It pays to understand electronic content management terminology.
As with any sophisticated technology, electronic content management (ECM) comes with its own set of fancy terms and abbreviations. While an ECM system can save you lots of time filing and finding files, these terms can make understanding and comparing ECM systems take longer than necessary.
To eliminate this unnecessary confusion, we put together a quick list of important ECM terms with simple and practical definitions.
Batch Processing
A technique used to input information in one step.
Document Imaging
Software to store, manage, retrieve, and distribute documents.
Electronic Document Management
Imaging software to manage e-documents.
Forms Processing
An application for handling pre-printed forms.
Full-text Indexing and Search
Enables the retrieval of documents by word content.
HCR (Handprint Character Recognition)
OCR technology designed to turn images of handprint characters into ASCII code.
Input Designs
Templates used to enable authors to more easily enter content into a system, typically customized, based on the type and format of content to be entered.
Indexing
Identification of specific attributes of a document or database record to facilitate retrieval.
Index Fields
Database fields used to categorize and organize documents.
OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
A software process that recognizes printed text.
Workflow/BPM (Business Process Management)
Automation of business processes, in whole or in part, where documents, information, or tasks are passed from one participant to another for action, according to a set of rules. A business process is a logically related set of workflows, work steps, and tasks that provide a product or service to customers. BPM is a mix of Process Management/Workflow with Application Integration technology.