From Enterprise Information Management to Enterprise Content Management

Eva Bischoff: A new market term always signals that a development has taken place or is just emerging. New ways of thinking, new perspectives on the seemingly familiar require a new terminology - I can only talk about something if I can name it! EIM is about recognising that it is information that provides indispensable indications for corporate growth. Decisions can only be made on the basis of valid input! And this information must be managed effectively if it is to be utilised for business knowledge. This is the only way to provide management and corporate governance with the necessary basis for management and controlling. EIM is therefore above all a strategic approach that enables a holistic view. An approach for the purpose of having all information in a company available at any time, regardless of location - and customised to the respective user. After all, this is how knowledge is created - the number one competitive factor in Central Europe!

Steffen Schaar: What could such a strategic approach look like?

Eva Bischoff: First of all, the company's goals need to be defined. How do companies organise their growth or - keyword: business transformation - how do they react to the ever faster changes on the market? Through new products, optimised customer communication or more efficient internal processes? Or perhaps even with a mix of these measures? One thing is clear: these goals must dictate the software to be developed - not the other way round. It is therefore important to involve company management, IT and - if required - a responsible process manager equally in the analysis. In this way, the real requirements can be crystallised from the formulated objectives. What is the current situation? What should a future EIM system do for the company? What are the individual framework conditions? What role does compliance play? This needs assessment is followed by the mapping of all relevant business processes. It can be helpful to involve all protagonists - i.e. employees, customers and service providers in addition to those mentioned. The aim here is to involve people and integrate them into the change process. If they recognise themselves in the subsequent solution, they will enjoy working with the EIM platform and will therefore be successful.

Steffen Schaar: Are ECM or DMS solutions no longer sufficient as software?

Eva Bischoff: Yes and no. A cloud-based document management solution is suitable for companies that want to switch from a paper archive with a large shelf storage system for their files to fast and agile digital working. The advantage: an expensive IT infrastructure is replaced and documents or files can be accessed immediately, anytime and anywhere, without the need for extensive training. If standard cases and routine tasks are to be processed in defined workflows by different clerks, i.e. information is to be linked and made available with a primarily internal focus, the decision will be in favour of innovative enterprise content management (ECM) software. However, when it comes to processing individual cases, incorporating the entire value chain or getting a grip on data streams from mobility, social media, big data and the cloud, DMS and ECM fall short. Enterprise Information Management goes a few steps further. Regardless of the existing IT environment, EIM includes internal and external communication as well as information flows in collaboration with heterogeneous project teams, suppliers and customers and makes them more efficient. So it's all about the processes - and about the people who process, enrich and make the information available to the respective target groups on their own responsibility. All in line with information governance in accordance with current data protection guidelines, of course!

Steffen Schaar: So is EIM - to put it provocatively - nothing more than ECM 2.0?

Eva Bischoff: Again, a clear yes and no. If you define EIM as ECM enriched by collaboration, process orientation and communication, then a direct line of development is recognisable. But EIM is not old wine in new bottles. It stands for a change of perspective: while ECM stands for a bottom-up view - from files to documents to content - EIM, as already mentioned, focuses on the company's objectives and its needs for information and knowledge. These manifest themselves in a customised software solution: no longer data-orientated, but process-orientated, no longer IT-driven, but designed by the company management.

Steffen Schaar: From the file to knowledge, so to speak?

Eva Bischoff: Exactly. Our international company has also developed from document management via ECM to EIM. Today, we offer solutions in all three disciplines and, above all, consultancy. In order to actively communicate the exciting evolution from file to content to information to knowledge, we are once again part of BITKOM's "ECM Solutions Park" at this year's CeBIT. Last year, the central theme there was indeed: "EIM - from the file to knowledge". At the trade fair, we dealt with many real-life questions from everyday business life: How can the flood of data - in files, in documents, in telephone notes and emails and, more recently, in social networks - be managed at all? How should information be enriched in order to contribute to process management? And how can it be processed and utilised as profitably as possible for the value chain? I know from many enquiries and consultations that these questions are of concern to the manufacturing industry and its suppliers as well as service companies and even public authorities.

Steffen Schaar: So DMS, ECM and EIM are not limited to one industry?

Eva Bischoff: Neither to the industry nor to the size of the company! Markets are changing constantly and rapidly everywhere; customer demands are increasing. Only comprehensive knowledge of market trends, customer wishes and optimisation potential leads to innovations. Be it in addressing customers, in product development or in new forms of service. Growth-orientated small companies can benefit from a DMS, ECM software or an EIM solution just as much as owner-managed industrial SMEs or corporations with branches across Europe. Many companies have already realised that filing cabinets in the basement or a well-organised folder structure on the company's own server are no longer enough. They know: Expertise comes from information and its networking!