Managing the content of an enterprise – business records, documents, e-mails, transaction information, and the data contained in forms – increasingly demands computerization and software solutions. But to be able to afford those solutions, business owners expect them to work well and provide a quick return on their investment.

That’s the not-so-surprising conclusion of a new study released by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) during its annual conference this month (May 17-19, 2005) in Philadelphia.

Enterprise content management (ECM) is a topic of continuing interest in the real estate industry, as brokers look for better, faster, and more comprehensive ways of dealing with the volume of information that crosses their desks daily.

AIIM’s study, titled “Payback Time: The Practical Application of ECM Technologies,” reports that mid-sized and large businesses alike see value in ECM. Companies of between 100 and 1,000 workers, in particular, understand the need to control their handling of core documents, according to the report.

Users, however, are focused on extremely practical applications with clear payback. If an ECM expense can’t be justified quickly, according to companies surveyed by AIIM in nine countries, it won't get approved. In addition, media coverage of privacy, security, and e-mail disasters has heightened users’ concerns about e-mail management, forms, and security.

While saving money and becoming more efficient are often cited as reasons for moving toward ECM, they are no longer the only motivators, the study finds. A rising number of users say regulatory compliance issues are on their minds, too. This rings true in the real estate community, where ECM can help brokers meet both their fiduciary duty to their clients and their legal obligations to a variety of licensing agencies.

To complete its study, AIIM during 2004 and 2005 surveyed more than 1,200 end-users and potential end-users of content and document management technologies in nine countries -- the United States, the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Ireland, Germany, Australia, and the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg).

AIIM, a non-profit association, is considered an international authority on the understanding, adoption and use of ECM technologies. It is located on the Web at www.aiim.org.

Initially published at Joe's business website, www.wordwrks.com