With the proliferation of remote working, several companies worldwide are moving their various applications to the cloud; Enterprise Content Management is no exception. Moving your ECM to the cloud can benefit your organization in several ways. Let’s break down for you; how.
The Benefits
Fast and easier configuration
With cloud-based ECM, organizations don’t have to procure, configure and govern servers, networks, software, and storage. Additionally, they can be deployed in just a few hours. This enables organizations to achieve their business objectives faster.
Better user experience
With the help of Cloud-based ECM, users can access organization information anytime, anywhere, and on the device of their choice, without any access restrictions. Cloud ECMs are more optimized to provide rapid response time when accessing content and data through the web.
Reduced initial capital expense
When you opt for Cloud-based ECM, you get it by subscription, where the hosting fees and annual maintenance fees are usually included in the fee. This reduces the initial capital expenses and makes them more predictable. Also, there are so many benefits of using cloud-based ECM that you can achieve the ROI in the same year as the deployment.
Better Service Level Agreement
With the cloud-based ECM, you get a better service level agreement around performance, availability, security, and recovery compared to the in-house ECM system.
Automatic upgrades
The entire software and hardware backups, upgrades, patches, and other tasks are operated by the cloud ECM vendor. So, the organizations can enjoy regular updates with the latest versions.
It’s greener
Cloud-based ECM is greener, too, because it uses less electricity to run and cool computers and other components.
A Few Stumbling Blocks on the Way
While the benefits are many, cloud-based ECM is still in its early stages, which means there are several challenges on the way:
Legacy ECM Problems
As organizations use the cloud for content management, with an increasing focus on agility and innovation, they face several forks in the road. Especially the firms with average knowledge workers are dedicating a significant part of their day to finding content locked up in different systems, leading to productivity drain, costing enterprises loss of money.
Two different migrations
When migrating to the cloud, two different migrations have to be considered:
- Migrating from a proprietary ECM legacy system to a new one.
- Moving the content.
This is proving to be costly and time-consuming.
Technical expertise shortage
Many companies lack the technical expertise required for transferring existing systems to the cloud, which serves as a major setback.
A good and modern ECM digitizes huge and diverse collections of information, enabling better collaboration on content creation. It also harnesses the power of AI to enhance categorization, search, and reporting capabilities greatly. Modern ECMs also allow wider integration options for devices and other enterprise software systems. With these benefits, moving to cloud-based ECM is a wise decision for organizations. Of course, there are roadblocks, but migrating content and applications over time instead of all at once can minimize a lot of risks and disruption to users.
