With the increased usage of smartphones and tables in business, mobility has become an enterprise requirement. More and more business applications are now getting extended to smartphones and tablets for increasing the responsiveness and productivity of employees. ECM vendors have also realized the benefit of giving secure access of corporate content to knowledge workers right from their smartphones and tablets. This space is evolving as customers have started using mobile applications and many ECM vendors have already launched their native mobile ECM applications over iOS, Android, BlackBerry and other mobile operating systems.

1. Improve workforce collaboration, response and productivity by giving
access to ECM system over their smartphones and tablets…
Author : K.V. Rajesh, ECM Consultant

2. Introduction Smartphones and tablets combined make up 70%
of all devices sold in 2012. The total is expected to
A large portion of corporate information lies in reach 821 million by the end of the year –
paper, images, emails, photographs etc., which Gartner.
are highly unstructured. Organizations carry the
risk of their managers missing key information, Smartphones and tablets won't entirely replace
lying in unstructured content, while taking PCs for most businesses, "but the ubiquity of
business decisions. To bring this unstructured smartphones and the increasing popularity of
content into their main stream business processes tablets are changing the way businesses look at
and maximize its value, Enterprise Content their device strategies," said Carolina Milanesi,
Management (ECM) technologies have evolved. one of Gartner's smart device analysts.
With the increased usage of smartphones and Going mobile, helps business significantly improve
tablets in business, mobility has become an their employee’s productivity and efficiency.
enterprise requirement. More and more business According to Ipsos Reid BlackBerry ROI Study, a
applications are now getting extended to Blackberry business user gains 6 weeks of
smartphones and tablets for increasing the productivity in a year.
responsiveness and productivity of employees.
ECM vendors have also realized the benefit of Email has been the successful application for
giving secure access of corporate content to enterprise mobility, but new generation of mobile
knowledge workers right from their smartphones applications are emerging to allow mobile
and tablets. This space is evolving as customers workers to do so much more. Mobile applications
have started using mobile applications and many are broadening their scope to address the needs
ECM vendors have already launched their native of line-of-business workers in several areas.
mobile ECM applications over iOS, Android,
BlackBerry and other mobile operating systems.
Business going mobile
Today's workers are increasingly mobile and a
majority of organizations are working towards
supporting their growing number of employees
who are using their smartphones and tablets to
do their work at office, home and while travelling.
Gartner predicted that 66% of mobile workers will
own a smartphone in 2016. Tablet purchases by
businesses will reach 13 million in 2012 and triple
Many companies are expanding their
to 53 million in 2016 - Gartner.
implementation of a wide variety of mobility and
collaboration applications. In a survey
commissioned by Cisco Systems, line-of-business
decision-makers (e.g., from operations, sales,
finance, and corporate management) identified
the organization’s current and planned mobility
and collaboration applications deployment for
smartphones and tablets.
Viewing documents and accessing employee
portals, email, or calendars are widely deployed
applications. Video and photo applications are
gaining momentum.
Note : This article contains charts, graphics and text from several websites which is available in public domain.
2

3. Mobile ECM vehicle from an iPad and instantly upload the
photo into the ECM system to initiate the
One of the key benefits of Enterprise Content claim process
Management systems is its ability to give secure • Allow a senior manager in a workflow step to
access of content to users across the enterprise review the documents, approve / reject the
to enable them to make their decision based on request, while he is travelling on a business
the best available information and facilitate the trip right from his smartphone
business process. Extending the secure access
of enterprise content from smartphones and As the usage of mobile ECM is expanding, the
tablets will enable knowledge workers to act ECM vendors are launching their native mobile
faster than ever before. applications with support for leading mobile
operating systems from Apple, Google, Blackberry
All leading ECM vendors have realized this and Microsoft. Below table provides a quick
opportunity and extending the access to their comparison of mobile operating system support
ECM system from smartphones and tablets by for the current mobile applications launched by
a) mobile optimized browser page, b) vendor’s some of the leading ECM Vendors.
native mobile application and c) third party
mobile applications.
(Source: Websites)
(Mobile Operating System Support)
With this space evolving, the ECM vendors are
extending more and more functionalities into
their mobile applications. The features and
functionalities currently provided by leading ECM
vendors in their mobile applications are listed
Source: AIIM Study on - Primary ECM/DM accessibility
below.
Native Mobile ECM applications are intuitive, EMC Documentum Mobile
simple and secure. They help knowledge
workers to : • Advanced search and
filtering
• Search, consume and contribute content • Navigate – Repository,
Collections, Watched Items,
from their smartphones or tablets
Recently Viewed, and
• Efficiently discover and collaborate on latest Favorites
content • Import content
• Seamlessly connect with colleagues and • View documents protected with Documentum
share content updates Information Rights Management (IRM)
• Mobilize business tasks to smartphones • Configurable display properties
and tablets to further optimize day to day • Share via email
business processes • Download content for offline use
• Substantially improve their productivity and • Initiate and participate in threaded discussions
efficiency • Review and approve workflows
• Access CenterStage Spaces including collaboration
wikis, blogs, and discussions
Some of the best use cases of Mobile ECM are :
• Push notifications
• Ability for a site administrator to globally enable or
• Empowering an insurance claim inspector disable features
on field to take photograph of accident
Note : This article contains charts, graphics and text from several websites which is available in public domain.
3

4. IBM Content Navigator Shareplus, 3rd Party
SharePoint Mobile Client
• Secured login through
corporate VPN • Support for all SharePoint
• Advanced search and Content Types
navigation • Read email files (.MSG and
• Access to saved searches .EML) stored on libraries
in the ECM • Add, edit and delete SharePoint Items and Files
• Browse folders • Annotate PDF Files without leaving the app
• Navigate document lists; view document & • Check-In/Check-Out & Approve/Reject
metadata, and edit the metadata • Download documents for offline access
• Add document by taking a photo and apply • Capture Pictures, Video and Audio right into
metadata SharePoint
• Collaborate on team spaces • Browse, delete and restore past document
• Participate in workflow versions
• With its Content Management Interoperability • Send documents by mail, linked or fully attached
Services (CMIS), IBM Content Navigator can be • HTTPS (SSL) Support and compatible with VPNs
used as a single interface atop virtually all • SharePlus ENTERPRISE features include:
repositories of content in an organization • In-House Deployment
• Branding
OpenText Everywhere • Centralized Configuration
• Enhanced Security
• Browse, search, view, • Enterprise Search
manage, and email
documents and other Benefits of Mobile ECM
forms of content OpenText
repository Mobile ECM brings faster accessibility to content &
• Includes content viewers capable of rendering
business processes and deliver several business
over 200 file formats, such as Microsoft
benefits :
PowerPoint, on the screens of mobile devices
• Initiate business workflows, attach and view
• Faster employee responsiveness and decision-
documents related to a business process
making
• Approve or reject workflows
• Content-centric collaboration and micro • Improved knowledge worker productivity
blogging across communities and workgroups • Reduced turn around time in business
processes
Alfresco Mobile • Greater collaboration
• Faster internal and customer issue resolution
• Securely access corporate • Enhanced customer satisfaction
content • Reduced mobility cost
• View documents, • Competitive advantage
presentations and media • Improved profitability
files
• Download for offline access Conclusion
• Take photos on your iPhone and upload them
directly to Alfresco Mobile ECM is opening up new opportunities for
• Edit documents on your iPad and upload them ECM deployments, by extending the usability of
using WebDAV ECM right from user’s smartphones and tablets.
• Start Alfresco business processes right from Realizing its compelling business benefits, more
your tablet using Alfresco folder rules and more ECM customers are adopting it to
• Add comments and tags to content increase their workforce responsiveness and
• Search by file name or full text productivity.
• Enforce corporate security rules
Note : This article contains charts, graphics and text from several websites which is available in public domain.
4