Processes´ Management and Enterprise Content Management

The ECM (Enterprise Content Management) technology has emerged in parallel with BPM (Business Process Management) technology. Although traditionally considered as additional tool, the truth is that it has always been used independently.

The latest market developments allow us to ensure that both technologies will work even more closely together, hand in hand, as the combination enables companies to generate higher returns by managing unified processes, people and content. The existing studies in this area are betting on an increase in both markets. Forrester forecasts an annual growth of 30% in the BPM environment, growing dramatically from 1,6 million US dollars in 2007 to 6,3 million US dollars by 2011. Estimates for content management and portals environment suggest a 20% growth rate. Together these applications and our ability to deliver them to the market gives us a winning business model.

The portals with content management and document management are undoubtedly one of the most sought after solutions by companies. Companies seek to establish direct channels of communication with their customers, employees, partners, distributors and suppliers. The publication of information and content, secure access to the various sections of the sites, and self-service by each of these user groups are highly desirable objectives.

As for the BPM technology, and not dissimilar to other technological innovations in our country, the main obstacle to the implementation of these systems is the limited market knowledge and understanding of its features and benefits. A secondary obstacle, somewhat related to the first, is the price of such solutions. It is perceived as expensive, as the medium and long term profitability is not considered. Finally there is a shortage of trained professionals able to leverage these technologies within client companies.

If the automation can be considered as a further step toward improving the internal processes of an organization (continuous improvement, reengineering, 6 Sigma,…), and give staff a clear vision of resulting business improvements in the short term a good deal can be achieved. Standardization of processes, detecting and removing bottlenecks, the removal of activities that do not add value, optimizing the flow of information, improving monitoring of the activities, and so on, will noticeably improve company performance.

The mission of the software solutions suppliers is to move from teach, to demonstrate, to encourage and reinforce the virtues of the systems optimization of the information, content and processes to improve business competitiveness. Difficulties and risks should be identified and deal with as part of the normal course of change in any organization.

My vision of BPM is not confined only to the automation and management of business processes, but also includes the management of the associated content and the development of customized portals that facilitate interaction with these processes. This enables rapid access, safe and effective to information that everyone needs to perform its tasks effectively.

Any business process implies the use of documents in different formats, shared through various channels. There is a continuous flow of information to be controlled, analyzed and managed, and that is directly linked to the business processes and the people who execute them.

The business processes generally involve a high level of human interaction, involving people in various departments or even outside the organization. They also require the handling of large amounts of information and documents for review or approval. Therefore, companies get even greater benefits from their investment in BPM technology when it is integrated with technologies for content management (ECM) and business portals

In addition it should be considered an essential part of managing processes with BPM technology, the necessary integration with existing systems within the organization facilitated by the integration of modules built into some solutions.

Therefore, I am sure that we will see increasing convergence between content management applications and process automation, leading to a consolidation of the sector and at the same time, a specialization of companies in their applications.

BPM plus ECM should to be consolidated into a single market offering, so that both technologies achieve a higher degree of integration

The benefits of implementing such systems are focused primarily on improving the efficiency by coordinating business processes, content and business information, increased of control on current activities through the display indicators in real time, an overall improvement in productivity thanks to the optimization of processes and activities, saving costs and downtime, improved standards of customer service levels through simulations of business processes and interactions with the holistic system.


Polymita Technologies offers an integrated platform that enables optimal document and content management, portal management and management and process automation (BPM + + WEB ECM).

Domingo Garcia Caro
Partner Account Manager

13-03-2008