With the rise of remote work, enterprises face three common problems:  information management, security, and collaboration. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) software has been the go-to solution for businesses. However, challenges like unexpected downtime or the inability to track user activity can still derail projects and bring work to a standstill.

In this article, I discuss the eight biggest enterprise content management challenges and how you can resolve them.

Content Management is a comprehensive approach to managing an organization’s unstructured information throughout its lifecycle. It includes various information types, like documents, emails, images, videos and other types of digital content.

The process involves creating strategies, finalizing workflows, and adopting tools to make content management (i.e. storing, finding and accessing content) easy. For example, it could be a tool where your team can search through information and find the details they need, or putting a strategy in place that makes document versioning and access seamless.

Content management ensures data integrity and mitigates security risks associated with data security breaches. So, you don’t have to worry about spending money on expensive legal suits. Content management for small teams and enterprises differs significantly in scale, complexity, and organizational requirements. 

Of course, both aim to organize, create, and distribute content effectively. However, enterprises have larger volumes of content, more diverse teams, stricter compliance requirements, and a greater need for scalability and integration. 

For example, a small legal firm might use document management software like DocuSign or HelloSign to securely store and manage client contracts and legal documents. A larger financial services firm might use an ECM solution like IBM FileNet or Content Manager.

These more robust solutions help enforce strict compliance with regulatory requirements. They also ensure proper retention, access controls, and audit trails for sensitive financial documents and customer data.

Enterprises need an enterprise content management strategy to handle data in their workplaces. Organizations are catching on; businesses are onboarding multiple ECMs to simplify content management. Even if you onboard an excellent ECM system, you’ll still have to deal with common enterprise content management challenges. Here are such challenges and the solutions you can adopt immediately:

1. Content silos and inefficiencies

When an organization scales, so does the data it deals with. Content gets created by an expanding team and, sometimes, gets stored in different tools – this leads to data silos. The disadvantage of these silos is that teams need to spend time searching for the data they need. There’s no way of having a common repository. Important documents may get misplaced, and collaboration becomes a challenge.

To combat this, businesses have shifted to adopting ECMs for their content management needs. Yet, some had to resort to onboarding multiple ECMs, which brings back the same problem of data silos.

One solution is having a proper strategy in place to ensure people know what and where data is stored. It’s best to choose ECMs with integrations so you can move data seamlessly between the platforms you use.

2. Poor workflow management

A lack of defined processes and collaboration can lead to poor workflow management. To solve this issue, you need to pinpoint existing bottlenecks and inefficiencies. You can do this by conducting a thorough assessment and gathering feedback from stakeholders. Once identified, workflow processes should be defined, with roles and responsibilities outlined at each stage.

Simplifying and standardizing workflows where possible helps eliminate unnecessary steps and reduces complexity. Providing comprehensive training and support to employees on ECM tools and workflow processes makes for effective implementation.

We also recommend using communication tools to facilitate realtime communication and data sharing. By following this, organizations can address poor workflow management, increasing efficiency and collaboration across the enterprise.

3. Security and compliance issues

Security threats and non-compliance can lead to a massive loss of reputation and money. For example, a financial institution losing customer information can create a huge uproar and long legal battles.

Even if you adopt an ECM system, you’re not guaranteed complete data confidentiality or protection from data threats. That’s why businesses adopt ECM monitoring tools. The industry offers agentless monitoring platforms, so you don’t have to invest in setting up an IT infrastructure or team.

They also provide a range of tests that can be scheduled to run regularly with notifications sent when there are issues. This helps proactively resolve issues and make sure that you stop security risks before they become difficult to manage.

4. Increased content operation costs

With businesses using multiple content management platforms, teams can waste time finding the right content piece. These operational inefficiencies often lead to high costs. To manage content operation costs, you must implement strategic initiatives that optimize resources and maximize return on investment.

Start by auditing current expenses across content creation, distribution, and management. Then, centralize content management using a digital asset management platform to facilitate content reuse and version control.

This reduces duplication of effort and storage costs.  We recommend monitoring performance metrics and adjusting strategies as needed to ensure ongoing cost efficiency while maintaining proper content operations. 

5. Potential loss of data

 There are many factors contribute to data loss: 

• Human error
• Content management system failures
• Insider threats
• Regulatory compliance failures

This can have significant consequences, ranging from financial losses and reputational damage to legal liabilities and operational disruptions.

For example, say your customer support team loses access to documents explaining how to resolve certain feature failures. This issue would hamper customer satisfaction and may lead to negative reviews. To avoid this, you can have robust thresholds in place.

For example, you can limit the number of times an important document is accessed or downloaded. One way to do that is by using a monitoring tool. You can notify relevant team members and take immediate action when this threshold is reached.

6. Scalability and performance problems

Your enterprise content management strategy should be flexible enough to accommodate your growing needs. When your team size grows, it should not lead to performance problems with your ECM solutions.

Many ECM systems have built-in performance monitoring and optimization tools. These allow organizations to track system performance metrics and proactively identify and address scalability and performance issues before they impact user experience.

ECM monitoring tools can ensure optimal performance and prevent system bottlenecks. Best of all, they help organizations scale their ECM infrastructure as needed and monitor the usage capacity for each ECM system in your organization. You can see which monitors can be used to onboard further capacity. This helps you scale easily and avoid performance bottlenecks that often arrive when an organization grows.

7. User adoption

You may have onboarded a new ECM tool. But how do you get your team to implement it? Many employees might resist the new way of work because they lack the confidence to use those tools in their daily jobs.

To solve this, start by highlighting the benefits of ECM, such as streamlined document management, improved collaboration, and easier access to information. It’s important to offer comprehensive training sessions and support resources. These can empower users with the knowledge and skills to leverage ECM.

You can incorporate user feedback and suggestions into the ECM implementation process to tailor the platform to their specific needs and preferences. Gamification techniques, such as rewards and recognition programs, can incentivize user participation and drive engagement with the ECM platform. 

8. Remote access

With the ability to work remotely and the prevalence of mobile devices, employees expect seamless access to content from anywhere, at any time. Whether working from home, on the go, or from a client site, employees need to collaborate, access documents, and stay productive regardless of their physical location. 

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions are uniquely positioned to address the increasing requirements of remote organizations. These solutions offer secure, cloud-based repositories that enable employees to access, share, and collaborate on documents and files from any internet-connected device.  This flexibility enhances employee productivity and collaboration and enables organizations to adapt to the evolving demands of remote work and mobile-driven workflows. 

Effectively managing Enterprise Content Management challenges is crucial for organizations. By addressing key challenges such as scalability, performance, user adoption, and remote access, organizations can unlock the full potential of ECM solutions to drive efficiency, collaboration, and innovation across the enterprise. 

 Brian DeWyer is CTO and Co-Founder of Reveille Software.