In The Press

With ECM 2.0, we are starting to see both better OCR with components like Amazon Textract, as well as the ability to add Machine Learning to feed corrections into the process to improve the results over time. To quote Alan Pelz-Sharpe, long-time ECM analyst at Deep Analysis:

“First generation capture products will give way to Machine Learning approaches over the next few years, bringing flexibility and organic adaptation to formerly fixed capture situations”

The key to figuring out where to start with AI, is to understand that AI allows you to fundamentally reimagine how you work. That doesn’t mean you should immediately embark on a massive digital transformation project or that you should rip and replace your existing systems. In fact, you can, and should, start small. But whether you have grand or modest ambitions, you do have to think differently. Knowing how to think differently, is the key to unlocking AI’s potential.

Part of the problem, says Alan Pelz-Sharpe, principal analyst at Deep Analysis, a firm that watches the content management space, is that the company failed to hit its projections, combined with weaker guidance; a tough combination, but he points out the future does look bright for the company.

Another interesting finding was that over 28 percent of Office 365 customers also use G Suite. Analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe, founder of industry analyst firm Deep Analysis, explained why this might be happening. “In our experience Office 365 customers often buy the license solely for Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc. not for the whole suite of capabilities. It can cause problems, but most people double bundle because they prefer specific aspects of the other system and juggle between them well.”

The thinking behind this paper was to understand what alternatives innovative customers are considering when it comes to moving from Legacy ECM 1.0 to modern ECM 2.0 capabilities on-premise or in the cloud.  Alan Pelz-Sharpe and the analysts of Deep Analysis conducted a deep dive into Big Data and particularly NoSQL databases, Hadoop and DynamoDB.

Alan Pelz-Sharpe, founder and principal analyst at Deep Analysis, who has been following this market for many years, says the fact it’s an Extensions partner should allow much faster integration than would happen normally in an acquisition like this. “Simple document processes that relate to small and medium business are still largely manual. The fact that HelloSign  has solutions for things like real estate, insurance and customer/employee on boarding, plus the existing extension to Dropbox, means it can be leveraged quickly for revenue growth by Dropbox, Pelz-Sharpe explained.

Transparency is an important topic for any company looking to implement or use artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This is because some AI systems are essentially black boxes—you have no idea how they came to a decision—while others are more transparent and explainable. Many enterprise buyers want a reasonable level of transparency in their AI systems, but most AI developers only pay lip service to this requirement.

As you may know, AIIM recently launched a new training course titled Practical AI for the Information Professional. The challenge presented to my colleague Kashyap and I was to take a very complex and hyped topic and make it understandable and relevant to the real world needs of the business — cutting through the hype, demystifying the technology and providing sound advice and guidance.

He makes a good argument and SpringCM makes for a good buy for DocuSign, according to industry analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe of Deep Analysis. “SpringCM pivoted a few years ago to focus on contract management and so digital signatures are an integral part of any delivered system. They were also arguably the first SaaS ECM system but were ahead of there time so the match up with DocuSign makes good sense.”

These days, all the talk is about how enterprise content management (ECM) is (to quote Gartner) “dead, kaput, finite, an ex-market name.” In some circles, the industry’s lexicon has moved on to a new term: content services. So, the question is, “Is there an ECM marketplace still?”