The modern enterprise is powered by information, with the largest enterprises having content amounting to several terabytes. Content management systems organize data for easy retrieval, search, update, and sharing throughout the organization. They must offer a high level of document interoperability and authorization structure. Other important elements include the ability to capture large volumes of documents automatically, reuse documents, create workflows, and collaborate on document creation or editing.
More than any other commodity, the modern enterprise is powered by information. The advent of electronically created media has transformed our economy into an information economy, with the largest enterprises having content amounting, in some cases, to several terabytes of information. If today’s Fortune 500 company had all of its information in printed form, it would take an army of archivists just to keep track of it.
Many organizations have both internal and external web presences, both of which can contain large amounts of regularly updated information. Web content management is an important subset of content management and refers to programs and equipment used to manage this web-based content.
Content management systems are electronic systems that take data and organize it so it can be easily retrieved, searched, updated, and shared throughout the organization. The basic ingredient is database technology, although a CMS is more than a database; includes sophisticated search technology and tiered storage mechanisms that can rotate content into various types of hardware-based storage (CD-ROM, tape, etc.), depending on how often it is accessed.
Since a CMS is designed to manage all types of information regardless of format, it must also offer a high level of document interoperability. That is to say, all documents, including word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, .PDF files, and any other file type, must all be categorized and cross-referenced so that when searching, all relevant information becomes available, regardless of origin or format. Additionally, interoperability between content management systems has become essential so that multiple organizations and government agencies can share information when needed, even if they use different systems.
While information sharing has assumed great importance in today’s information economy, the content management system must also take into account authorization and provide a structure such that an administrator can specify which recipients can access which content. Access rights to documents should be able to be set at the level of an individual user.
Other important elements of a content management system include the ability to easily capture large volumes of documents automatically, the ability to reuse documents and reassemble them into new documents, and the ability to create a workflow that reflects a document’s dependencies on another. Finally, many content management systems include collaborative capabilities, which allow multiple workers in separate locations to collaborate on document creation or editing, and manage changes and revisions to documents. The collaborative aspect of the CMS will also ensure that any information associated with a particular project is synchronized and distributed to each project team member in a timely manner.
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