When we think about keeping track of information, we usually start with when we save or capture it. We capture data all the time, such as when we upload photos of kids, a vacation view, a restaurant dish we tried, or some other reason for bragging on Facebook.
To find a particular photo, our mental database uses information about what we’re looking for. We can then skim thumbnails for the tiny green soccer jersey, white sandy beach, or monstrous bacon cheeseburger that we remember from the picture we’re trying to find.
At work, there are way too many documents, or too much content, to rely on manual scans supported by mental hints. We need more. To capture, preserve, and protect the content we care about, we can store it in an enterprise content management (ECM) solution. Capturing and storing content is where ECM starts.
However, the real value provided by ECM isn’t from storing the content; the value is provided by the ability to quickly and easily retrieve exactly the content you need. Usually, the first sorting of content is into content types, such as invoices. This creates a bucket of content that looks even more alike, though.
