Most decision makers will agree that ECM modernization is not something enterprises are keen on doing. The risks that come with modernization are real and can cost a lot, both in terms of stress and in financial costs.

However, by not modernizing outdated ECM systems, enterprises risk spending much more time and money on daily operations, as well as the ongoing cost of maintaining the IT systems that are powering that old ECM solution.

Here are 5 key benefits your enterprise will get from modern ECM software, that will hopefully help your organization warm up to the ECM modernization idea.

Improved Accessibility

Upgrading to a modern ECM software means moving to the cloud. And moving to the cloud means better accessibility.

Enterprises rely on modern ECM software to help make the company’s data more accessible by putting this data online rather than on paper or spread out in different data formats in an isolated intranet.

Adopting a cloud-based ECM software will make it easier for employees and other authorized users to retrieve that data from locations outside the office. The cloud stores all data in a secured location, making it easier for enterprise employees to log in securely, and access any needed data.

Better User Experience

Enterprise Content Management solutions will probably never become a fully automated industry. People will still need to fill out digital forms, and rely on workflows to process legal cases, medical cases, privacy requests and so on. That doesn’t mean that as an enterprise, you shouldn’t be looking for ways to make these repetitive tasks easier.

Modern ECM software solutions are far more flexible than older ones. These newer ECM platforms are built with low-code or even no-code ways to customize and even fully automate workflows. This enables non-technical staff to easily configure the ECM solution to fit your company’s specific needs.

Improved Performance

Organizations that use legacy ECM systems find it very difficult to keep up with changes. The outdated software may be causing productivity hurdles within departments and across departments, when there is a need to collaborate or share data regularly and securely.

Modern ECM can change all of that.

Modern ECM systems include document clustering, advanced search, and metadata management capabilities that didn’t exist until just a few years ago. Smarter data management ultimately helps your staff be more productive and get more value from the corporate data.

Regular Functionality Updates

Outdated ECM software very rarely, if ever, get functionality updates. While companies do release patches and fixes, these are usually security patches. You’d still be maintaining an old product that’s been developed, quite literally, in a different decade, or even a different century.

Upgrading to a modern, cloud-based ECM system means that you will no longer worry about maintenance, and you’re much better positioned to regularly get new functionality upgrades. Companies who built these systems are regularly updating and optimizing the ECM platform and you’re always using a fresh version.

Also, adopting a cloud-ready ECM means that enterprises can offload the ownership, management, and cost of their hardware and software maintenance to the cloud provider. This is one of the key reasons why organizations opt for ECM modernization.

Improved Security

Many enterprises struggle to keep their data safe. This is especially true for organizations that store personally identifiable information. Banks, hospitals, schools, and universities are all prime targets for hackers who try to steal personally identifiable information.

Modern ECM solutions usually come with a hybrid or fully cloud-based solution. Industry regulations like FedRAMP, HIPAA, DoD 5015, and Veracode are there to help software developers build secure and scalable solutions. Companies who need a trusted ECM solution can easily find a supplier that is compliant with one or more of these regulations.

In some cases, cloud-based ECM Solutions come packaged with technology that meets most of these regulations:

• Using scalable and secure servers from the Amazon Web Services platform is one way to achieve compliance with FedRAMP.
• Using the Alfresco platform for data management, is one way of becoming DoD 5015 compliant.
• Using ArkCase for case management ensures Veracode compliance.

These security regulations, and software providers who meet these requirements, are your best bet when planning an ECM modernization project for your organization.

Conclusion

Any company that handles large amounts of data knows that having a solid ECM solution is a critical component of success and security. But, because of this very reason, some companies are hesitant to give ECM modernization a more serious thought.

In this short text, I hope that I listed just a handful of benefits that would help your organization warm up to the ECM modernization idea.

We at Armedia have been helping companies and government agencies make the right ECM solution choice for almost 20 years. In our history, we’ve helped organizations merge disparate data sources into a single data repository. In some cases, this meant joining local databases stored in various formats, online databases, and vast amounts of paper documents.

In all this work, we’ve developed workflows and technologies that are helping us do reliable data migration even when there are terabytes of data.

We’d love to hear your concerns and what’s stopping you from considering ECM modernization with more ease. Please use the comments section below to share your thoughts or send us an email using the Contact Us page. And, please don’t forget to share this article on your social media profiles. Perhaps, this is exactly what someone needs to see in order to make the next small step towards ECM modernization.