Choosing the best enterprise content management (ECM) solution for your business is one of the most important tasks when implementing a hybrid workplace strategy. There are a number of solutions offering different features and functionalities—the key is finding an ECM that meets your specific needs, preferences and budget, and enables you to streamline your operations, enhance document security, reduce costs and support your hybrid workforce.
In this post, we provide a list of things you need to consider when choosing the best enterprise content management solution for your business.
Enterprise content management or ECM offers an efficient way to store, manage and share all company content. It takes a holistic approach to information management and:
An ECM solution also helps convert paper documents to digital format, so they can be easily tracked, managed and controlled.
If your company is adopting a hybrid working model and needs an ECM solution, there are 10 things that you need to consider:
Choosing an ECM solution is an important business investment. This is why it should help your organisation move forward and achieve its overall objectives, especially with regards to your hybrid workplace strategy.
When analysing a specific solution, make sure its features and functions can add value to your current operations, while also supporting future growth and development.
Like any other software or platform, to maximise adoption across the business, the best enterprise content management solution needs to be easy to use and perform at expected levels for individual users.
Even with minimal training, staff should be able to improve productivity, and easily access and manage the files and documents they need for virtual productivity and collaboration.
Sometimes, the longest and most stressful part of any implementation is the integration with the existing IT environment. The right ECM solution needs to integrate seamlessly with your existing systems and applications.
In other words, your IT or development team should not be spending a lot of time and resources just to make the ECM work within the current network. The best enterprise content management solution should require little or no programming, as it should provide you with enough compatibility across a wide range of systems and applications.
The ECM should be able to grow as your company and needs grow, being:
That way you aren’t basing your decision on your current company size, needs or hybrid working model, and your ECM is future-proof.
Storing data in the cloud is the obvious choice for hybrid workplaces, providing scalability, accessibility and security benefits for remote workforces.
A cloud-based ECM will allow your employees to easily access and manage documents within a secure private or public cloud. It’s critical that you review your provider’s security measures and protocols to ensure you choose the right solution and understand your own responsibilities.
In a hybrid work environment, your people will increasingly access documents and files through their laptops, phones or tablets - and your ECM solution needs to support staff mobility and remote accessibility.
Your ECM solution can automatically capture, process and store paper documents in a digital format.
That way, you can:
Security is an ongoing concern for many businesses, especially if data is stored in cloud servers. Your ECM needs to be able to give you the highest level of security, including:
Data compliance is a leading business concern, with a growing volume of data from everyday operations. The quantity and type of data creates challenges that are further complicated by increasingly complex compliance regulations.
That is why it’s essential that your ECM solution is flexible enough to adjust to any new record-keeping and security requirements that may be implemented in the future.
It’s important to consider the experience, expertise and track record of the ECM solution provider so that you can work with them more as a partner than just a product vendor.
You need to carefully consider the service and support to be provided before, during and after implementation. This includes a training program for all staff at all levels of technical skill.
If you'd like to make sure you choose the best enterprise content management solution that is best suited to your business, download our comprehensive ECM Checklist.
Building a resilient and productive hybrid work environment requires the right hardware, software and processes. Download our Guide to Hybrid Workplace Strategy for a step-by-step strategy for implementing an effective hybrid work model that equips your employees to work anywhere, any time.
This article was originally published on 14 March 2018. It was modified on 13 October 2020.