Von John Symon, Senior Vice President, Association for Information and Image Management International, AIIM Europe, Datchett (www.AIIM-Europe.org). E-business has become the buzzword of the year — no doubt about it. But that says a lot about the fact that it has struck a sensitive chord with many organisations in both the public and private sector, and those that ignore the potential for changing the nature of their businesses are at risk of losing out to “fleet of foot” competitors. Although its definition tends to be equated with e-commerce, as AIIM International sees it, e-business is the use of web and Internet technologies to connect the extended enterprise — suppliers, customers, employees and the channel. This goes beyond e-commerce and entails embracing three views of relationships: B2B – Business to Business, B2C – Business to Consumer and B2E – Business to Employee.
So, beyond the marketing hype, where do document technologies fit into the overall development of e-business applications? Document management, imaging and workflow are fundamental tools which enable organisations to capture, process, distribute, interpret, analyse, store and distribute information in a wide variety of formats. However, the real value of these technologies goes far beyond the mere capture, storage and retrieval of large volumes of documents. Rather, they provide measurable business benefits in areas such as customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) and are crucial components of enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications.
With the rapid adoption of the Internet, these core document technologies now become even more essential for organisations considering an e-business strategy since they enable the integration of both front and back office processes and customer facing requirements to connect the extended enterprise – suppliers, customers, employees and the channel. In addition, the traditional technologies mentioned before are now rapidly expanding to encompass web process and content management, web-based records management and multiple print and distribution mechanisms as well.
Content is King, But Reality is Better
The need for content management of an organisation’s web site, in developing a successful e-business strategy, is crucial for addressing such core business processes as order entry, billing and distribution as well as enhancing sales and marketing functions. Users, both internal and external, need access to all information related to the business process – in an electronic format. Web content design and management should, therefore, be of strategic importance to top management within any organisation contemplating e-business. You can talk as much as you like about content and document management, but unless they are linked to crucial e-business applications, they are just technologies looking for a problem. That’s why it’s important to look at the diagram above from the top layers down to the architectures, with document technologies playing a crucial role in the middle.
B2B: The High Growth Area
According to Forrester Research, the B2B market is going to be 10 times the size of the consumer e-commerce market. The Internet has dramatically accelerated the supply chain, as customers increasingly buy direct from the manufacturer, who will increasingly shift towards producing goods to order rather than estimating demand. Sales and manufacturing organisations are trying to manage the growing complexity of their web sites, and to do so they will need to include and manage multiple document information types such as audio and video. New document technology solutions facilitate the critical business processes that make this possible.
For example, US-based Government Technology Solutions, Inc. (GTSI) sought to expand its e-commerce web site to include Government employee and commercial sales. In addition, GTSI sought to make its site “best of breed” by creating custom experiences for its different types of shoppers, improving the usability and performance of the site, and automating the site maintenance and content management.
GTSI worked with a third party to redesign, develop and test web site components that allow customer personalisation, enhanced searching and web content management. The solution allows visitors to www.GTSI.com to quickly and easily find and purchase products. The third party redesigned a portion of the GTSI.COM e-commerce web site, which included advertising based on keyword searching, up-selling and cross selling features. B2C Demands Back-End Assurance
Back-end processing linked to automated processes and inventory tracking are areas that are often not considered the dot.com world of e-commerce but are essential elements for success. Even government organisations know that their ultimate consumers, the taxpayers, expect a response to requests in a timely fashion and they must have the systems in place to support them. The US Department of State has implemented its FREEDOMS (FREEdom of Information Document Management System) application with that in mind. The system provides public access to electronically released documents via a Web-based reading room. Back-end features include case tracking, imaging and redaction in a secure environment, and electronic workflow, which supports the processing of about 2 million documents annually. In the final analysis, none of these e-business applications would be able to get off the ground without the use of dynamic document technologies and processes.
DLM Forum in Brussels
Last October, AIIM participated at the EU DLM Forum (www.dlmforum.eu.org) in Brussels with an Information Centre. The subject of the DLM Forum was European Citizens and Electronic Information: The Memory of The Information Society. One major conclusion reached at the DLM Forum was the need to create a reference model for the management of electronic documents and records through their creation, active life and long term preservation and accessibility. There is a clear need for the ICT industry to provide cost effective, easily applicable and scalable solutions for the vast amounts of data that needs to be managed by the public sector. Security issues and standards are vital in establishing controls and interoperability between systems. Further, with the Internet driving a rapid explosion of electronic business transactions within the EU, EDM technologies and solutions can provide the backbone for their successful implementation. AIIM International looks forward to working more closely with the EU to help facilitate the connection between suppliers and users in the public sector in order that these objectives may be realised.
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