ject: Reach the Low-Hanging Fruit of Content
Reach the Low-Hanging Fruit of Content
By Shannon Pitchford / Electronic Commerce Times
March 27, 2003
Document management systems could be "low-hanging fruit" for resellers. But
will they see the forest for the trees, or will the paper trail bypass the
writing on the wall?
As multiple industries become driven by a combination of time and knowledge
management, efficiency in the collation and propagation of this data will
be a key business driver.
Document and content management are becoming increasingly important as
companies realise the value of the intellectual property represented within
these documents.
The fact is that documents are a serious headache. In the current economic
climate, few would argue that all business processes are constantly being
revisited in a bid to increase efficiencies.
With documents, however, there is still a chasm of inefficiency to be
crossed, specifically in the management of content. Literally, this means
the wording within a document.
The inefficient handling of content presents the opportunity to provide
compelling solutions.
Because of the growing interest in document and content collaboration,
especially in particular vertical sectors, this has become an increasingly
appealing market for VARs.
These products offer good margin to the reseller as well as the ability to
provide additional services, such as training and consulting, for business
analysis.
Seat-based licensing models, inherent in software solutions, also provide
resellers with clear up-selling opportunities.
This comes at a time when VARs are struggling with traditionally strong
products, such as networking hardware and servers. Companies overbought a
few years ago, expecting significant bandwidth expansion.
Now they are recognising that a lot of assets are intangible, so they need
a document/content management system to protect their property.
Organisations that realise the importance of their documents were the first
to invest in document management systems (DMSs), content management systems
and enterprise content management infrastructure.
They are now looking for solutions to assist them with their document
change management needs.
Legal, financial and pharmaceutical organisations have generally been the
first to adopt DMS technology, because they are also the first to recognise
that documents do not hold much value if the content is not manageable or
adaptable.
These are 'low-hanging fruit' opportunities for the channel. One question
remains: Will resellers see the wood for the trees, or will the paper trail
simply pass by the writing on the wall?
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