How to Choose the Right Platform between Alfresco and Liferay

How to Choose the Right Platform between Alfresco and Liferay

In today’s competitive business scenario, the document management system plays a vital role in taking your company to the next level. Today, we have several frameworks available to make enterprise content management systems with desired features or build a robust document management system. However, out of these frameworks, only Alfresco and Liferay have attracted maximum developers and entrepreneurs worldwide.

Alfresco is an open, secure, and modern system that activates process and content intelligently to accelerate the business flow. Whereas, Liferay is an open-source framework that provides free documentation and paid professional services while enabling users to build portals, websites, and connected experiences.

Let’s compare them from various aspects. But before that, it is better to go through some common requirements that lead us to consider Liferay and Alfresco.

Common Requirements for Alfresco and Liferay

Here is a list of some common requirements that customers need to have before selecting any of these platforms. If your project has all these requirements then you should look for a reputed enterprise content management system developer.

  • Document management system
  • Wiki Pages, blogs, and chats
  • Collaboration and coordination
  • Portal development
  • Document sharing
  • Business workflow based on content
  • Enterprise-level search
  • Intranets and Common Knowledge Area
  • Forums and Discussion Boards
  • Knowledge management
  • Event management and corporate calendar
  • Web content management
  • Mobile-friendliness

However, it is fair to mention that comparing Alfresco and Liferay is like comparing an apple and an orange. When it comes to their strengths and selection of the right platform, it is possible that poor tool selection can increase the cost of development and implementation. Let’s go through the circumstances that make Liferay the right choice.

When you should opt for Liferay development services

Liferay is a great framework especially when you want to develop mobile-friendly presentation interfaces. This is basically a portal framework and is highly useful for-

  • Developing responsive websites, Intranets, and web portals
  • Web content management
  • Publishing static and dynamic content in abundance with workflows to manage the entire content cycle
  • Document management limited to managing documents available on an Intranet or a website as compared to an enterprise-wide document library
  • Collaboration app-centric views with social media integration or social media apps
  • Websites or applications that use wikis, blogs, and chat heavily
  • Integrating underlying corporate systems to present data to a huge audience

Here are some of the major circumstances when you should seek help from an Alfresco content management company.

Also Read- How to Make the Most of Enterprise Content Management System in 2020

When you should go for Alfresco development services

Alfresco is a popular content repository and workflow engine. It is designed as a robust Enterprise Document Management System and it has less part of a collaborative portal or Intranet, unlike Liferay.

Much confusion about its role as a collaborative framework is prevailing because of its module named “Share”. It is a collaborative application over a document repository, but it has no match with big CMS frameworks like Liferay and Drupal.

Alfresco has gained popularity in providing web content management, but in reality, its WCM experience is not worthy of comparing the same with Liferay. In other words, Alfresco is not a dedicated WCM framework. But, when it comes to document repository and enterprise-grade search capabilities, Alfresco knows no competition. Even the Liferay framework is not this much capable in a document repository.

Alfresco workflow engine is an excellent BPM (Business Process Management) tool that can help companies automate a lot of workflows based on documents along with non-document-based workflows. Alfresco is best used when your enterprise has to manage thousands or millions of documents and all of these documents are either presented to a website or Intranet or within the firewall.

Though Alfresco provides the same features related to Wikis, blogs, and forums like Liferay, the framework cannot give the user experience like Liferay and other similar frameworks. Unnecessary customization and enhancements are outcomes of an Alfresco-based development system used for these objectives.

Do you know that a reputed Liferay development company can integrate Alfresco for enhanced document management and document repository? Here, the Liferay framework takes care of the presentation and web content along with the workflow while providing a rich digital experience. The content-centric workflows are useful for creating the final copies of documents. Here, the Alfresco repository can be used for presenting some of the documents on the Liferay-based portal.

Concluding Lines
Alfresco ECM and Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP) are excellent platforms for establishing an enterprise content management system. Though we have covered the major aspects of comparison between these two frameworks here. It is better to contact a reputed ECM services provider to know the most suitable platform for your document management system-related requirements.

ContCentric is a leading Alfresco and Liferay development company. We have provided customized solutions for modern enterprises in a cost-effective way since our inception. ContCentric provides a one-stop solution for all ERP and document management-related queries.

Liferay development services

Step-by-Step Process Guide for Alfresco Migration from 5.x to 6.0

As a robust, open-source framework for offering digital operations with exceptional experiences, Alfresco has gained ground across 190 countries globally. One of the reasons for this platform’s increasing popularity is Alfresco keeps on coming with updated versions to meet the diverse needs of modern businesses. On July 11, 2018, Alfresco has introduced Alfresco 6.0 in its Content Services.

Entrepreneurs can leverage the benefits of the latest version of Alfresco by migrating their existing software to 6.0. It is highly recommended for Alfresco developers to follow a structured path while updating the versions in Alfresco Content Services. Here we give a step-by-step guide for Alfresco content migration from 5.x to 6.0. This migration procedure can be done by using the distribution zip or installer.

The Alfresco document migration involves a new installation of the Alfresco Content Services binaries and configuration or installer along with an in-place upgrade of a copy of the repository. However, in-place upgrade of the binaries and configuration is not recommended. Whenever you create a new installation, you can remain assured that if anything goes wrong during the upgrade, the original or existing Alfresco document management system will stay intact and available for immediate restart.

Key points to consider before migrating from Alfresco 5.x to 6.0

1. Pre-Validation
It is necessary to validate all your requirements before initiating the migration process. These requirements include whether your platform is on the correct supporting stacks for the new version, language support, supported environment like Oracle JVM, OpenOffice, ImageMagick, etc. and architecture support.

2. Strategy for Backup and Restore
As you know, backup is essential before migration. All you need to take a backup of the entire production data because it can help you restore the same if your data becomes corrupt after the migration from 5.x to 6.0.

3. Identification of deprecated and new feature
It is better to identify deprecated, removed features or architectural changes in the existing version of Alfresco. It can make a big difference when you upgrade the Alfresco version.

4. After upgrade
This is important- once the migration process completes, you need to deploy the upgraded customized code on Alfresco followed by routine tests. Also, make sure that Solr indexing is completed for the entire repository. If Solr indexing is not completed, then your system may provide incorrect search results.

Steps for Upgrading Document Management System from 5.x to 6.0

1) Take Backup old Alfresco (5.x) data
This is the first and foremost step for initiating the version update process from Alfresco 5.x to 6.0. It consists of three steps.

a) Shut down your existing instance

b) Back up your existing repository (e.g. alfresco-v.1) and the database.
i. Taking back up of a repository involves back up of the directory pointed to by the dir.root setting, the database that Alfresco Content Services is configured to use, and the Solr indexes(optional).
ii. The dir.root directory is defined in the alfresco-global.properties file. By default, this directory is named alf_data and is located within the directory where Alfresco Content Services is installed.

c) Back up any configuration overrides from the <extension> directory.

2) Installation in different directory
Install the new version (e.g. alfresco-v.2) into a different directory from the existing installation and validate the new 6.0 installation to check whether it works correctly.

a) Configure the new installation with a new repository and database (not the existing one).

b) Start the server and validate that the system works correctly.

3) Apply all customization to the new 6.0 installation
This is a very important step and you need to take enough care while implementing the customization to the new version. Below, we elaborate all the steps for applying customization.

a) Stop the server.
i. Navigate to the Tomcat /bin directory then choose one of these options to stop the server:
Linux : ./shutdown.sh
Window: shutdown
You need administrator rights to run this command.
ii. Navigate to the installation directory for your database and stop the server.
Ref : https://docs.alfresco.com/6.0/tasks/alfresco-stop.html

b) Uninstall unwanted AMPs or applications.
i. Open a command prompt and change into the root directory of your installation.
ii. Check for the presence of the module you wish to delete by typing in the following command:
Alfresco.war AMP files : java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar list tomcat/webapps/alfresco.war
Share.war AMP files : java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar list tomcat/webapps/share.war

This displays a list of installed modules. Make a note of the module ID of the module you wish to uninstall,
for example,
org.alfresco.integrations.google.docs in the amps directory
org.alfresco.integrations.share.google.docs in the amps_share directory.

iii. Uninstall the module by entering the following command:
java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar uninstall org.alfresco.integrations.google.docs tomcat/webapps/alfresco.war
and
java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar uninstall org.alfresco.integrations.share.google.docs tomcat/webapps/share.war
You can check that the AMP files have been removed by rerunning the command:
java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar list tomcat/webapps/alfresco.war
and
java -jar bin/alfresco-mmt.jar list tomcat/webapps/share.war
iv.Delete the tomcat/webapps/alfresco and tomcat/webapps/share folders in the installation directory
Ref: https://docs.alfresco.com/6.0/concepts/remove-apps-install.html
Ref: https://docs.alfresco.com/6.0/tasks/uninstall-amp.html

c) Install the required AMP files. (This may require little changes in your custom code because some of the features may have been removed or deprecated)
i. Place Repository amps in /alfresco/amps folder and Share amps in /alfresco/amps_share folder.
ii. Browse to the /bin directory:
Windows : C:\Alfresco\bin
Linux : /opt/alfresco/bin
iii. Run the apply_amps application to apply all AMP files that are in the amps and amps_share directories:
For Windows, navigate to the bin directory and double click apply_amps.
For Linux, enter the command: bin/apply_amps.sh

Ref: https://docs.alfresco.com/6.0/tasks/amp-install.html

d) Do not copy the files. Copy the override settings only so that you will not overwrite the new extension files in the upgraded version.
i. Copy the override settings, Like <extension> directory files and alfresco-global.properties parameter (do not replace this file but just add additional parameter).

e) Start the Alfresco server.
i.Monitor the start-up log messages for information on the status of the upgrade. If any issue(s) occur in the logs during start-up, you need to roll-back the whole repository to fix the issue(s) and then try again.

f) Fully test the working and configuration of your customization.

g) Stop the server

4) Restore the backup to new Alfresco version

a) Remove(or Copy for safer side) all the files and directories under the contentstore directory of the new installation. Also, rename new alfresco database and create a new database at same place with the same name.

b) Delete(or Copy for safer side) the files in the Solr4/alfrescoModels directories, and the indexes in the two directories (solr/workspace/ and solr/archive/) of the new installation.

c) Restore the backup of the indexes(optional but takes time to reindex if no of document are too large), contentstore directory, and database from your previous installation into the new installation.

d) Start the server and monitor logs.
That’s it! Your document management system is ready with the new Alfresco 6.0 version.

ContCentric is a renowned Alfresco development company. We have an in-house team of experienced Alfresco developers to enable our corporate users to make the most of the latest Alfresco 6.0 version.

Click to Know More: https://docs.alfresco.com/6.0/tasks/upgrade-process.html

How Document Management System Benefits Telecommunication System

Telecommunication is one of the key sectors with vital importance. When it comes to establishing connectivity, collaboration, and communication, the telecommunication sector remains in the centre. Technological advancements evolve the telecom sector as the providers innovatively keep on updating their services. But here, it is necessary to manage critical documents for the telecom service providers. Thankfully, document management system is here to help with advanced features.

Document Management System Telecommunication

From implementing changes in different aspects of the telecommunication sector to improving customer services through proper allocation of human resources- the enterprise content management system can help telcos in multiple ways. Here are the key benefits of the telecommunication document management system.

1)  Effective information fetching and storing
Telecom service providers have a huge clientele consists of people from different geographies and diverse culture. What’s more, they need to follow regulatory requirements and comply with the prevalent standards. The document management system enables the service providers to fetch, store, and process mission-critical documents in a hassle-free manner. Here, documents can be collected by any means like mobile, scanner, and LAN.

2)  Efficient content delivery
The telecom market is teeming with activities. It deals with various means of communication like voice mail, email, conference call, voice SMS, text SMS, and the like. With an increasing number of smart devices and wearable, it is necessary for telecom companies to deliver the relevant content in real-time. Simply put, effective content delivery across different available devices is the need of the hour for the telecommunication sector.

ECM enables service providers to achieve this goal. It is also possible to provide handset-specific content delivery or send personalized notifications to various customers with the help of ECM services.

Related blog: Importance of Document Management System with Alfresco for Banking Sector

3)  Optimization
Infrastructure can take a large chunk of investment for the telecom sector. Human resources, hardware, telecom towers, software, and other devices comprise the huge telecom network. Back office support is also necessary to resolve any issues on time. A customized ECM system can assist the service providers by providing them actionable insights for making informed decisions.

For example, the document management system provides necessary stats regarding the population to find out a proper location for installing a telephone tower and connect as many people as possible. In a way, infrastructure optimization can be done by using valuable data provided by the document management system.

4)  Improved Customer Services
Like other industry sectors, the telecom sector also witnesses tremendous competition among telecom companies. It is, therefore, necessary for the telecom players to stay connected with clients on a 24/7 basis and provide them real-time assistance. ECM services enable telecom service providers to store and retrieve the customer’s data and service request details. In a way, they can provide improved customer services and resolve the customer’s queries on time. It ultimately results in a large base of happy and loyal customers.

5)  Higher Security
This is one of the most noteworthy benefits of the document management system. The telecommunication sector is one of the few sectors that deal with sensitive data of customers. Enterprise content management can help service providers to bring different access levels based on a hierarchy. It can safeguard confidential customer data and corporate data. What’s more, telecom companies implement KYC norms stringently to avoid any misuse of the communication network for organised crimes or terror attacks. Monitoring user behaviour and providing necessary details of the customer to law enforcement agencies as and when necessary are also key objectives of the telecom companies.

There, telecommunication document management can ensure data security and assists service providers to comply with prevalent standards.

ContCentric is a leading Alfresco development company. We provide end-to-end ECM services using Alfresco and Liferay platforms. We strive to develop and deliver a robust enterprise content management system to the global clientele.

Document management system

How to Make the Most of Enterprise Content Management System in 2020

ECM services are aimed at editing, managing, and maintaining mission-critical documents. The real-time access and sharing ability of the key corporate data can lead your company to consistency and proper decision-making for ensuring growth.

The Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform is thereby offering you better control over information. It also helps you streamline business processes and enhance workflow capabilities.

enterprise-content-management

Here we are going to discuss the key roles of the ECM system in modern enterprises. We will see how multiple stakeholders can easily collaborate at different levels through the ECM system.

Role of Enterprise Content Management

  • Decision-making
    The president, CEO, and the entire management of the company can make informed decisions with the help of ECM solutions. In today’s competitive and fast-paced business scenario, the company leaders need real-time access to all important documents that are already accessed and used by other employees. ECM services assist you to organize documents based on content and context to give easy and anytime access to all necessary documents.
  • Flexible deployment
    What are the biggest roadblocks to implementing a powerful content management system in enterprises? The answer is- infrastructure limitation and poor adoption. Here ECM consultants can lend a helping hand and enable you to get the most suitable and user-friendly solution to meet infrastructure needs. An enterprise content management system can facilitate the IT team to get relief from content management-related tasks.
  • Documentation
    Better documentation and efficiency are key benefits of the right ECM system. It can also enable the company management to take corrective actions on a consistent basis. Thanks to seamless access to documentation, the QA and compliance departments face fewer issues related to compliance. The QA department also finds time to develop preventive methodologies.
  • Audit and Payment processes
    The document management system can streamline the financial processes and keep the records of transactions in a flexible, secure, and audit-friendly way. All related parties can access these records as and when necessary. Even if the traditional processes are slow, the ECM can streamline them. The finance and account department can get support from the content management system in the form of an up-to-date copy of every important file.
  • Management and Automation
    It is getting increasingly difficult for enterprises to update workflows manually in today’s competitive age. It adversely impacts the daily operations of the company. The ECM solutions can effectively streamline the project management and assist the management to enhance relationships with suppliers.

Also, Read- Top Ten Business Benefits of Document Management System in 2020

Responsibilities of companies to leverage the benefits of ECM services

Companies that deal with a large volume of content and have operations in various locations can be great beneficiaries of the enterprise content management system. It integrates content with business processes and reduces the cycle time significantly. But then, companies should take some measures to avail of the advantages of the ECM system.

  • Assessment of needs
    The establishment of a document management system needs a proper assessment of the content management requirements of the company. It is necessary to identify the types of content that you want to manage and define the sources. Apart from this, the hierarchy pattern needs to be considered to determine access and authentication.
  • Choose the right ECM developer
    Choosing the right ECM solutions provider is highly necessary providing the fact that many companies offer such solutions these days. Some ECM vendors provide cloud-based software as well. In such a situation, the company management needs to be focused on their content requirements and select a reliable Alfresco development company.

  • Address server requirements
    The ECM system needs appropriate hardware or servers. These servers should be capable to save software components and database software. You can contact ECM consultants to configure network administration, security server, content repository, and content ingestion tools.
  • Implement key features
    The implementation of key features is necessary to leverage the benefits of automation and improved workflow capabilities. For example, the search feature enables the users to find the document on the basis of keywords and tags.
  • Train employees
    The company needs to train employees for using a document management system more effectively and efficiently.
  • Maintain the ECM system
    Regular maintenance and update are necessary to keep the enterprise content management system ready for changing content requirements.

The document management system can successfully bring workflow automation and transform the legacy content management process into a digital system. The paperless system and analytics facility can help you get a significant ROI (Return on Investment) over the period.

Concluding Lines
The enterprise content management system can play a vital role in managing corporate data to enhance efficiency and productivity. Companies can make the most of it by following the tips mentioned above. Furthermore, you can contact ECM consultants to leverage all the benefits of ECM services.

ContCentric is a leading Alfresco development company that has served many corporate clients globally by providing robust ECM solutions. Our in-house developers can assist you to integrate a customized document management system to meet the content requirements effectively.

Key Features of Alfresco Document Management System You Need to Know

Alfresco content management system is highly scalable and flexible to manage enterprise-grade content requirements efficiently. Modern enterprises face many difficulties in managing ever-increasing content. It is necessary to ensure that the corporate content remains accessible as and when necessary. Alfresco Content Services can be easily combined with your existing business system.

document-management-system

You can hire Alfresco developers to make the most of this platform. Here we discuss key features of Alfresco that can benefit your enterprise by improving decision-making, productivity, and information governance. But, before moving ahead, let us know more about Alfresco as a robust platform for managing corporate documents.

Alfresco- Brief Introduction
Alfresco Digital Business Platform is an advanced, enterprise-class, and cloud-based framework. Today, Alfresco empowers various organizations spanned across 190+ countries globally. It has enabled companies to build digital operations that can deliver instant services with excellent user experience. From Cisco to Nasa- many top-notch enterprises count on this platform for managing the document system.

Top Features of Alfresco Content Services

Alfresco offers a range of features for modern enterprises. We can classify these features in different segments of a document management system. Here are the top features of Alfresco Content Services.

1) Document Management

  1. Document Archiving
  2. Document Indexing and Assembly
  3. File Recovery and File Type Conversion
  4. Offline Access
  5. Compliance Tracking

2) Content Management

  1. Document Indexing
  2. Text Editor
  3. Audio and Video Content
  4. E-Forms
  5. Text Search
  6. Version Control

3) Data Governance

  1. Data Discovery
  2. Deltion Management
  3. Policy and Process Management
  4. Roles Management
  5. Storage Management

4) ECM (Enterprise Content Management)

  1. Content Tools
  2. Content Lifecycle Management
  3. Digital Asset Management
  4. Information Governance
  5. Search and Mobile Access
  6. Workflow Management

5) Mobile CMS (Content Management System)

  1. File Sharing and Permission Management
  2. Document Management
  3. Data Synchronization
  4. Personalization and Templates
  5. Search

6) Document Version Control

  1. Access Control
  2. Approval Process Control
  3. Audit Trail
  4. Document Chekc-in/Check-out
  5. Version Rollback

7) OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

  1. ID Scanning and Batch Processing
  2. Image Pre-processing
  3. Indexing and Metadata Extraction
  4. Text Editor
  5. Multilingual Support

Related Reading- Six Business Benefits of Alfresco HRMS System for Your Company

These features make the Alfresco content management system the most suitable for industry sectors including financial services, government, manufacturing, healthcare, insurance, publishing, and the like.

Where does Alfresco stand in the competition against the average ECM product?

We have seen key features of the Alfresco framework. Isn’t it interesting to compare the features and functionality of Alfresco with other available ECM products?

  • Content Acquisition and Aggregation
    Alfresco users will be a little disappointed by knowing that Alfresco covers 90% of content acquisition characteristics, which is slightly less than 91% characteristics covered by its peers. Similarly, on a content aggregation front, Alfresco supports around 50% of features and functions related to aggregation. It is again well below the average of 78% for other ECM software.
  • Portal Support
    Alfresco has an impressive show in this segment with having 100% of Portal Support characteristics. The average competitor coverage in Portal Support characteristics is 83%. So, when it comes to portal support, Alfresco shines out!
  • Personalization Management
    In this module, Alfresco has good coverage as it supports around 80% of features. The ECM software suites can offer an average of 89% support. Though it is a bit disappointing, the performance of Alfresco is quite satisfactory.
  • Records and Document Management
    Here is a fact that makes Alfresco the most important and useful document management system. It covers a whopping 95% of the features related to Document and Records management. Its competitors cover just 83% of such features on an average. The records and document management module gives an edge to Alfresco over its rivals.
  • Search Management
    As compared to the 90% market average, Alfresco offers 93% of coverage for Search and Indexing Management features. In a way, Alfresco leads other ECM software packages by a small margin in the search management module.

Concluding Note

At ContCentric, we integrate all necessary features of Alfresco to provide you with a robust document management system. We have an in-house team of experienced developers who can make the most of technological advancements while making customized ECM solutions.

Enterprise content management system

Top Ten Business Benefits of Document Management System in 2020

In today’s competitive business scenario, any sort of information or data can play a role of valuable asset for your company. From improving your operational processes to making real-time business decisions, the information remains very crucial. This is a major reason why entrepreneurs want to integrate a robust document management system at their workplaces.

Proper implementation of a document management system or an enterprise content management system can help you get rid of tiresome and time-consuming manual document management processes. Here we mention the top ten benefits of the document management system for your company.

1. Workflow Automation
The first and foremost benefit of the DMS (Document Management System) is- it brings and promote automation in the workspace. The document management systems can enable users to utilize validation rules and perform particular actions like capturing metadata and classification of documents. Here, the process can be accomplished without any human involvement, and therefore, it remains a rapid process with high quality.

2. Space Reduction
A paper-based document system needs a lot of space. Once the cabinet is filled, you need to arrange more space for other documents. In most cities, commercial properties are pricey, and you just cannot afford to give more space to papers and cabinets. What’s more, you need to hire more people to maintain such a big pile of papers. An enterprise content management system can reduce this space significantly.

3. Safety Enhancements
These days, security concerns loom large for critical corporate documents. The manual document management system just falls short of securing valuable data and sensitive information. It is possible that these documents can go in the wrong hands. There, an enterprise-grade document management system lends a helping hand. You can manage the access and find out who has viewed or edited your document with the help of an advanced document management system.

4. Simple and Easy Access
The document management system enables you to provide simple and easy access to company documents to stakeholders, employees, and even customers. What’s more, you can readily retrieve the documents with the help of tags and keywords. It can save valuable time for your management and employees. Gartner has reported that an average organization spends around $120 in finding a misfiled document and $220 in reproducing the lost document. Both these costs can be effectively saved by implementing the document management system.

5. Collaboration Improvement
Communication and collaboration are the two most essential aspects of any organization to survive and thrive. DMS can improve collaboration by facilitating access to company documents from multiple locations. Even employees based in remote or distant locations can also get access to the company’s documents as and when necessary. Also, they can easily share documents by using electronic imaging.

Also Read- Top 5 Document Management Systems for Your Business

6. Better Backup and Recovery
The document management system is a centralized repository in which all documents are saved. You can index and archive all the documents as per the requirements. It prevents the loss or misplacing of company documents. In a way, the DMS can save a lot of bucks that are going to spend in rewriting the lost documents.

7. Version Control
Diversification is a secret sauce to growth. The modern DMS is highly suitable for this concept. Let’s understand this through an example. For different types of products across various categories, the company needs to maintain different versions of the document. A technically advanced and customized document management system can eliminate the problems associated with maintaining different versions of the same document.

8. Regulatory Compliance
Another important benefit is regulatory compliance. With proper maintenance and easy access to critical corporate data at any time, a good DMS can help companies to comply with prevalent regulations. The government officers can easily get the document they want. Companies can also avoid misplacement or loss of important documents. Finally, access authorization can assist companies to prevent documents from going into the wrong hands.

9. Cost Reduction
Unlike a paper-based system, the enterprise content management system is free from additional costs in buying file folders, cabinets, and hiring staff for managing the system. A well-planned document management system can offer a big saving by reducing such overheads.

10. Higher Competitiveness
Altogether, the enterprise content management system can increase productivity and enhance the efficiency of your business. Also, it can reduce additional costs and prevent significant losses, thereby offering you a competitive edge over your competitors. Such higher competitiveness can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Because of these benefits and other features like OCR (Optical Character Recognition), advanced preview, and tracking, it is expected that the document management system’s market will expand to $7.07 billion in the year 2023 from over $3.5 billion today. But, you need to find a reputed and reliable development partner with good experience in developing DMS with all desired features.

Concluding Lines
At ContCentric, we know what it takes to manage and maintain all sorts of documents at your workplace. Apart from a leading Alfresco development company, ContCentric enables modern enterprises to make the most of enterprise content management by providing 360-degree technical assistance.

enterprise-content-management-system

Future of ECM Services- Transformation of Enterprise Content Management

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) rules the realm of information management for almost a decade. But, as technology evolves, ECM has also passed through a transformation. Simply put, the ECM has witnessed a paradigm shift from a traditional document management system to advanced Content Services, which is a new category of software tools.

document-management-system

It all started with Gartner’s report on ECM services. As per this research, ECM is reinvented in the form of Content Services. This is an umbrella term consisting of three aspects- Content Services Applications, Platforms, and Components. This newly invented strategic concept is capable of offering more practical ways to serve the objectives of ECM for modern business.

Why ECM Needs Transformation

The content management system gets overstretched in dealing with challenges and meeting the ever-changing requirements of enterprises. It is designed to provide a centralized platform for enterprises to meet the following primary goals related to content or data generated in the companies daily.

  1. Regulatory compliance and management of associated risks
  2. Retention and dissemination of knowledge
  3. Increase in efficiency in cost and processes
  4. Innovative working methods

Let’s face it! Achieving all these four business objectives are almost impossible for a single platform. ECM has assisted many companies in following regulatory compliance and preventing risks associated with the content or data. But then, a centralized ECM platform requires complex integration to provide necessary information as and when necessary. Also, such a platform is costly and time-consuming for implementing innovative methods.

Related Post: Top Reasons Why Enterprises Prefer Alfresco for Enterprise Content Management

In other words, ECM falls short of meeting the diverse and complex requirements of today’s enterprises. Therefore, in today’s digital age, when technology evolves by leaps and bounds, ECM needs transformation.

Future of ECM

AIIM coined the term ECM way back in early 2000. It has handled records management, workflow, and other document-related management efficiently while keeping the wider idea of ‘content’ at the core. The future of ECM largely depends on its adoption to changing business requirements and technological advancements for dealing with growing data-related challenges. It is necessary to find ways to manage critical business information for the enterprise content management system.

The document management system of tomorrow will focus on two objectives- A user-centric approach and flexibility in management.

User-centric Management

As mentioned above, ECM passes through a paradigm shift. It includes re-architecture and re-configuration of the system in today’s digital, cloud-enabled world. A dynamic ‘Content Services’ approach is a result of this shift in focus from cumbersome to pleasant user experience. In brief, the future of ECM depends on its transition from an on-premises and function-specific system to a flexible, user-friendly, and evolving platform.

Flexibility Rules
A new and advanced Enterprise content management system aims at helping the users to find necessary information quickly and on the move. The Content Services concept for the existing ECM system is integrated with the core business network to convert the information into knowledge. As a result, entrepreneurs can make informed decisions on the basis of actionable insights. Innovation in processes and services will make it possible for ECM solutions.

What’s more, the flexibility will also help the ECM system become a one-stop solution for managing all corporate content.

Concluding Lines
Though Content Services gain ground swiftly across the corporate sector, many entrepreneurs have invested heavily in the ECM. They can get the benefits of technology by making their existing ECM solutions more advanced and feature-rich. It is advisable to hire a reputed ECM services provider to integrate various features in a robust platform to meet content requirements effectively.

ECM-type products customized as per your business model and processes can certainly help you take the company to the next level. ECM is here to stay and can play a surprisingly large role in the years to come!

Traditional Enterprise Content Management System- Limitations and Risks

Migrating to new and advanced solution seems scary in the beginning, but once it is done, it proves rewarding for the enterprise. The same holds true for enterprise content management approach. But, many entrepreneurs still shy away from switching to new ECM system from outdated and traditional one. Yes, change to a new system is difficult for companies, but it is inevitable to address business complexities and growing competition.

ECM Services keep on updating thanks to evolving technology. Your company can leverage the benefits of advancements of the ECM system in today’s information-driven business environment. On the other hand, traditional or outdated ECM systems can pose a great threat to your company’s success. A research report of AIIM has revealed that the architecture of an outdated ECM software is not much suitable to meet the needs of modern businesses.

Here are some of the big limitations of traditional ECM systems.

Limitations and Risks Associated with Outdated ECM Systems

Delays and setbacks are more frequent with outdated ECM systems. Your enterprise can miss many opportunities and the workflow may fail to evolve due to such limitations. Also, there are risks of cyber-attacks or hacking of critical company data.

  • The legacy ECM system may get failed to manage a growing amount of data in a highly challenges business scenario
    Frequent downtime can be a norm with outdated ECM system
  • It is difficult to collaborate and coordinate with employees and stakeholders because of the difficulty in data access and sharing
  • An outdated enterprise content management system cannot be integrated with core business applications
  • An operational cost can increase significantly if there is a difficulty in real-time data access and sharing
  • Maintenance and advancement of legacy ECM systems are extremely difficult. What’s more, the value of such systems decreases over the period because of functionality issues
  • Software developers and editors no longer support traditional ECM systems, and therefore, you cannot customize or modify it as and when necessary

Related Reading- WHY SHOULD YOU SWITCH TO NEW ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?

  • You cannot install patches and other security-related features because of discontinued support
  • Technological advancements and new features cannot be integrated into an outdated ECM system
  • You may not find the developers or technical persons with knowledge of the traditional ECM system because technology advances rapidly and developers tend to stay updated with new technologies.
  • It is expensive to hire specialists who have an idea of legacy technology, and it is even more expensive to train your employees to manage the legacy system
  • It has a negative impact on workflow, productivity, and efficiency of employees in the long run
  • You cannot change the specific IT environment to ensure a smooth functioning of an outdated ECM system

Let’s going through key benefits of a new document management system powered by robust platforms and advancing content management technology.

  • Needs a one-time investment on a platform capable of future expansion and upgrades
  • Support is easily available and maintenance rates are lower as compared to legacy ECM system
  • It can be installed on any existing business network and support the workflow
  • It provides an open-source and scalable solution to meet all the complex document-related requirement
  • Improved performance, optimized configuration, and futuristic approach are key characteristics of a new ECM system

If an improved data extraction and fast searchability of necessary documents are all you need, it is better to migrate to a new system. A new ECM system is the easiest way to keep pace with advancing technologies. In contrast, the traditional ECM system can do more harm than good to your company.

You should give a second thought to move ahead with outdated systems because most of these systems are proprietary in nature and therefore less customizable as compared to new, open-source ECM systems.

In a Nutshell
It is almost impossible to take your business to the next level through an outdated ECM system. Moreover, the risk of cyber attacks looms large for such a system. Therefore, it is always beneficial to migrate to new ECM software. All you need to spend more time and money on integrating this new system with the existing business system. The integration of a new system or migration from existing to a new one can improve the workflow and data management.

ContCentric is a leading ECM services provider globally. We develop and deploy a customized document management system using Alfresco or Liferay platforms.

Summary
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system has many benefits to offer to modern businesses. But, you need to switch to a new system from a traditional one.

Enterprise content management

Five Key Benefits of Right Enterprise Content Management for Your Company

Document management system can offer a lot of benefits to entrepreneurs. They can centralize their assets and make informed decisions based on data analytics. Here, the role of enterprise content management services remains crucial for providing a better accessibility and improved alignment for all levels and all departments of the organization.

Enterprise Content Management System

The right ECM (Enterprise Content Management) system favors collaboration and promotes the streamlining of the processes. What’s more, the right enterprise content management company can help you increase visibility and improve team management with complete control over the entire system.

Here are the top benefits of the right enterprise content management system.

Major Benefits of Document Management System for Modern Businesses

Mission-critical documents play a vital role in ascertaining the growth of modern businesses. On one hand, they enable the management to make informed decisions, and on the other hand, these documents support collaboration between multiple stakeholders.

1. Make informed decisions in real-time

CEO, CTO, and other C-suite executives remain busy in setting strategic goals for their respective companies. When they focus on critical information, they find less time in remaining involved in content management as compared to other employees.

But then, in today’s competitive and proactive business scenario, it is necessary for leaders to get access to mission-critical documents that they seldom go through. Though employees work with such documents on a daily basis, it has minimal to no use of such documents because they are not authorized to make key decisions. On the other hand, key leaders do not browse shared documents and usually ask employees to find missing documents.

Enterprise content management services aim at organizing corporate documents based on context and value rather than folders. As a result, top executives can readily go through them and get critical information or valuable data in real-time. As a result, they can stay updated with the latest information and make informed decisions.

2. Flexible deployment

What are the roadblocks in the way of implementing the document management system at the workplace? One of them is infrastructure-related limitations and the other is poor adoption level. The right enterprise content management provides flexible deployment options to deal with infrastructure limitations and the intuitive interface can ensure a better adoption rate.

IT teams can have secured content and extensive support to the collaborative processes by simple and easy access to the content assets. The document migration services can enable the companies to prevent any unnecessary delays in sharing critical updates among team members. Simply put, an ECM system can facilitate workflow and enable IT teams to manage the content.

3. Improved documentation

Compliance holds a vital role in the corporate sector, especially when authorities tend to come up with more stringent rules and requirements than ever before. The right ECM system assists the companies to meet all compliance-related needs and help them establish a workflow in line with such requirements.

The enterprise content management services enable companies to track the versioning clearly in the document management system, and you can take corrective measures on time. The system also ensures authorization access to selected team members and executives to prevent any cyberattack. It results in a few instances of compliance issues and straightforward methodology. Company executives can also automate specific procedures and speed up the processes. Better documentation and efficiency are obvious outcomes of improved processes.

Read More- Best Ways of Successful ECM Implementation

4. Streamlining financial operations

When it comes to streamlining financial operations and simplifying payment procedures, it is necessary to establish a flexible and audit-friendly way. Mostly, finance teams are stuck while dealing with multiple accounts and payroll formats. At times, delays can impact the supply chain and increase audit risks. ECM systems also maintain proper records and provide easy access to all parties.

Also, manual processes of invoicing and other financial procedures can be streamlined to automate processes and increase team mobility. The finance sector is crucial in ensuring smooth operations for any company, and the ECM system can keep its operations safe and flawless.

5. Smart management and automation

Operational requirements at the workplace keep on changing continuously. Process updates and manual changes in the workforce reduce the operational efficiency of the staff. There, successful implementation of ECM systems can act as a game-changer. They streamline the management processes and improve business relationships with suppliers. Enterprise content management system has a vital role to play in planning and collaboration between different teams.

In other words, smart management and automation come automatically in your business process as you implement the document management system properly in your workplace.

Concluding Lines

In today’s competitive business scenario, no company affords to skip a centralized document management system. It is advisable to consult a reliable enterprise content management company to leverage the benefits of advanced and enterprise-grade content management system. It can open the doors of innovation, scalability, and growth for your business.

Enterprise Content management

ECM- How Is It More Useful than Document Storage System

Let’s start with a prevalent notion- many people consider ECM (Enterprise Content Management) as just a tool to store content. Even some entrepreneurs also falsely believe that ECM is just an advanced document storage system.

Enterprise content management

But, you should not think this way. Read on to know how a customized enterprise content management system can bring some big benefits to your business.

Technology is advancing rapidly to bring radical changes in every system and platform used to simplify business processes, and ECM is no exception. Started as a way to store unstructured data, today, ECM has evolved as a valuable tool for modern business. Here are four key aspects in which the ECM system has a lot of influence.

1. More Security
Companies can save their valuable data in the centralized repository of ECM. The repository enables the company management to control access to corporate data. As compared to hard copy files, ECM provides more security to the digital content.

It is because unauthorized people cannot get access to such data. What’s more such enhanced security can also help organizations follow prevalent regulations like HIPAA, and enables them to do regular audits.

Related Reading- 9 Points to Remember While Presenting ECMS

2. Improved Efficiency
The enterprise content management system facilitates employees to collaborate by providing access to the same document. In a way, your company can get benefits of consistency, smooth workflow, and simple lifecycles with automation.

As a result, employees can focus more on other core activities instead of repetitive and mundane tasks. Machine Learning has also introduced in the ECM system that can customize the workflow to improve efficiency. For example, the Alfresco content management system enables users to get real-time data in the blink of an eye.

Altogether, the company’s productivity and employees’ efficiency increase significantly thanks to the ECM system.

3. Reduced Cost
Apart from savings attributed to higher efficiency, ECM services also enable you to cut down on various material costs. The concept of Paperless office becomes true because of ECM. The ECM solution enables employees to work remotely and SaaS vendors can eliminate the overheads of purchasing with the help of ECM technology.

In other words, the business of any size and scale can get an advantage of the ECM system for saving money and getting a higher ROI.

4. Insightful Decisions
Anytime access to real-time data enables the management to make informed decisions ECMs are capable of storing a huge amount of corporate data fetched by connected devices, online chatbot and email-based conversations, sharing of business documents, and the like.

Simply put, ECM services enable you to make to most of the unstructured data and make meaningful decisions instantly on the basis of data analytics.

These features are sufficient to show the superiority of ECM system over the legacy document storage system.

Summing Up
ECM services are designed to provide benefits of managing corporate data to all types of businesses. All you need to find a reliable ECM solution provider to make the most of this advanced system.

Enterprise content management system

    Have a Business Inquiry ?

    Let us collaborate and break yet another barrier to digitalization. Connect with us to discuss the project!





    Let us connect the digital dots!

    We are seeking dynamic professionals and unstoppable talents to craft distinct solutions for our clients to enhance their businesses. Come, join our fair & focused, optimistic & thoughtful world and deliver excellence together.

    Discipline

    Innovation

    Growth