ECM tools gain process control, federation

New ECM (enterprise content management) tools debuting this week from Open Text and FileNet will expand the reach of content management into business processes and disparate content repositories. Meanwhile, Xythos Software this week plans to introduce an updated version of its document management software.

At the AIIM On Demand Conference and Expo this week, Open Text will unveil its BPM Server, which is designed to automate and manage processes with highly structured workflows. BPM Server aims to improve workflows by automatically collecting and analyzing data on processes as they happen. Companies can use the analyses to implement adjustments to the workflow.

The company also is rolling out a related product, Production Document Management, for inputting and storing documents used in large-scale processes such as invoicing, ordering, and claims processing. The two systems are designed to work in concert to create a system for automating content workflows.

FileNet also plans to introduce Version 3.5 of its P8 ECM platform, featuring CFS (Content Federation Services). CFS allows enterprises to manage, search, catalog, classify, and update content residing in FileNet and non-FileNet repositories throughout an organization.

With CFS, P8 3.5 can treat content in remote repositories as if it were native FileNet content.

“This is true ECM,” said Chris McLaughlin, director of product marketing at FileNet. “Customers can continue to use existing CM [content management] systems, get value out of those, and can bring disparate systems together under a single ECM platform. Users shouldn’t care what repository that content sits in.”

An important ECM challenge facing businesses is how to integrate multiple content repositories from different vendors, said Kenneth Chin, a vice president at Gartner. Gartner reports that approximately 60 percent of organizations have six or more different content repositories and platforms.

“Having a solution such as [FileNet’s] CFS is certainly beneficial to organizations looking to bring content repositories together,” Chin said.

Xythos Software will also introduce a new edition of its document management software at AIIM On Demand. The company will issue new versions of its enterprise document management suite for corporations and government agencies, as well as a new suite for education users, said Xythos President and CEO Ed Miller. He described the new edition as “basic document management” that costs less than Documentum.

Xythos also plans to announce at the show that SAP and Oracle are going to license the suite and ship it with NetWeaver and Oracle Collaboration Suite, respectively.