Been looking for a better way to manage your organization’s documents and records? Terms like “Enterprise Content Management” and “Content Services Platform” can be confusing as you’re going through the research process.
The term “Content Services Platform” (CSP) has largely replaced “Enterprise Content Management” (ECM) in recent years to describe software applications such as Laserfiche as their capabilities have grown. ECM refers primarily to how information is stored and delivered, while CSP includes additional capabilities such as connecting platforms together and supporting digital transformation overall.
These terms are coined by industry analysts (Gartner, Forrester, IDC, etc.) to represent a category of similar technology offerings.
Let’s take a deeper look.
Enterprise Content Management
Enterprise Content Management is the strategy, methods, and tools used to allow organizations to capture, manage, organize, preserve, store, and deliver vital information for the right people at the right time through the right channels.
Content Services Platform
Content Services Platform is an integrated platform that provides content-focused services, repositiories, APIs, solutions, and business process tools to support digital business and transformation.
Let's Dig Deeper...
| ECM | CSP | |
|---|---|---|
| Process Focus | Content-Oriented Processes | Service-Oriented Processes |
| Integration | Operations with a Single System | Employ a strong recipe and integrated technology to achieve goals |
| Infrastructure | On-Premise | Cloud-Based |
| Sharing | Limited Integration Support | API-Driven |
| AI Adoption | Manual Reports to Optimize Automation | AI-Enabled Automation |
| Content Sources | One Place to Store All Content | Data and Content Connected to Other Sources |
| Adoption | Single Department or Use Case | Multiple Repositories, Use Cases Across the Enterprise |
| User Experience | Static UX | Customizable for Users |
| Low-Code | Requires Development Skills | Full Graphical Workflow and Form Designer with Advanced Capabilities |
Regardless of the name, the goal of these applications is not strictly content storage, but how content is used by individuals and teams (internally and externally).
Plans and strategies shift from dwelling on content problems to business problems that happen to involve content.
We are a proud technology partner of Laserfiche for over 20 years. We watched the evolution of the platform from ECM to CSP. Laserfiche’s commitment to developing their cloud product offering and integrations library is an exciting evolution. We actively contribute to their automation template library and build many integrations to applications like NEOGOV, PeopleSoft, Tyler EnerGov, PDI and many more.
