Interoperable Enterprise Content Management

AIIM, the enterprise content management association, has announced its plan to develop a standards-based interoperable content management infrastructure (also known as iECM). According to AIIM, the iECM initiative is “responsible for creating an international standard by which enterprise content management related systems, portals and enterprise applications can interoperate. The objective is to produce a single set of functional requirements for process oriented web services that enable disparate systems to interoperate - thereby enabling content (unstructured and semi structured data) to be exchanged, integrated and managed securely between systems.”

Adobe Systems and ECM Documentum are working in tandem with the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) to drive the development of the iECM standard.

The need for interoperabilty between disparate systems is a problem that cannot be understated (just think hurricane Katrina). Today, workers in many large organizations—both goverment agencies and the private sector—are forced to swap back and forth between disparate systems in an often futile attempt to find the information they need. Getting information out of one system and into another one often involves the less-than-efficient and error-prone “cut and paste” method. When organizations attempt to tackle this issue, they often end up building additional applications designed to integrate (or transform) disparate systems. These efforts are costly and often yield horrible results. Poorly designed interfaces, slow system performance, and additional IT expenses are common.

Governments agencies need access to critical information and they need it fast. Reacting to natural and man made disasters and responding to terrorist treats are obvious reasons for moving toward an interoperable iECM standard. For other organizations, the greatest drive may be productivity—there’s nothing efficient about the current approach. It’s time for change.

If you’d like to get involved in the creation of the standard (or just check in every once in a while on their progress), visit the iECM blog. Committee members will use the blog to post information and work on the standards in a collaborative fashion.

Learn more about the history and reasoning behind the project by reading iECM: Linking Ideas and Content Together in the August 2005 issue of infoconomy.

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