What is Enterprise Information Management (EIM)?

Enterprise Information Management (EIM) can best be defined as a set of technologies, processes, disciplines and practices used to manage an organization’s data and content…

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OpenText

January 11, 20186 minute read

Enterprise Information Management (EIM) can best be defined as a set of technologies, processes, disciplines and practices used to manage an organization’s data and content as an enterprise asset. It’s not a new concept but its importance to large organisations is growing rapidly.

Frost and Sullivan has estimated that enterprise-level data grows at the rate of 30 to 40 per cent per year. The ability to harness the value within this information is critical to business success. That requires an effective EIM platform. For this reason, Gartner says that by 2020, ‘75% of organizations that use Enterprise Information Management to align, link and leverage their data and analytics investments will report substantially improved business outcomes’.

You could describe the remit of EIM as ‘everything information’. So, it’s not surprising that there are a number of components to EIM including Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM), Customer Experience Management (CEM), B2B Integration, Discovery and Analytics. While each component can be deployed individually, the power of EIM software comes when all components are combined into a complete end-to-end solution set.

What are the benefits of EIM?

To establish the benefits of EIM software, it’s useful to look at the problems it solves. Put simply, it addresses all issues that an organization faces when managing and exploiting the data and content within its business. EIM platforms have evolved to address the key pain points that all enterprises are facing when developing their information management strategies:

  • Central management and control of all information within the organization
  • The ability to handle and exploit structured and unstructured data wherever it resides
  • Seamless access to structured and unstructured data to enable effective digital business processes and workflows
  • Deliver an omnichannel experience for both customers and employees
  • Create closer, more effective relationships with customers, suppliers and other trading partners
  • Deliver enhanced data security and data sovereignty for all corporate data.
  • Ease the process of compliance with global regulations, industry standards and customer mandates

It’s worth remembering that the information that any enterprise has to handle is no longer solely generated internally. In fact, in areas such as CEM, the majority of information will soon be created externally to the organization but it still has to be captured, managed and distributed. Modern EIM solutions provide the capabilities to create an integrated enterprise information environment.

In addition, Digital Transformation initiatives can only succeed if the data created can be properly managed. Digital transformation has driven the implementation of disruptive technologies – such as the Cloud, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence – that organizations look to exploit for competitive advantage. Again, an EIM platform represents the only means to fully extracting the value from the mountains of data associated with these technologies.

What are the features of EIM?

There’s no ‘silver bullet’ solution for optimum EIM software. At the enterprise level, even basic information management can be a headache. And as technology advances, finding the best way to create, use and share that information has long since moved from a ‘nice-to-have’ to an essential part of any corporation’s IT strategy.

There should be six key pillars for successful EIM. Each individual enterprise will need to customize their own solution to meet their specific business needs, using:

  • Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
    Allows you to establish the best central location for all your content (on-premise or in the cloud) and set up the best processes for you to create, collate, manage and share it.
  • Business Process Management (BPM)
    Allows you to automate your day-to-day business processes to increase business agility and responsiveness while reducing the risk of human error and business inefficiency.
  • Customer Experience Management (CEM)
    Allows you to deliver the correct level of omnichannel, personalized and targeted experience demanded by your customers today. You can take control of all elements of customer communications at every stage of their customer journey.
  • B2B Integration
    Allows you to build and extend your trading partner networks to ensure the smooth and fast transacting of business anywhere in the world. You can work closely and collaborate with customers, suppliers and other partners using a central and secure platform for all information exchange.
  • Discovery
    Allows you to take control of all information within your organization and make it available when required for eDiscovery, auditing and compliance purposes. You have advanced processes and tools to help you search, extract, classify, review and analyse the content you need, when you need it.
  • Analytics
    Allows you to gain actionable insight that leads to better decision-making in every part of your enterprise. You have a range of advanced analytics tools to provide analysis quickly to the people who need it, in a format they can understand and on the device they require.

What do analysts say about EIM?

Gartner identifies the ‘high priorities’ for EIM’ that include: “Define your EIM vision and strategy. Make sure you identify the priorities for what information (data, analytics, processes or decisions) drives which business goals… Designate an EIM program manager and an initiative champion, their duties and their authority…. Complete an EIM maturity assessment to establish a baseline of action steps and success metrics for the first 100 days.”

Forrester highlights the fact that, with the growth of structured and unstructured data, it becomes essential to be able to manage both content and data on a single EIM platform. The company found that only 13% of respondents to the firm’s information management strategy and architecture survey felt they had a comprehensive plan to address both data and content. This is an area where OpenText is particularly strong.

Why choose OpenText for EIM?

OpenText is the world leader in EIM with over 25 years of successful EIM delivery. Today, the company has more than 34,00 EIM customers and over 65,000 EIM deployments worldwide. We deliver a powerful suite of software and services that that cover the full range of EIM requirements with more full time EIM professionals – over 2,800 – than any other company. Forrester recognises OpenText as a leader in EIM software, saying that the company has ‘launched products that begin to shape the EIM future’.

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OpenText

OpenText, The Information Company, enables organizations to gain insight through market-leading information management solutions, powered by OpenText Cloud Editions.

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