ECM improves efficiency

Effective use of enterprise content management (ECM) tools can improve process efficiencies and boost environmentally friendly practices, according to new research from Gartner, says VNUnet.

The analyst firm's Enterprise Content Management Strategies for Green IT report outlines six areas where companies can identify processes that could help them become greener, including the use of electronic forms to reduce the need for paper documents.

Organisations are advised to look at their ECM efforts in a more strategic, enterprise-wide light, consolidating applications and using content-enabled vertical applications to automate complex processes where possible.

Open Text has upgraded its desktop and thin client software for viewing, marking up and collaborating on documents over the Web, states Intelligent Enterprise.

The Open Text Viewer is aimed at companies looking for document collaboration software for employees, as well as a solution they can use in working with partners and customers. The latest version of the software, which operates using a browser, offers support for more file formats.

Open Text claims Viewer, which comes in separate desktop and thin client versions, supports "hundreds of different file formats" without the need of the originating application. The latest version adds to the list Excel 2007, Solidworks 2008 and Autodesk's AutoCAD 2009 and Inventor 2009.

Datawatch, an enterprise information management provider, has integrated Oracle Universal Records Management with the Datawatch BDS ECM product suite, according to ECM Connection.

Users will now be able to leverage the platforms of both vendors as an integrated solution that protects data investments and helps meet the needs of legal and regulatory compliance.

This new integration gives records managers a single environment from which to control records and retention policies for all content stored within the Datawatch BDS archive. It also provides records managers with a single view into retention schedules, disposition actions and audit histories.