Enterprise content management solutions in the context of information lifecycle management (ILM).

Enterprise Content Management is an interesting science. Software related to managing such content has proliferated over the years and recent acquisitions in the ECM industry show how widespread its adoption is and its strength in the information technology market. The intent of this research on Enterprise Content Management Systems in the context of Information Lifecycle Management is to establish whether businesses that invest in ECM recognize the need to be able to manage information that is heterogeneous by putting in place policies, procedures and personnel to specifically manage such a unique solution. Thus, implementers and users of ECM solutions from various industries such as the government, banking and healthcare, were invited to complete a web-based survey questionnaire that was designed with close ended questions to meet the research objectives and to enable ease of statistical tabulation and analysis. This study has investigated whether ECM adopters have a tactical or strategic roadmap for the management of their information, whether their organisations have established new information management policies to cater to information stored in their ECM systems, whether various stakeholders from their organisations participate in decisions pertaining to management of the information in their ECM system, whether information is classified according to its financial value and the roles and responsibilities of those who manage information. Key findings of this study indicate that ECM solutions are largely implemented to cater to specific business needs and not necessarily with the intent to converge enterprise content into a single solution. The implication is that information lifecycle will continue to be managed within silo application systems. Perhaps, the next step would be to record proven methods of converging and managing content flow in an ECM system to serve as a framework for ECM adopters.Master of Science (Information Studies