Today’s businesses live and die by their data. Some say it’s the new currency and means of exchange, but what’s indubitably true is that most organizations just don’t make use of the resources that are already at hand: the enterprise data that remains unstructured, uncatalogued and unmanageable.

Part of the issue is that most materials are now available digitally, but formats are different, with proprietary, closed documents and files mixing with those that are easily read or mined for information.

Each media format (text, video, images, social media content and so forth) comes in multiple guises. Take, for example, the simplest to assimilate in purely technological terms: text. Files might consist of .txt, .rtf, .docx, .odf plus others less willing to give up their contents, such as PDF. And that’s before we consider archived documents (.zip, .rar, .bz2) or file formats like PDFs that contain multiple media types, from embedded fonts to images, to text that’s superimposed over other media.

Deriving business value from the huge range of formats, and formats-within-formats, is therefore highly problematic, but solutions are available. But there is one overarching issue that will fox even the most intelligent of data mining routines: that of data silos.

Business processes have long been defined by what data is on hand and available. Application silos and hierarchies have, to a certain extent, determined information flow and communications. From that situation, business processes are determined.

However, solutions are evolving that are gradually bringing together disparate enterprise technology platforms, like ERP, CRM, and HRM. There is an expectation, therefore, that information silos are to be opened and the results shared, to produce maximum business value from un-mined assets.

However, because there has been no significant attempt in the past to manage, catalog and un-mingle data files, what most enterprises are left with is millions of documents in disorder with more being added every day.

To address this problem comes laser focus in the form of ECM (electronic content management). These solutions can provide the necessary context for a broad range of digital content, enabling collaboration and developing the ideas that push competitive advantage and innovation – changes that are cross-departmental, and oblivious to data silos.

ECM solutions help businesses realize the potential of information by enabling the content’s relevance and making information easily usable throughout the enterprise.

At Tech Wire Asia we are examining three suppliers of the very latest in next-generation electronic content management systems. In addition to the breaking of data silos and the creation of a level playing field for data across the enterprise, each of the three is also taking proactive steps to address the issues of security and compliance.

The fact is that data breaches take place every day, whether by malicious hacking or by simple human error on the part of personnel. Regardless of the cause, because of data’s newly-discovered homogeneity and availability, businesses are more susceptible to serious consequences if this should happen.

A further outside source of concern, although one that is not as malign, is legislative pressure for good governance and compliance. Whether at the local, national or transnational level, ensuring data (especially private, personally-identifiable information) is well protected and steps are taken to continue this balance is crucial— the legal implications are alarming.

Each of the featured companies below, then, are capable of producing secure, legally-compliant platforms, which break down data silos and make information readily available across the enterprise, but in a way that’s cataloged, managed and incisively cared-for.

By undertaking digital transformation steps via electronic content management, enterprises can leverage the resources that are already stored away but are inaccessible. And in the future, as the amounts of data stored grow to the zeta-bytes, the platforms featured will help make positive, business-oriented use of it all.

LASERFICHE

Laserfiche knows that digital transformation comprises a series of steps. Simply moving paper documents into a digital space doesn’t equal transformation or order – media needs to be organized, secured, and be accessible in individualized ways. Reducing complexity in the workplace by making documents and different formats disappear into silicon does not create order from chaos, it merely moves it.

The company’s solutions not only help organize and categorize information, drawing it out of silos, but help companies to automate and streamline the processes that manage it. By automating existing manual processes, organizations drive efficiency and remove bottlenecks associated with manual-processing practices.

Automated scanning of documents, electronic uploads from mobile devices and media imports allow the creation of powerful archives of information, searchable 24/7, and configured in individualized structures for each member of staff, according to privilege levels.

Pulling all the necessary elements required for deep digital transformation requires a truly joined-up vision, and Laserfiche has a five-step plan to realize that vision.

The company’s model catalogs, organizes and automates information flow through the workplace, creating positive changes in working practices, and streamlining data usage. The final step in the Laserfiche plan allows companies to continue to transform by analyzing the performance of your data via “descriptive analytics”.

Laserfiche’s progressive framework lets companies embrace all the benefits of the truly digital workplace. You can read in greater detail about Laserfiche’s five-step plan for organizations wishing to transform, and more about the company at the heart of digitization across the business world today: click here.

IBM

IBM has been well-known as a leader in the ECM space since its conception, and the company was part of the technology’s and concept’s emergence. As part of its overall business operations automation solutions, IBM offers ECM services and solutions that capture, transform, analyze and engage with content for greater customer-oriented insight and action. Data that was previously unstructured and unavailable can be used to engage customers, automate business processes and enhance collaboration.

In most businesses today, digital content represents information about customers — their behaviors, sentiments and their value to the organization, but only if you can use it properly. Collectively, content buried in repositories, file shares and clouds of every flavor across the enterprise represents the knowledge of the organization and is the new currency of commerce.

IBM uses the term ‘content chaos’, defined as “the lack of digitized content and the inability to access the right content at the right time”, as a significant stumbling block in most organizations’ road to overall digital transformation.

OPENTEXT

OpenText helps create a better way for organizations to work with information, on-premise or in the public cloud. It provides enterprise software for digital transformation with 80 percent of the world’s Fortune 1000 companies by using OpenText EIM (Enterprise Information Management) solutions to grow faster, lower their operational costs, and reduce information governance and security risks.

The OpenText EIM offerings have been designed to automate the flow of enterprise information, from engagement to eventual insight. Across all industries, organizations are using OpenText solutions to solve their most complex business problems, ranging from engagement, capture, and process to collaboration, discovery, and insight.

EIM pulls the various strands of data and information together which flow through the enterprise into one unifying form, and therefore, can offer a range of information management services which covers all the bases.

OpenText’s information applications can be tailored: for instance, various data collation suite combinations might be paired with components from development platforms to form flexible applications.

The company offers business trading platforms and networks, AI capabilities (under the name Magellan), plus data lake management, big data collation & analysis, and a whole raft of business-oriented solutions.

*Some of the companies featured on this editorial are commercial partners of Tech Wire Asia