The ECM Twilight Zone

This industry just gets stranger:

http://www.cosmicbaseball.com/usarchecmgame.html

Any ideas what the heck this is - and why I play third base (Tony tells me I must have a strong right arm).....??

I would love to know!

ECM for Re-Engineering - AIIM Expo 2007

Back in my office after a week at AIIM I am exhausted but elated. We had a great week there, launched the ECM Report, ran a pre-conference workshop, panel discussion etc. We also published a press release on the market turbulence that caused some ire with the vendors. Lots to do then, but so much also to learn.

On the one hand, it would have been easy to take a swipe at the AIIM conference and Expo - as some observed there was no wow factor, no new funky technology. But from my perspective there was a lot of new things (we already have more than enough technology) - there were new thoughts around:

• ECM SasS models
• Skills shortages and the training required to fill them
• More OpenSource ECM options in the pipeline
• The re-discovery of the importance of business process management in ECM
• The recognition that paper is not going away and the ECM systems need to work holistically in that hard copy environment
• More recognition of the difficulty (impossibility) of long term electronic archiving

For me the most important thing maybe is the reawaking of ECM tools as tools of change. ECM should be a toolset to re-engineer your business, and discussions at AIIM this past week brought me to the conclusion that organizations small and large are recognizing this fact. The idea that people will spend huge sums of money on ECM to meet compliancy needs or simply to provide an electronic filing capability is being debunked, and we are getting back to the core value set of ECM (and DM & Workflow) before it - changing the way we do business.

I'm back!

I am back - reviewed the draft final for the ECM Report - 378 pages! It's looking good - and what a painful but wonderful experience this has been. Hopefully you will all rush out and buy it now, and make the effort worthwhile :-)

Announcements:

I am running a half day workshop at AIIM next monday on how to procure an ECM system - if you are planning to be at AIIM please come along, it should be fun - and I think/hope of value whether you be a buyer, an SI, a consultant or a vendor.

Also at AIIM I am hosting a panel on when E means Enormous - and I have some great panelists lined up - so that should also be a fun and thought provoking session.

In May I will be keynoting the wednesday ECM session at Internet World in London - again as always come up and say hello - my stern and mean demeanor is all a front, I am a softy underneath :-)

We have some big announcements at AIIM regarding some new work we are undertaking - work that I am very excited about......

Also, check out my blog post (will be there today or tomorrow) on CMS Watch - regarding Salesforce.com - one I will be looking into much more over the coming months as that evolves into a true ECM product.

Lot's to write about - lot's to share - a busy year ahead. I'm back - and just wanted to say I have been amazed at the traffic to this blog, even though I have had to neglect it recently. Stay tuned, I have some stuff to annoy, amuse and argue with you about :-)