ThereвЂ™s still a problem, though: If a version of the contract is also stored there, I still canвЂ™t tell if itвЂ™s the final version.ДЄnd this leads us to the idea of вЂњextended ECM.вЂќ By integrating ECM into the lead applications that across the enterprise, you can bring ALL the relevant information and documents associated with this customer and present it in one convenient view (to use another marketing phrase: a single source of the truth). I can see notes on calls with the customer, who the key contacts are, and metadata like the status of the contract. Were there later addendums? What if the copy I have only has my signature? Did the other party sign it and I just never received the countersigned PDF? Without that context, the document is of limited value.Д«ut if I can view that contract in, say, the context of a CRM application like Salesforce, the picture becomes clearer and that document becomes much more valuable. For example, a contract on my hard drive includes the names of the parties involved, which tells me something, but it canвЂ™t tell me if it is the most recent version. is significantly more valuable when itвЂ™s viewed within the framework of whatever business process or object it relates to. LetвЂ™s start with вЂњcontent in context.вЂќ This simply means that your unstructured information - documents, images, email, spreadsheets, etc. (Connie Moore at DCG does a good job explaining it in her recent blog post.) While I see how someone new to the concepts might think that, they are actually pretty accurate descriptions and, I think, important ones. I may be in marketing, but I like to think that I am not prone to marketing-speak however, I was recently giving a presentation when someone stopped me to say that вЂњcontent in contextвЂќ and вЂњextended ECMвЂќ ( Enterprise Content Management) sounded a lot like marketing buzzwords.

What is an ecm