase, so it’s important to understand the options before making a decision.
To add more complexity, the company’s content management market continues to evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of competitive business operations.
Choosing the best company content management software vendor for a company is based on business objectives and objectives, organizational culture, and standard operating procedures.
Here are the top of 5important ECM platforms to consider when making a purchase decision.
- OpenText Extended ECM Platform
The OpenText Extended ECM Platform, the company’s flagship ECM offering, manages business documents and other types of structured content through shared repositories. It includes enterprise-grade document management capabilities, including library services, multilevel security, access controls, content navigation, and workflow.
Extended ECM offers multiple tools to increase workgroup productivity. Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, and other personal productivity applications can connect directly to the repository. Other tools support content capture and optical character recognition indexing from scanned and electronic documents, as well as secure file syncing and sharing of content stored on mobile devices. The repository supports content sharing for temporary contributions.
2.IBM Cloud Pack for Automation
IBM Cloud Pack for Automation combines multiple ECM products into suitable offerings for large companies. With experience in the ECM market since the 1980s, IBM provides interconnected ECM products to manage structured business information, while at the same time protecting customer investments in legacy systems.
CloudPack has several utility-built repositories:
IBM Content Foundation is a fully functional content repository with enterprise-grade security, designed to capture, store, manage and access all types of business information. Users can access team spaces to collaborate on projects. The Content Foundation supports basic organization search capabilities. Organizations can set the stage on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid environment.
IBM File Net Content Manager includes tools for content lifecycle management, transaction content processing, and content integration across the enterprise. It includes library services and other document management capabilities.
Filenet includes compliance and administration tools for records management, as well as APIs for content-centric application development.
IBM utilizes the company’s expertise in Business Process Management (BPM) and Case Management in Business Automation Workflow. It allows customers to analyze content and root business documents through pre-defined steps in the business process. The software stores the entire case in one of the repositories with full audit controls.
3.Alfresco Software
Alfresco provides a digital trading platform to manage content throughout the enterprise. Operated as an open-source project that supports ECM, it can be implemented on-campus or in the cloud running on AWS. Highland acquired Alfresco as a company in October 2020, leaving it as a separate platform.
Instead of distributing turnkey applications, Alfresco integrates open source tools with support services. It provides technology partners with building blocks to produce content-centric applications that are tailored to the needs of individual organizations and target a wide range of industry columns.
4. Hyland Onbase
Hyland OnBase handles documents and other content associated with official business activities. It provides a central repository tailored to specific vertical industries: health care, financial services, insurance, government, retail, manufacturing, and higher education.
Onbase focuses on document capture, imaging, and archiving capabilities. It has in-depth integration with a wide range of company applications, including the latest versions of Microsoft Office and LoTlook, SAP, and AutoCAD.
Specifically, the on-base links documents maintained in the repository to transactions in other company applications such as ERP, accounting, and HR systems. It supports back-office processing, case management, and information governance and can also handle content from transaction systems.
5. Oracle
Oracle provides tools and platforms for creating content-centric applications for large organizations. It relies on multiple ECM platforms to orchestrate content streams that support line-of-business activities and marketing activities.
Oracle a to handle structured, semistructured, and structured data.
Oracle provides extensive process automation tools to support editorial content workflows, case management, and business process management applications. The company provides prepackaged adapters to integrate with related enterprise applications including PeopleSoft, Siebel, and JD Edwards.
6.Alfresco Software
Alfresco provides a digital trading platform to manage content throughout the enterprise. Operated as an open-source project that supports ECM, it can be implemented on-campus or in the cloud running on AWS. Highland acquired Alfresco as a company in October 2020, leaving it as a separate platform.
Alfresco produces open-source modules that partner with library services, document lifecycle management, file sharing, file synchronization, and mobile device and record management. Accessibility controls define user and group permissions to manage document access.
7.Imanage
IManage provides ECM to law firms and other professional services firms. It combines document and email management capabilities to provide a repository of records for all content flowing through individual organizations.
Lawyers, accountants, consultants, and their support staff can collaborate and securely share all of their work products and client correspondence. IManage manages filing plans, folder hierarchies, and controlled vocabulary to tag messages, documents, and other types of content in the repository.
IManage provides granular access controls and sets up auditable firewalls within the organization to channel content flows. It can assemble messages and documents in official collections for records management and archival care. IManage embeds an AI engine in its repository to recommend or automatically tag content and provide insights into the relationships between files.
8. Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint is a versatile and expandable ECM platform for managing documents, webpages, and other content types within an expanded organization. Companies configure SharePoint to address a wide range of document management, content management, and collaboration issues. Distributed as part of Microsoft’s 365 ecosystems, it continues to support SharePoint on-campus and hybrid hosting infrastructure.
SharePoint seamlessly integrates with relevant tools from Microsoft for temporary sharing of information, including Microsoft Office applications for personal productivity, teams for workgroup collaboration, and OneDrive for file sync and share. Using the built-in repository, SharePoint manages the content generated by these tools, adding library services, metadata management, records management, and organization search capabilities.
SharePoint provides the foundation for business process management. It handles structured business documents such as scanned invoices, loading bills, and material safety data sheets for BPM, ERP, and CRM applications.
Microsoft supports content security and governance, which revolves around zero-trust technologies and operating principles. As part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, SharePoint automatically facilitates compliance with content and other advanced ECM capabilities by adding sensitivity labels.
