"Corporations are people”: SaaS for ECM

Consumers are using variety of web tools to deal with rapidly accumulating personal data
Content is a critical component for consumers and enterprises alike.

With the proliferation of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin and others, consumers of the web have to manage the huge amount of data that accumulates whether it is in their email inbox, Facebook history, Linkedin profile and many other channels. This data overload is even more acute at the enterprise level where private web or intranet (i.e. exchange of messages, documents, media, etc… behind enterprise firewall) is accumulating fast.

To capture, archive, prioritize content, and make date searchable and retrievable is one of the pillars behind successful enterprises. This is what providers of enterprise content management (ECM) aim to accomplish and when done properly its benefits to the enterprise is tangible and quantitative. In fact, one recent study by Nucleus Research suggests that for “every dollar a company spend on content management, it gets back $6.12”.

Many consumers are responding to data overload by turning to online services to manage their contents. Services such as those offered by Dropbox, which backup selected documents or Evernote, which organizes personal web content are just some of the examples of the tools the consumers are utilizing to manage their web content. The success of these services is in large part attributed to their distribution via software-as-a-service business (SaaS) model.

This leads to the following question: Is the enterprise community and especially small businesses ready to adopt a SaaS model for their content management?
In our opinion, the simple answer is yes.

Web tools created for the consumers are making their way into SMBs workflow. Many of the same consumers subscribed to SaaS companies are the ones working for enterprises. Or in other words, to borrow a phrase from Mitt Romney - ‘Corporations are people’. While this statement is regarded as a campaign gaffe, the fact is that consumers have validated the use of SaaS and would be open to bring this model inside their enterprise. We at Readyportal view our web solution package as an enabler to small businesses that can get them on an even playing field with their bigger competitors.
By adopting Readyportal solution, small businesses not only get a top rate website but they receive whole suite of services to build their intranet capabilities such as document management, media management, file sharing capabilities, social collaboration tools and many other features. The end result is the creation of a corporate intranet web solution that seamlessly brings order to their organization while keeping their clients, partners and customers engaged.

The SaaS model allows all these features to be incorporated in an agile manner while providing technical support, removing worries regarding software updates, bug fixes, patches, hosting costs and increased content security.