Sydney, 5 March 2004.

Businesses that fail to understand enterprise content management are likely to waste large portions of their IT and operational budgets. This is the finding of a recent report based on research conducted amongst 200 companies across Australia and New Zealand.

The survey, commissioned by IBM and conducted by ACA Research in mid-2003, found that call centres could save up to $750,000 annually by applying enterprise content management across their organisations. C-level executives and call centre managers surveyed said that additional to this six-figure saving, enterprise content management significantly increases customer service, customer satisfaction and quality assurance; while reducing the cost per customer transaction.

"While savings are a benefit, the true advantage of enterprise content management is the potential for growing business revenues. However, with managers not completely appreciating enterprise content management, they may actually squander large chunks of IT and operational budgets," says Mike McKee, brand manager, data management, IBM Australia/New Zealand.

The research found that very few company executives have a complete understanding of enterprise content management, although they are familiar with elements such as information storage and management, archiving, records management, data warehousing and knowledge management. The survey also found that the average investment in content management is set to increase by 25 per cent to $250,000 over the next two years.

"The fact that companies are planning to increase spending on something which is not understood should concern management teams across all industries," adds McKee.

Successful enterprise content management means relevant and accurate information is readily available to employees of a business, a major asset in establishing and managing profitable business transactions. It provides an integrated view of all records and information associated with a business transaction, irrespective of whether the information is presented in multimedia, forms, electronic records or paper files and notes.

IBM cautions businesses from rushing to establish enterprise content management practices by selecting point solutions. The business advantages and cost savings can only be realised through integrating existing content infrastructures with technology that has been designed to cater for all types of information.

ENDS