IBM Unveils New Enterprise Content Management Offerings

By Barb Mosher | Published Oct 28, 2008

Doubt anyone is bored at the IBM Information on Demand Conference. Yesterday at the conference IBM announced a new agile ECM portfolio — we got dizzy just reviewing the enhancements, trying to keep them all straight. The new portfolio takes on a new format bringing together content, process and compliance capabilities in a neat little composite application framework.

The new ECM portfolio is, again, the continuing saga of IBM's vision of InformationOnDemand.

IBM Agile ECM Software Portfolio

IBM has implemented a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that enables your business to implement one or more of the products IBM offers without having each one exist as completely separate solutions.

IBM FileNet P8 4.5

FileNet is IBM's enterprise content management platform. It integrates content with business process management and compliance functionality. The following enhancements have been made to the core modules of the ECM:

IBM FileNet Business Process Manager 4.5: Create FileNet BPM processes in multiple repositories such as IBM ContentManager 8. By integrating with CM8, specific content operations can now be automatically made through a BPM process.
IBM FileNet Content Manager 4.5: Integration now can occur with Lotus Quickr, MSOffice 2007 and SharePoint. In addition the Content Manager now implements a component-based content model based on the DITA XML standard.
IBM Content Manager 8.4.1: Along with integration with BPM processes, CM8.4.1 enables integrated collaborative content management using Lotus Quickr. It also includes new Web Interface enhancements to support Web 2.0 interaction.
IBM Content Manager on Demand (CMOD) 8.4.1: This updated version enables integration to FileNet8 for federated Records Management and BPM applications.

Other Notable Product Enhancements

In addition to the changes to the core ECM portfolio, IBM has also introduced a number of compliance and discovery offerings:

IBM Content Collection and Archiving family: A modular set of products based on the IBM ECM platform and designed to take advantage of its capabilities in advanced classification, records management, eDiscovery and search.
IBM's records management: IBM now has a set of deployment and management practices, tools and best practices on records management.
IBM's eDiscovery products: Designed to support eDiscovery and help its clients manage compliance better. The new eDiscovery software integrates with IBM’s auto-classification and records management technology as well as it’s BPM capabilities.
FileNet P8 integration with IBM Content Analyzer: Analyze your structured and unstructured content together to gain better insight into your business.

Updates to the IBM Collaboration Tools

IBM also announced some updates to its collaboration software. Lotus Quickr now includes IBM ECM Services for Lotus Quickr, providing integration with documents, and other files residing in IBM content management systems (including both FileNet P8 and IBM Content Manager 8).

IBM is Keeping Up with the Competition

Is IBM keeping up with the competition? Or merely trying to catch up. Integrated collaboration and content management is almost a must-have for any ECM solution today and most ECM providers are getting on board with this capability fast.

The integration of business process and compliance capabilities with content is still, however, is a battle yet to be won by any ECM.

Learn in more detail about the new ECM Porfolio on their website.