Enterprise content management: Difference between revisions

Enterprise content management (ECM) is a widely-recognized IT-industry term for software technology that enables organizations to create/capture, manage/secure, store/retain/destroy, publish/distribute, search, personalize, and present/view/print digital content such as pictures/images, text, reports, video, audio, transactional data, catalog, code. ECM systems primarily focus on the capture, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of digital files for enterprise use and their life-cycle management.

ECM systems are generally tactical and non-discretionary expenditures, but they are increasingly being viewed as strategic core investments as organizations deal with accelerating business velocities, consolidation of redundant content management systems, exponential growth of content, and compliance issues (mandated or perceived). Moreover, these systems are becoming more infrastructure than application like.

Definition

The "official" definition of enterprise content management was created by AIIM international, the worldwide association for enterprise content management in the year 2000. The acronym ECM has been reinterpreted and redefined many times during the past years, replacing words like “create” or “customize” that were originally part of it.

In autumn 2005 AIIM defines ECM as follows:

Enterprise Content Management is the technologies used to Capture, Manage, Store, Preserve, and Deliver content and documents related to organizational processes.

Traditional archive, document management, and workflow functionalities from the document-related technologies field have been converted into or used to generate new product suites that combine web-based components with conventional products. In this context, content management generally becomes enterprise content management. This nomenclature is intended to demonstrate that it is not just about a company’s web-oriented face to the outside world, but about all of the structured and unstructured information in the company. Most solutions therefore still focus on intranets, or as they are often called, B2E (“business to employee”) systems. But from this approach come new components that make useful additions to content management - automatic classification in corporate taxonomies, profiling, web transactions archiving, and more.

Thus, the term enterprise content management refers to solutions that use Internet technologies, but concentrate on in-house information provision. The solutions tend to be enterprise portals for B2B as extranet and B2E as intranet. This category includes most of the former document management, groupware, and workflow vendors who have not yet fully converted their architecture, but simply put a web server in front of their applications. Enterprise content management follows a multilayered component approach that provides the necessary infrastructure for any application.

Characteristics

A comparison of the definitions of the different application fields of ECM and WCM makes it clear that the existing system category distinctions cannot last long, whether for products and technical platforms or for usage models. Solutions that are used as pure in-house solutions today will be made accessible to partners or customers tomorrow. The content and structure of today’s outward-directed web portal will be the platform for tomorrow's internal information system. In his article in ComputerWoche September 2001, Ulrich Kampffmeyer concentrated the claimed benefit of an enterprise content management system to three key ideas that distinguish such solutions from Web content management:

• "Enterprise Content Management as integrative middleware

ECM is used to overcome the restrictions of former vertical applications and island architectures. The user is basically unaware of using an ECM solution. ECM offers the requisite infrastructure for the new world of web-based IT, which is establishing itself as a kind of third platform alongside conventional host and client/server systems. Therefore, EAI Enterprise Application Integration and SOA Service Oriented Architecture will play an important role in the implementation and use of ECM.

• Enterprise Content Management components as independent services

ECM is used to manage Information without regard to the source or the required use. The functionality is provided as a service that can be used from all kinds of applications. The advantage of a service concept is that for any given functionality only one general service is available, thus avoiding redundant, expensive and difficult to maintain parallel functions. Therefore, standards for interfaces connecting different services will play an important role in the implementation of ECM.

• Enterprise Content Management as an uniform repository for all types of information

ECM is used as a content warehouse (both data warehouse and document warehouse) that combines company information in a repository with a uniform structure. Expensive redundancies and associated problems with information consistency are eliminated. All applications deliver their content to a single repository, which in turn provides needed information to all applications. Therefore, Content Integration and ILM Information Lifecycle Management will play an important role in the implementation and use of ECM.

Enterprise Content Management is working properly when it is effectively "invisible" to users. ECM technologies are infrastructures that support specialized applications as subordinate services. ECM thus is a collection of infrastructure components that fit into a multi-layer model and include all Document Related Technologies (DRT) for handling, delivering, and managing structured data and unstructured information jointly. As such, Enterprise Content Management is one of the necessary basic components of the overarching E-Business application area. ECM also sets out to manage all the information of a WCM and covers archiving needs as an universal repository."

Components of an enterprise content management system

Enterprise Content Management: ECM components. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003 <call for help see discussion page>

Enterprise content management systems combine a wide variety of technologies and components, some of which can also be used as stand-alone systems without being incorporated into an enterprise-wide system.

These ECM components and technologies can be categorized as:

• Capture,
• Manage,
• Store,
• Deliver, and long-term
• Preserve.

This model is based on the five lead categories of AIIM International.

The traditional application areas are:

• Document management (DM),
• Collaboration (or collaborative software, groupware),
• Web content management (WCM) (including portals),
• Records management (RM) (archive and filing management systems on long-term storage media) and
• Workflow / Business process management (BPM)

These form the “manage” components that connect Capture, Store, Deliver and Preserve and can be used in combination or separately. While Document Management, Web Content Management, Collaboration, Workflow and Business Process Management are more for the dynamic part of the life cycle of information, Records Management takes care of information which will no longer be changed. The utilization of the information is paramount throughout, whether through independent clients of the ECM system components, or by enabling existing applications that access the functionality of ECM services and the stored information. The integration of existing technologies makes it clear that ECM is not a new product category, but an integrative force.

The individual categories and their components will be examined in the following.

Capture

ECM: Capture. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

The “Capture” category contains functionalities and components for generating, capturing, preparing and processing analog and electronic information. There are several levels and technologies, from simple information capture to complex information preparation using automatic classification. Capture components are often also called “Input” components.

Manually generated and captured information

Manual capture can involve all forms of information, from paper documents to electronic office documents, e-mails, forms, multimedia objects, digitized speech and video, and microfilm.

Automatic or semi-automatic capture can use EDI or XML documents, business and ERP applications or existing specialist application systems as sources.

Technologies for processing captured information

Various recognition technologies are used to process scanned documents and digital faxes, among them:

• OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

This converts image information into machine-readable characters. OCR is used for type.

• HCR (Handprint Character Recognition)

This refinement of OCR converts handwriting or lettering into machine characters, but does not yet give satisfactory results for running text. However, for defined field content, it has become very reliable.

• ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition)

ICR is a further development of OCR and HCR, that uses comparison, logical connections, and checks against reference lists and existing master data to improve results.

• OMR (Optical Mark Recognition)

OMR, as used for barcodes for example, reads special markings in predefined fields with very high accuracy. It has proven its value in questionnaires and other forms.

• Barcode

Barcodes on mailed forms allow for the automatic recognition and filing of returns.

Document Imaging

Document imaging processing techniques are used to show scanned images, and also allow legibility enhancement for capture. Functions like “despeckling,” which removes isolated pixels, or “adjustment,” which straightens images from sheets that feed in at an angle, improve the results of recognition technologies. Document imaging functions are used in capture quality control.

Forms processing

In forms capture, there are two groups of technologies, although the information content and character of the documents may be identical.

• Forms Processing

Forms Processing means the capture of industrially or individually printed forms via scanning. Recognition technologies are often used here, since well-designed forms enable largely automatic processing.

• E-Forms / Web-Forms

Automatic processing can be used to capture electronic forms as long as the layout, structure, logic and contents are known to the capture system.

COLD

COLD/ERM are technologies for the automatic processing of structured entry data. COLD stands for Computer Output to Laser Disk and is still in use although laser disks have not been on the market for years. The acronym ERM here stands for Enterprise Report Management. In both, supplied output data is processed based on existing structure information in such a way that it can be indexed independently of the origination system, and transferred to a storage component that can be dynamic (Store) or an archive (Preserve).

Aggregation

Is a process of combining data entries from different creation, capture, and delivery applications. The goal is to combine and unify data from different sources, in order to pass them on to storage and processing systems with a uniform structure and format.

Components for subject indexing of captured information

Systems incorporate further components for subject indexing and getting captured digital information to the appropriate recipients. These include:

• Indexing (manual)

In English parlance, indexing refers to the manual assignment of index attributes used in the database of a “manage” component for administration and access.

• Input Designs (profiles)

Both automatic and manual attributing can be made easier and better with preset profiles. These can describe document classes that limit the number of possible index values, or automatically assign certain criteria. Input designs also include entry masks and their logic in manual indexing.

• Categorization (automatic classification or categorizing)

Based on the information contained in electronic information objects, whether OCR-converted faxes, office files or output files, automatic classification programs can extract index, category, and transfer data autonomously. These systems can evaluate information based on predefined criteria or in a self-learning process.

The objective of all “Capture” components is the provision of information to the “Manage” components for further processing or archiving.

Manage

ECM: Manage components. Quelle: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

The Manage components are for the management, processing, and use of information. They incorporate:

• Databases for administration and retrieval, and
• Access authorization systems

The goal of a closed ECM system is to provide these two components just once as services for all “Manage” solutions such as Document Management, Collaboration, Web Content Management, Records Management and Workflow / Business Process Management. To link the various “Manage” components, they should have standardized interfaces and secure transaction processes for inter-component communication.

DM – Document Management

ECM: Document Management. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

Document management in this context does not refer to the industry known in Europe as DMS, but to document management systems in the narrower “classical” sense. These systems control documents from their creation through to long-term archiving. Document management includes functions like:

• Check in/Check out

For checking stored information for consistency

• Version management

To keep track of different versions of the same information with their revisions and renditions (same information in a different format)

• Search and navigation

For finding information and its associated contexts

• Visualizing

For showing information in structures like virtual files, folders, and overviews

However, the functions or Document Management increasingly overlap with those of the other “Manage” components, the ever-expanding functionalities of office applications like Outlook/Exchange or Notes/Domino, and the characteristics of “Library Services” for administering information storage.

Collaboration (collaborative systems, groupware)

ECM: Collaboration. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

Collaboration actually simply means “working together”. However, these solutions, which developed from conventional groupware, now go much further and include elements of Knowledge Management. Collaboration includes the following functions:

• Jointly usable information databases
• Joint, simultaneous, controlled information processing
• Knowledge based on skills, resources and background data for joint information processing
• Administration components such as whiteboards for brainstorming, appointment scheduling, project management etc.
• Communication application such as video conferencing
• Integration of information from other applications in the context of joint information processing

WCM – Web Content Management

ECM-Komponenten: Web Content Management. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

Enterprise Content Management claims to integrate Web Content Management. However, information presented on the Internet and Extranet or on a portal should only be data that is already present in the company, whose delivery is controlled by access authorization and storage. Web Content Management includes the following functions, among others:

• Creation of new or editing of existing information in a controlled generation and publishing process
• Delivery and administration of information for the web presentation
• Automatic conversion for various display formats, personalized display and versions
• Secure separation of access to public and non-public information
• Visualization for Internet presentation (browser, HTML, XML etc.)

RM - Records Management (file and archive management)

ECM: Records Management. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

Unlike with traditional electronic archival systems, Records Management (RM; Electronic Records Management or ERM) refers to the pure administration of records, important information and data that companies are required to archive. Records Management is independent of storage media, and can also manage information stored otherwise than in electronic systems. Among the functions of Records Management are:

• Visualisation of file plans and other structured indexes for the orderly storage of information
• Unambiguous indexing of information, supported by thesauri or controlled wordlists
• Management of record retention schedules and deletion schedules
• Protection of information in accordance with its characteristics, sometimesdown to individual content components in documents
• Use of international, industry-specific or at least company-wide standardized meta-data for the unambiguous identification and description of stored information

Wf - Workflow / BPM - Business Process Management

ECM-Komponenten: Workflow / Business Process Management. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

Workflow and Business Process Management differ substantially.

There are different types of Workflow, for example:

• “Production Workflow” which uses predefined sequences to guide and control processes
• “Ad-Hoc Workflow” in which the user determines the process sequence on the fly.

Workflow solutions can be implemented as:

• “Workflow solutions” with autonomous clients which users mostly work with, or as
• “Workflow Engines” which act as a background service controlling the information and data flow, without requiring an own client for this.

Workflow Management includes the following functions, among others:

• Visualisation of process and organization structures
• Capture, administration, visualization, and delivery of grouped information with its associated documents or data
• Incorporation of data processing tools (such as specific applications) and documents (such as office products)
• Parallel and sequential processing of procedures including simultaneous saving
• Reminders, deadlines, delegation and other administration functionalities
• Monitoring and documentation of process status, routing, and outcomes
• Tools for designing and displaying process

The objective is to largely automate processes by incorporating all necessary resources.

BPM or Business Process Management goes a step further than Workflow. Although the words are often used interchangably. BPM aims at the complete integration of all affected applications within an enterprise, with monitoring of processes and assembling of all required information. Among BPM’s functions are:

• Complete workflow functionality
• Process and data monitoring at the server level
• EAI or Enterprise Application Integration, to link different applications
• BI or Business Intelligence, with rule structures, integration of information warehouses, and utilities that assist users in their work.

Today, “Manage” components are offered individually or integrated as suites. In many cases they already include the “Store” components.

Store

ECM: Store. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

“Store” components are used for the temporary storage of information which it is not required or desired to archive. Even if it uses media that are suitable for long-term archiving, “Store” is still separate from “Preserve.”

The “Store” components listed by AIIM can be divided into three categories: “Repositories” as storage locations, “Library Services” as administration components for repositories, and storage “Technologies.” These infrastructure components are sometimes held at the operating system level like the file system, and also include security technologies which will be discussed farther below in the “Deliver” section. However, security technologies including access control are superordinated components of an ECM solution.

Repositories

Different kind of ECM repositories can be used in combination. Among the possible kinds are:

• File System

File systems are used primarily for temporary storage, as input and output caches. The goal of ECM is to reduce the data burden on the file system and make the information generally available through “Manage”, “Store” and “Preserve” technologies.

• Content Management System

This is the actual storage system for content, which can be a database or a specialized storage system.

• Databases

Databases administer access information, but can also be used for the direct storage of documents, content, or media assets.

• Data Warehouses

These are complex storage systems based on databases, which reference or provide information from all kinds of sources. They can also be designed with more global functions as Document or Information Warehouses.

Library Services

Library Services have to do with libraries only in a metaphorical way. They are the administrative components close to the system that handle access to information. The Library Service is responsible for taking in and storing information from the Capture and Manage components. It also manages the storage locations in dynamic storage, the actual “Store”, and in the long-term “Preserve” archive. The storage location is determined only by the characteristics and classification of the information. The Library Service works in concert with the database of the “Manage” components. This serves the necessary functions of

• Search, and
• Retrieval

While the database does not “know” the physical location of a stored object, the Library Service manages the

• Online storage (direct access to data and documents)
• Nearline storage (data and documents on a medium that the drive can access, but for which robotics or something similar must first be set up)
• Offline storage (data and documents on a medium that is removed from system access).

If there is not a superordinated document managmenet system to provide the functionality, the Library Service must have

• Version management to control the status of information
• Check-in/Check-out, for controlled information provision

An important Library Service function is the generation of logs and journals on information usage and edits, called an “audit trail.”

Storage Technologies

A wide variety of technologies can be used to store information, depending on the application and system environment:

• Read and Write Magnetic Online Media

This includes hard drives as RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) server drive subsystems, SAN (Storage Area Networks) as storage infrastructures and NAS (Network Attached Storage) as directly accessible network storage areas.

• Magnetic Tape

In automated storage units like “Libraries” or “Silos” with robotics for access, used like DAT in smaller environments for backup but not online access.

• Digital Optical Media

CD (CD-R for write-once, read-only Compact Disk, CD/RW for read-and-write Compact Disk), DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), MO (Magneto Optical), and other formats can be used for storage and distribution, or in jukeboxes for online storage.

Preserve

ECM: Preserve. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

The “Preserve” components of ECM handle the long-term, safe storage and backup of static, unchanging information, as well as temporary storage of information that it is not desired or required to archive. This is sometimes called “electronic archiving,” but that has substantially broader functionality than that of “Preserve.” Electronic archiving systems today generally consist of a combination of administration software like Records Management, Imaging or Document Management, Library Services (IRS - Information Retrieval Systeme) and storage subsystems.

But it is not just electronic media that are suitable for long-term archiving. For purely securing information microfilm is still viable, and is now offered in hybrid systems with electronic media and database-supported access. The decisive factor for all long-term storage systems is the timely planning and regular performance of migrations, in order to keep information available in the changing technical landscape. This ongoing process is called Continuous Migration. The “Preserve” components contain special viewers, conversion and migration tools, and long term storage media:

Long term storage media

• WORM Optical Disk

WORM (Write Once Read Many) rotating digital optical storage media, which include the classic 5 ¼” or 3 ½” WORM disc in protective sleeve, as well as CD-R and DVD-R. Recording methods vary for these media, which are held in jukeboxes for online and automated nearline access.

• WORM Tape

Magnetic tapes with WORM characteristics are used in special drives, that can be as secure as a traditional WORM medium if used properly with specially secured tapes.

• WORM Hard Disk

Magnetic disk storage with special software protection against overwriting, erasure, and editing, delivers similar security like a traditional WORM medium. An example is CAS Content Addressed Storage.

• Storage Networks

Storage networks like NAS Network Attached Storage and SAN Storage Area Networks can also be used if they meet the requirements of edit-proof auditing acceptability with unchangeable storage, protection against manipulation and erasure, etc.

• Microfilm

Microforms like microfilm, aperture cards, jackets a.s.o. can be used to backup information that is no longer in use and does not require machine processing.

• Paper

Paper still has applications as a long-term storage medium, since it does not require migration, and can be read without any technical aids. However, like microfilm it is used only to double secure originally electronic information.

Long term preservation strategies

To secure the long term availability of information different strategies are used for electronic archives.

• Migration

Continuous migration of applications, index data, meta data and objects from older systems to new ones generates a lot of work but secures the accessibility and usability of information, and allows during this process to delete no longer relevant information. Conversion technologies are used to update the formats of the stored information.

• Emulation

Emulation of older software allows to run and access the original data and objects. As well special viewer software can identify the formats of the preserved objects and can display the objects in the new software environment.

Standards for interfaces, meta data, data structures and object formats are important to secure the availability of information.

Deliver

ECM: Deliver. Source: AIIM / PROJECT CONSULT 2003

The “Deliver” components of ECM are used to present information from the “Manage”, “Store”, and “Preserve” components. They also contain functions used to enter information in systems (such as information transfer to media or generation of formatted output files) or for readying (for example converting or compressing) information for the “Store” and “Preserve” components. Since the AIIM component model is function-based and not to be regarded as an architecture, we can assign these and other components here. The functionality in the “Deliver” category is also known as “output” and summarized under the term “Output Management.”

The “Deliver” components comprise three groups of functions and media: Transformation Technologies, Security Technologies, and Distribution. Trans¬formation and Security as services belong on the middleware level and should be available to all ECM components equally. For Output two functions are of primary importance:

• Layout/Design

With tools for layouting and formatting output, and

• Publishing

Applications for presenting Information for distribution and publication.

Transformation technologies

Transformations should always be controlled and trackable. This is done by background services which the end user generally does not see. Among the transformation technologies are:

• COLD / ERM

As distinct from “Capture” components, it prepares output data for distribution and transfer to the archive. Typical applications are lists and formatted output, for example individualized customer letters. These technologies also include journals and logs generated by the ECM components.

• Personalization

This is no longer just a function of web-based portals, but applies to all ECM components. Personalization gives the user just those functions and information that he or she needs.

• XML (eXtended Markup Language)

A description language that allows description of interfaces, structures, metadata, and documents. XML is becoming the universal technology for describing information.

• PDF (Portable Document Format)

An intelligent print and distribution format that enables the platform-independent presentation of information. Unlike pure image formats like TIFFs, PDFs permit content searches, the addition of metadata, and the embedding of electronic signatures.

• Converters and Viewers

Serve to reformat information to generate uniform formats, and also to display and output information from different formats.

• Compression

Used to reduce the storage space needed for pictorial information. The ITU process (CCITT) is used for b/w for TIFFs, and JPEG2000 for color images. ZIP softwares allow the compression of any kind of data for transfer.

• Syndication

Used for presenting content in different formats, selections and forms in the context of Content Management. Syndication allows the same content to be used multiple times in different forms for different purposes.

Security Technologies

Security technologies are cross-section functions that are available to all ECM components. For example, electronic signatures are used not only when documents are sent, but also in data capture via scanning, in order to document the completeness of the capture. PKI (Public/Private Key Infrastructure) is a basic technology for electronic signatures. It manages keys and certificates, and checks the authenticity of signatures. Other electronic signatures demonstrate the identity of the sender and the integrity of the sent data, i.e. that it is complete and unchanged. In Europe there are three forms of electronic signatures, of different quality and security: simple, advanced, and qualified. In most European states the qualified electronic signature is legally admissible in legal documents and contracts. Finally, there is Digital Rights Management/Watermarking. This is used in Content Syndication and in MAM (Media Asset Management) for managing and securing intellectual property rights and copyrights. It works with techniques like electronic watermarks that are integrated directly into the file, and seeks to protect usage rights and protect content that is published on the Internet.

Distribution

All of the above technologies basically serve to provide the various contents of an ECM to target users by various routes, in a controlled and user-oriented manner. These can be active components such as e-mail, data media, memos, and passive publication on websites and portals where users can get the information themselves. Possible output and distribution media are:

• Internet, extranet and intranet
• E-business portals
• E-mail and fax
• Data transfer by EDI, XML or other formats
• Mobile devices like mobile phones, communicators and others
• Data media like CDs and DVDs
• Digital TV and other multimedia services
• Paper

The job of the various “Deliver” components is to provide information to users in the best way for the given application, while controlling its use as far as possible.

Outlook

The former member of the board of directors of AIIM international, Ulrich Kampffmeyer, states in his whitepaper on ECM in 2003: "Document technologies like Enterprise Content Management make traditional data processing complete. They bring together structured, weakly structured, and unstructured information. Every company, every government agency, and every organization must confront the subject. Even if there are no immediate plans to implement such a system, it sneaks into the organization of its own accord – with the next server licence update, with the next office software suite, with the next database or ERP upgrade. In many companies with heterogeneous IT landscapes, the question of which redundant functionalities of existing products are unused is already more important than whether to invest in a new software system. The most important job is to keep in-house information under control. The questions add up: where to put the thousands and thousands of e-mails, what to do with the electronically signed business correspondence, where to put taxation-relevant data, how to transfer information from the disorganized file system, how to consolidate information in a repository that everybody can use, how to get a single login for all the systems, how to create a uniform in-basket for all incoming information, how to make sure that no information is lost or ignored, etc. etc. Document technologies play an important role in all these questions. ECM solutions are necessary basic components for many applications.

Every potential user will naturally consider his own individual needs before deciding on a system. However, putting off decisions does not make them less necessary. Every year something supposedly better and easier to use will come along, but waiting will just mean never installing anything. Every time the decision is put off, the mountain of uncontrolled and unused information gets bigger, and known problems get larger. A sensible long-term migration strategy removes the fear of fast technology change. The basic functions of document technology are mature, and most products are reliable, stable, secure, and increasingly affordable. In many industries, the use of document technology makes the difference in staying competitive. ECM - Enterprise Content Management – should be a part of every modern IT infrastructure."

ECM market development

Gartner, is a leading industry analyst firm, estimates that by midyear 2006, 50 percent of ECM vendors will merge or be acquired (0.6 probability). By 2008, 75 percent of Global 2000 companies will have a desktop-focused and a process-focused content management implementation (0.9 probability). ECM will continue to absorb other technologies, such as digital asset management and e-mail management. There will be further market consolidation, acquisition and separation of vendors into platform and solution providers.

According to Gartner reports, the ECM market leaders are Open Text, EMC (Documentum), IBM, FileNet, Vignette, Stellent and Interwoven.

Other companies offering some form of ECM solutions include Objective, Xerox, Oracle Corporation, RedDot, TOWER Software, Hummingbird, and Hyland Software. Microsoft has recently argued that its forthcoming versions of Office, SharePoint, and Vista with embedded workflow represent an ECM solution.

Nuxeo CPS and Alfresco are open source ECM platform.

Literature and source of this article

• ECM definition by AIIM International
• Original ECM article by the German consulting company PROJECT CONSULT

External links

• AIIM the international association for Enterprise Content Management
• ECM vendors list (in PDF format) with product classification covering Europe
• CMS Watch the ECM channel on CMS Watch.
• CM Pros the Content Management Community of Practice.

See also

• Repository OSID
• Enterprise Content Integration