I recently made a few posts related to the impact of the recession on the content and document management community:
- Warning: Icebergs Ahoy!
- Document Channel Strong Moving Into Recession
- Spot Survey of End Users Points to Challenges Ahead, But Resiliency
- 10 Commandments for an Effective DM Project
- 10 Fast Facts About Document Management Value
- 8 things to watch for in the coming recession
- SharePoint Déjà Vu – 4 Observations
- Bailout, Stock Collapse and IT Spending
I referenced these posts in a LinkedIn discussion (AIIM has a LinkedIn group with 3,000 members, why not sign up -- also, why not sign up for our InformationZen group -- now at 2,000+ members) and got some interesting comments back. The question was... “What do you see as the impact on the economy of CM projects?”
Here are some of the responses (edited slightly to protect the innocent and guilty alike). What do you think? What does all this craziness mean for our industry? Why not post a comment?
#1
I think that with a global financial crisis as this one, interventionism from geo-political unions will increase very much (to worldwide level). That will be the only way to prevent such stock exchange crashes in the banking sector worldwide. That will therefore push for new, more global regulations to allow quicker and more precise risk assessment. Hence, compliance will become not only a sectoral or regional issue, but a worldwide requirement for any major company.
I'm also convinced that communication will need to get improved to manage consistent and quick detailed situations to be communicated to masses via multiple channels. Web Content Management will need to integrate quicker and quicker informational as well as transactional content to provide real status on situations, and not only rumors, in order to prevent crazy speculations.
For me, process efficiency is only a short view to a long path. You don't set-up BPM in a second, and if cost cutting is concerned people prefer to freeze all investments and cut down personnel rather than invest in more efficient processes. Still compliance and content communication would be important assets to manage risk exposure for public companies.
#2
Operational efficiencies and ROI will obviously become critical in building a business case for CMS funding. The focus will be more on solving specific business issues.
Expect careful scrutiny from CFOs, extended product evaluations, and a forced collaboration between IT and Business to build consensus and keep initiatives on the front burner. Solution Providers who can help their prospects build a solid case combining clear value against Total Cost of Ownership should do well. Though a few verticals (such as higher education) will consume social networking functionality, system flexibility and user adoption will win out over trendy features. Nice-to-haves will get filtered out early.
#3
I agree that operational efficiencies and ROI are keys. Also, to further increase ROI, CMS should be positioned as infrastructure instead of an application. It should include the ability to integrate structured and unstructured repositories across the enterprise.
#4
Wasteful spending is a reality not only in government, but also in the corporate world. The need for business process efficiency and lean operations will continue to drive the adoption of content management during this recession. However, companies will look for recession-proof solutions such as open source and agile software development.
#5
As in any business the 'Cost of Ownership" is a major factor that needs to be considered in any project or purchase. In the times ahead there will be a greater focus on TCO. The market will look for companies that can offer that type of solution.
#6
We are seeing unprecedented growth towards Supported Open Source technology from organizations wanting to "Take Control" and achieve full ownership of any ECMS budget spend. Also our clients have strictly evaluated the financials of shortlisted vendors to protect them in case of any organizations going under.
#7
It's not all doom and gloom in the CMS space. There has been lots of talk about ROI but I haven't heard any mention of how managing web content helps companies drive top line revenue. The traditional ROI associated with CMS (productivity gains, time to web, etc) is important. However the companies I speak with are most interested in discovering how content drives the KPIs that matter to their business.
#8
While the numbers will speak for themselves on what the impact is, I would love to bring in an interesting conversation I recently had with the Marketing Head of a Bank. The bank had just decided to go in for a major investment on a WCM Platform for their internet properties.
I asked him why he thought it was prudent to spend on WCM in such times when even mission critical business applications are going under close cost scrutiny. What he replied was quite an eye-opener. According to him, this was best time to invest in CM technologies focused on clients…According to him, the cost of online conversion is much lower than the cost of offline conversion. That’s why a good “digital branch” fueled by a powerful WCM platform can help them be few steps ahead of the competition.
#9
CMS that is too costly will not be adopted. CMS that involves Open Source and a great ROI will be adopted.
The customer is thinking about costs involved and looking for a solution that will survive. The larger CMS vendors are at risk due to proprietary models IMHO…It's the solutions that provide support and the ability to modify that are going to provide the long-term solution for transformation and stand a better chance of getting budgeted.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
