Content Management Software As A Service Comes Of Age

It has taken quite some time, but it seems that centrally hosted content management tools are finally beginning to reach critical mass. And as content management Software as a Service offerings (SaaS) become more reliable and feature rich, there's no reason to expect the trend of businesses adopting them to slow down.

There's a good piece by Marcia Jedd on software as a service in the September/October issue of AIIM's Infonomics. Titled "The Next Big Thing? Software as a Service Takes on Enterprise Content Management," the piece looks at a few different examples of software as a service in the content management arena including, Xythos andSalesforce (NYSE: CRM).com's content tools. From the article:

A recent study by market intelligence firm AMI-Partners...found that 21 percent of small businesses and 31 percent of mid-size enterprises use SaaS solutions today - double the percentage of just four years ago. But what about using SaaS for enterprise content management (ECM)? In this realm, many small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and even large enterprises are now turning to SaaS for on-demand solutions.

Although Jedd's article mentions reliability, scalability and security as three of the most critical drivers of SaaS adoption, I don't think you can discount the importance of the cost savings (both initial and ongoing), as well as a reduced reliance on internal IT resources.

Selecting and implementing a SaaS content management solution can be daunting, but the article gives some good general pointers and looks at a number of different solutions. There are a few other interesting pieces in the magazine and you can get a digital edition of the September/October issue of AIIM's Infonomics (formerly E-DOC Magazine) at Infonomicsmag.com. You'll need to create a free account to view the content, but once you have one, you can also download the issue as a PDF.

Article source : informationweek.com