ECM Platforms: the Next Generation of Enterprise Content Management

ECM Platforms: The Next Generation of Enterprise Content Management The Evolution of ECM: Platform Oriented, Flexible, Architected for the Cloud and Designed for Technologists Over the last decade, content technology, use and expectations have signicantly evolved - redening the requirements for architects, project managers and developers responsible for implementing ECM solutions. Emerging best practices suggest that a well-designed ECM platform supports solution development and deployment in a manner that is predictable, sustainable and aordable. This white paper explores these content technology changes, and explains the value and benets to business and technical adopters of embracing a new generation of ECM platform technology. Eric Barroca, Roland Benedetti - August 12, 2011 © Copyright 2011 - 2012 Nuxeo. All Rights Reserved. www.nuxeo.com Taking a Platform Approach to Building Content Centric Applications Contents Executive Summary_______________________________________________________4 Scope and Goals__________________________________________________________4 Target Audience__________________________________________________________4 Defining Enterprise Content and Enterprise Content Management_______________5 What Is Enterprise Content Management?_____________________________________5 What Is Enterprise Content?_________________________________________________6 Drivers for ECM Adoption___________________________________________________6 Enterprise Content Trends__________________________________________________8 ECM: It's not Just File Shares as Content Tools_________________________________8 The Evolution of ECM______________________________________________________ 9 Content Diversity________________________________________________________10 Smart Content___________________________________________________________11 Big Data Is Big Content___________________________________________________12 Requirements and Challenges for a Modern Content Platform_________________15 Enabling Content-Driven Processes and Applications___________________________15 Providing Modularity and Extensibility________________________________________17 Supporting More Than Just the Server Side___________________________________19 Running Anywhere, Including the Cloud______________________________________20 Modern Development: Agile and Soon in the Cloud_____________________________23 Standards Matter, but Don't Be Blind_______________________________________26 Why Standards?_________________________________________________________ 26 Existing and Emerging Standards___________________________________________26 The Business Case for Adopting a Platform Approach to Content Applications__33 Qualitative Reasons______________________________________________________33 Calculating ROI__________________________________________________________ 34 Nuxeo's Enterprise Platform: a Modern ECM Platform _______________________37 Conclusion______________________________________________________________ 39 What You Can Expect When Adopting ECM___________________________________39 Table of Figures Figure 1: Drivers for ECM Adoption (Miles, 2011)......................................................7 Figure 2: Reasons for Adopting New ECM (Miles, 2011)........................................... 7 Figure 3: Traditional ECM functions...........................................................................9 Figure 4: The Evolution of Content Management (Miles, 2011)...............................10 Figure 5: How well is content managed (Miles, 2011).............................................11 Figure 6: The Evolution of Content.......................................................................... 12 Figure 7: Organizational Unit Content Growth (Chute, Manfrediz, Minton, Reinsel, Schlichting, & Toncheva, 2008)................................................................................13 Figure 8: Architecture Pattern for Content Driven Applications...............................16 Page 2/40 Taking a Platform Approach to Building Content Centric Applications Figure 9: Reasons for Inability to Meet ECM Vision.................................................17 Figure 10: Multi-Channel Content Delivery.............................................................. 20 Figure 11: Cloud Computing Taxonomy.................................................................. 22 Figure 12: Development as a Service...................................................................... 25 Figure 13: Linked Open Data................................................................................... 30 Figure 14: Benefit and Cost Categories...................................................................34 Figure 15: Nuxeo Architecture................................................................................. 37 Figure 16: Customizing the Nuxeo Platform............................................................ 38 Table of Tables Table 1: Example ROI Calculation........................................................................... 36 Page 3/40 Taking a Platform Approach to Building Content Centric Applications Executive Summary Scope and Goals This document is intended for technology leaders and infuencers who are in- volved in the selection of solutions for managing enterprise content. The document provides readers a detailed understanding of how organizational needs for managing enterprise content are evolving, and why it is critical to implement processes and tools that are sufficiently fexible to support these rapid changes – now. After reading this white paper, you should understand: • What is meant by the terms “enterprise content” and “enterprise content management”. • How enterprise content and organizational needs for managing that content are evolving. • Why it is important to have tools based on a strong technology platform that support information and processes of increasingly diverse types, complexity and size. • Technologies and standards for supporting enterprise content management (ECM) in a process-centric manner. • How to create the business case for adopting a platform for building content- driven solutions. Target Audience The ideal reader is in a software, solution or enterprise architecture role and makes or infuences decisions about development frameworks, enterprise content management systems or other content-centric platforms. The reader should have a general understanding of enterprise content management concepts, but is not ex- pected to have detailed understanding of any specific enterprise content management process, application, framework or platform. Page 4/40 Taking a Platform Approach to Building Content Centric Applications Defining Enterprise Content and Enterprise Content Management What Is Enterprise Content Management? Organizations are becoming more conscious of the worth of the content they have and the value of being able to utilize this content effectively. This is precisely what ECM addresses. ECM is aimed at managing the life cycle of information from its creation to archival and disposal. According to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM): “ECM is the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization's structured and unstructured information, wherever that information exists.” (AIIM, 2011) Although many may assume ECM is just a technology solution, it is not. ECM also includes any operational or strategic processes that rely on content in addition to the tools and technology used to support them. The first decade of the 21st century has caused “organizational processes” to evolve far beyond what many originally considered possible and content supports many of those processes. This evolution has made ECM a critical component of the enterprise technology ecosystem. Traditionally, technology solutions that support ECM provide capabilities such as: • search • collaboration • business rules management • workfow management • document capture and scanning • version management • metadata enhancement that help make access, delivery and management of information more controlled, efficient and less costly. However, this list of features is evolving as ECM evolves – constantly adding new requirements and growing more demanding, with a greater emphasis on integration and long term fexibility. Just like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) increases operational efficiency and competitiveness, standardizing processes like financial management, ECM allows Page 5/40 Taking a Platform Approach to Building Content Centric Applications organizations to gain control over their content to accomplish organizational ob- jectives. What Is Enterprise Content? The definition above provides a description of what it means to manage content, but what is the “enterprise content” that is being managed? Enterprise content has evolved. It is no longer just digitized versions of scanned documents or a nar- rowly-defined set of records. Enterprise content may include any type of content that an organization captures and uses in its daily processes, from structured content in relational databases, XML documents or enterprise applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools, to unstructured content such as text, emails, word processing and spreadsheets. Enterprise content is not limited

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