Enterprise Content Management: User Interfaces

When deploying an enterprise content management system in an organization, much effort goes into requirement studies, technical analysis and implementation and customization. However, the most challenging aspect of a new content management solution is probably the acceptance by the end-users.  These are the people who will have to work with the system on a daily basis - and if a tool is hard to use, then no one will.

History has shown that standard user interfaces of leading Document Management vendors are too complex or intimidating for the average user, especially because of their ECM jargon on labels and buttons. This often leads to poor usage – or even worse, empty and abandoned ECM repositories.

However, ECM vendors have learned their lesson and usability has been a top priority during the past couple of years.

Some vendors have developed a wide range of different user interfaces – each of them focusing on a specific user profile. EMC Documentum has been very active in this area: they offer a myriad of interfaces, all on top of their central content repository. Alongside their powerful classic WebTop interface, they provide TaskSpace for document centric administrative processes and the all-new CenterStage interface for collaboration, information discovery and social networking.

Another approach is to integrate document management functionalities in the actual working environment of the user: most vendors have standard connectors for interfaces like Outlook, Office, SAP or other mainstream enterprise applications. And if no standard connector is available, new open standards might come to the rescue; modern open source solutions like Alfresco allow an easy integration with your applications so document management functionalities can really be embedded in a transparent way.

Other interesting interface improvements will come from Adobe and Microsoft. Their respective Flex/AIR and SilverLight initiatives facilitate the development of user-interfaces on top of your ECM systems; interfaces that are much more flexible, fast and fun to work with instead of the slow and less dynamic browser-based interfaces we’ve seen during the past decade.  But it’s not all plain sailing: the effort in maintaining consistent interfaces might be a hard job with these new technologies.

Also note that Amplexor always advises a close follow-up after delivery of the solution. The “change management” period might be the most important phase of the project.