Pelz-Sharpe Alan Pelz-Sharpe

ECM and Integration

2-Jul-2007

Tags: Document Management (ECM), Industry Standards, Marketplace at Large

"Integration" is a hot topic with Enterprise Content Management vendors these days. But just like terms such as BPM or SOA, integration can many things to many people. The current focus on integration stems in large part to vendor repositioning work. They are starting to recognize that for long term survival they have to play nicely with other business applications and -- whether they like it or not -- other ECM systems. (There are few rip and replace projects these days.) So its a worthy area of focus. However, when you hear an ECM vendor mention the importance of integration. to what exactly are they referring:

  1. Actual data and process integration a' la EAI or ESB?
  2. Providing a connector to their system to ingest content from other systems?
  3. Providing a federated search function that can trawl rival repositories?
  4. Commitment to following formal standards to ensure your content is future-proofed when you need to move it between their repository and others as needs demand?

(Here's hint: you can be pretty sure it isn't A or D)

As true ECM reorients itself away from simpler standalone systems toward melding with other enterprise infrastructure elements, the need for comprehensive integration facilities grows ever more important. Yet there is a long way to go before true integration capability becomes a reality.

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