It really came as a surprise when Lee pointed out that we hit 100 posts. Hard to believe that it’s been almost one year since we started. When Lee asked if I wanted to co-blog I thought sure. You see, I can rarely go a few weeks without being asked my opinion as to why ECM has not met its full potential. The answer was simple and BMOC sounded like a good answer. ECM lacks the momentum due to a lack of education. So what better post for 101 than the issue of ECM-101.
Think about it. I bet 9 times out of 10 when you meet a new potential client they know very little to nothing about ECM. And it’s up to us to start with our meetings with ECM-101. This is file locking, this is version, this is metadata, and on and on. It’s funny. We hate to go over the basics again and again but nor are we doing anything to change this need.
For a good laugh look up Enterprise Content Management in Wikipedia. “All or part of this article may be confusing or unclear.” Boy does that say it all. Somewhere there need to be a consistent ECM message. Not an EMC message or an IBM message, but a single consistent message that sets the stage that all of us can start our conversations with.
In the technical world one does not often need to describe the functions of a database, email, or web server. They have become general knowledge. After 10 years, shouldn’t ECM be in the same place? As an industry we need to communicate in common concepts and messaging.