Surveys are great things and we all seem to love them. We inherently position ourselves when we read them, identifying ourselves as clever enough to agree with the majority or cool enough to know what the rest of them OBVIOUSLY missed. Either way we’re enchanted with surveys and results.
The real power behind them, though, is in the trends that they foreshadow. What I find interesting is that, while survey results don’t always agree, when you overlap the results some very interesting trends emerge.
One that I find particularly interesting is what I will call the evolution of ECM (enterprise content management) to EIM (enterprise information management). Many of us in the ECM industry have witnessed the slow growth of how content is managed, the capabilities that are baked in to various ECM technologies and the pervasive nature of the core ECM systems.
But the content itself is changing as well. We are no longer simply managing documents. It’s not about just scanning a paper invoice. Rather we are using digital images, videos and audio files to degrees never before imagined.
Finally, the systems we use to access information are evolving as well. Enterprises should not be content with rolling out a host of point solutions for different projects. They should not tolerate unmanaged or “organic” growth of systems that spring up over night and are orphaned just as quickly. Rather, enterprises are “smartening up” when it comes to the user experiences and information quality considerations inherent in good information architecture. This is why we see some of the trends we do. For instance, ECM at the core of EIM systems is vital and surveys say spending there will continue to grow.
According to Forrester the key areas for ECM investment in 2010 are Collaboration, Search and Compliance. AIIM predicts that Capture will be an area for ECM investment.
Forrester Results via CMS Wire 
AIIM Results
Well, I think that the key trend only appears when you look at these separate analyses, together.
Why is content sharing so important to Forrester and knowledge management so important to AIIM?
The real problem companies are trying to solve is the contextual availability of information. This means providing the right information to the right people at the right time, even if they don’t know they need it. This information might have started out in paper form, or as a rating in someone’s head, or a trouble ticket in a support CRM system.
Forrester surveyed 170 ECM decision makers, while AIIM surveyed 882 individual members. Both surveys revealed that organizations are planning on spending money on ECM in the New Year. This is good news for everyone in the ECM space! While companies are not going to simply hand blank checks to ECM vendors, they will be looking for ways to leverage prior ECM license purchases and turn more of their shelf-ware into real, efficiency-boosting systems. The premium, though, is on business solutions that are able to tap the power of sophisticated technology ecosystems while providing simplicity and efficiency for the everyday users. This simplified sophistication is one key way in which collaboration technology is poised to win big this year. The ability to turn a ROI is vital.
Gartner agrees. “In 2009, CEOs initially placed cost cutting at the top of their priorities to cope with the sudden and severe recession. In 2010, the focus for 71 per cent of business leaders is a return to revenue growth.”
One example of this kind of tech-to-efficiency-to-ROI success comes from one of our financial industry customers. They set out to consolidate their information architecture while enabling employees to collaboratively interact with information and each other. Their consolidation saves them 25 percent each year on administrative costs and employees are much happier and more productive than ever before.
The frequency in which organizations are realizing they NEED to provide their people with the contextual availability of information is increasing dramatically and it seems 2010 is the year to align their sophisticated technologies with the needs of the everyday user.
