Continuing and strengthening
The following trends have continued to strengthen over the last year.
From megalith to integration
For a number of years Enterprise Content Management (ECM) has meant a single megalithic system; one system for the entire organization that everyone uses as a common repository. Today, organizations have realized that while a common repository may seem like a good idea, it may not yet be possible to adopt a single system that will meet all of their needs. They also believe they have too much invested in multiple systems to “toss” them out and convert all their content to a new, single system. Large ECM vendors have recognized this trend and have begun developing integration with “best of breed” products like records management systems, with databases, or even other content management systems.
It is imperative for organizations to find ways to integrate their disparate systems and ensure content and data sharing processes are transparent. To get there, organizations will need to:
- Develop a common taxonomy
- Build a unified content framework (common information model)
- Identify the authoritative source
If content is both structured and categorized in the same way, it is possible to find, retrieve and share that content. If content continues to remain in isolated silos with no easy means of identifying and retrieving it, the strategic value of an organization’s content will never be realized and costs will continue to soar.
Translation and localization are key drivers
Localization costs have become a key driver for content management. For example, as the number of member states in European Union have increased (now at 25), so too have the number of languages we must now support. Translation and management of localized content is often one of the largest cost centers.
Translation costs can be significantly reduced through an effective content reuse strategy. Organizations translating into more than four languages that move to a reuse strategy can typically recoup their investment in a year to 18 months. Add simplified English, terminology management, and writer-friendly translation processes and costs can be reduced even further. With translation as a driver, content management can be cost justified.
Open Source
Open Source is no longer “fringe” technology. More and more companies are choosing to use Open Source software. And as more and more companies are using open source we are seeing vendor supported versions of Open Source that provide traditional services such as product updates, implementation and support. And we are seeing more and more consultants specializing in Open Source. Traditional software vendors are also making an effort to integrate their systems with Open Source to ensure full ECM coverage.
Open source software is still largely oriented to web content management systems only, but some inroads have been made in document management and XML-based content management.
Emerging trends
There are a number of emerging trends in the content management industry.
Customer centric content management
Today, we are seeing the emergence of customer-centric content management. In some ways customer-centric content management is a blend of multi-channel, web and ECM, but with an important difference, customer-centric content management is focused on the entire customer content lifecycle addressing customer facing content from pre-sales through post sales and support (e.g., sales, marketing, usage, support, training, call center).
Organizations are taking a hard look at their content and finding they have silos of content and limited functionality that do not provide maximum value to customers. Content is not easily discoverable, lacks consistency from one silo to another, and is limited in implementation and value. It is very difficult to align all aspects of an initiative to the business goals and marketing strategies underlying them, and to do it across the silos, and across other above-the-line and below-the-line efforts…well, it can be done, but it is exceedingly difficult to do so without a unified content strategy
The issue of a lack of a unified content strategy, coupled with increasing costs of translation, decreasing resources and increasing customer requirements is forcing many organizations to look at customer-centric content management to solve challenges with:
- Web content management and multi-channel content delivery
- Personalization of content
- Knowledge centered customer support
- Self-service customer support
- Call center content management
Unified content framework
The concept of a unified content framework that defines a common information model for information across the organization is beginning to make real inroads. This is being driven by a number of factors including:
- Customer relationship management
- Localization costs
- System integration
In the past, the focus on content has been from the perspective of integrated taxonomies, now the focus is turning to common information models. New standards like DITA have begun the process, but it will be interesting to see how a common model can be developed to support all types of content in the customer content lifecycle not just post sales.
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