..in an airport talking about how they want to extend the use of SharePoint in their organization. I know, you are thinking, Bob, this is an old joke, but in this case it is no joke. The discussion of extending SharePoint – and in many cases, ECM in general - is quite common and in fact, it typically leads to discussions of buying add-ons and in some cases, even more ECM products. While this is a good thing to be thinking about expanded use, the one thing I often ask is have you looked at your existing ECM solution to see what can be leveraged from your investment there? The most common answer is either no I hadn’t thought about that, or that would be overkill for what we want to do. Possibly, but how do you know until you investigate the options?
In my view, there are many ways to extend the use of SharePoint in an organization, one of which is to look at what you have already and see if there are connectors in available that will enable you to bring these systems together. In fact AIIM recently produced a white paper titled Extending SharePoint? Consider Your Current ECM System. In this paper are some research findings that highlight some of the most commonly sought after functionality like workflow, archiving, records management, and integrated capture. I encourage you to use the link I have provided here and download the document. I think you will find it quite interesting. I also encourage you to take time and look at what you have in place now to assess your needs against what you own.
What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know. If you are looking for some great research information from our industry, feel free to visit our research site and download some of our Industry Watch Reports today at www.aiim.org/research
Bob Larrivee, Director of Custom Research – AIIM
Email me: blarrivee@aiim.org
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