Enterprise Content Management Rising?Enterprise Content Management Rising?

AIIM Europe has just completed a major piece of research in the UK that reveals that the number of firms deploying ECM there has doubled in the last two years. In addition, AIIM finds that the number of firms now trying to integrate ECM projects across departments has risen steeply. Another interesting piece of research released in the last week revealed that around 25 percent of enterprises now at least claim to run a services oriented architecture, and that number is set to grow rapidly.These data points confirm what I have seen: that Enterprise Content Management has moved from a nice to have to business critical over the past couple of years, with this move often driven by SOA strategies. Yet we remain unconvinced that many ECM vendors are really in a position to adequately meet the demand. We've found some very dated architectures and unintegrated product sets out there that rely more on "marketecture" than technology -- and although negotiable prices make it a good time to become a buyer, you also need to tread carefully to make sure you don't end up with a shiny brand with a lame duck product.

Tony Byrne is founder and lead analyst at CMS Watch. Write him at [email protected].AIIM Europe has just completed research that reveals that the number of firms deploying ECM in the UK has doubled in the last two years. Another interesting piece of research recently revealed that around 25 percent of enterprises now at least claim to run a services oriented architecture, and that number is set to grow rapidly. These data points confirm that ECM is becoming business critical.