Survey: CIOs Aren’t Satisfied With Current ECM Systems

The current Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems employed by chief information officers to manage data don’t meet the changing security and compliance needs of today’s businesses, according to a recent survey commissioned by SealedMedia, a provider of digital rights management solutions.

The survey found that although the majority of respondents felt their ECM systems fulfilled basic service needs, more than three-quarters of respondents said they’re seeking additional content security safeguards and control over who accesses what.

Participants were most concerned with data being improperly accessed or modified while it’s being edited or worked on, and when it’s being distributed, according to the survey.

The survey also found that many ECM systems are too complicated and costly for enterprise-wide deployment. More specifically, only 45 percent of respondents said they use ECM systems, leaving the other 55 percent to handle various types of content themselves and with no security safeguards; and roughly half of respondents store sensitive information in systems outside their ECM systems, putting that data at risk of exposure.

“Based on the current climate of compliance/business model, ECM systems must play a larger role in extending policy-based content control,” said Landon Lack, SealedMedia’s vice president of business development. “Moreover, ECM systems will become increasingly important as more and more content is shared across the value chain.”

SealedMedia commissioned the survey in February, and responses from 29 CIOs who have invested upward of $1 million in ECM systems were included. Of those 29 CIOs, 12 came from Global 500 companies, five came from Fortune 50 firms, and the rest were from midsize organizations.

The tasks CIOs wanted of CMS systems were ranked by importance on a scale of one to eight, eight being the most important. 

The following are the top tasks, according to the survey: