CONTEXT

Clarify Content Confusion

by Doug Henschen

As 2001 comes to a close, so, too, does the adolescence of the content management market. Vendors and trade groups began the year by defining the term content. Now, more and more vendors are joining the bandwagon, stretching definitions to fit their own brand of content management. Once again, technology buyers and users are left to piece through conflicting claims and obtuse, inconsistent jargon.

As interest in content management started to flourish in late 2000, AIIM International, the Silver Spring, MD-based trade association, helped usher in the term "enterprise content management." Together with the dot-com debacle, this new terminology reminded everyone that Web content is not the only type of information that organizations must manage. Enterprise content management is an umbrella term encompassing everything from Web content to electronic documents, images, reports and content-dependent business processes.

Few vendors can truly wrap their arms around every type of management under the broad umbrella of enterprise content management, but more than a few vendors are applying the term to what are essentially warmed-over integrated document management systems. Conversely, other vendors are applying the term to what are essentially Web content management systems. The former group can't manage a Web site while the latter can't automate complex business processes, archive reports or, in some cases, handle ordinary business documents in a practical way. Yet both camps would have you believe they can do it all.

To help cut through some of the confusion, Transform Magazine will stream its first video Webinar on January 17th at 1 pm EST. Our program will include interviews with three individuals who will shed light on the capabilities and limitations of various content technologies.

Garth Landers, a respected analyst with Stamford, CT-based Gartner, will clarify the difference between enterprise content management and Web content management. We'll also ask him to compare Web publishing workflow and business process workflow.

Highlighting two of our favorite case studies of 2001, we will also interview John Koerwer, manager of design automation at BOC Gases, and Larry Hoffman, director of imaging and workflow at GMAC Commercial Mortgage. BOC is using global Web content management, document management and publishing workflows to cut the time and cost of building manufacturing facilities around the world. GMAC is using imaging, electronic forms and digital signatures to cut the time and cost of servicing multi-million dollar loans.

To tune in to our Webinar, preregister at www.transformmag.com by clicking on the logo for "The ABC's of Content Management."