Enterprise Content Management Systems can be difficult to define. Broadly speaking, Enterprise Content Management systems are used to capture, store and present content. The term Content Management System (CMS) is sometimes used to describe systems specifically created for website management. These systems can be considered to be a subset of Enterprise CMS and are more correctly referred to as Web CMS.

A Web CMS provides functionality for creating content and data driven web sites. The principal value of a Web CMS is that users require minimal computing expertise. A typical Web CMS will provide presentation, application and data layers using technologies such as HTML, PHP and MySQL. Users can add, modify and remove content as they see fit using simple WYSIWIG (What You See Is What You Get) editing tools. Fonts and styles can be modified and multimedia content such as pictures and video can be added. This content is added using HTML by the background system but users require no programming knowledge.

Typically, a Web CMS breaks a web site into Sections, Categories and Articles. Sections can consist of one or more Categories while Categories can consist of one or more Articles. This makes Web CMS ideal for complex websites where content is frequently updated. Users can also apply templates so that their website has the same style in every web page. This is much less complex a task than using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Menus can also be added to the web site using the CMS.  The content and style of the website is typically stored in a database.

The above is a subset of the features offered by a Web CMS. There are both commercial and open source offerings in the marketplace. Joomla! (http://www.joomla.org) is an open source web site that has been used by organisations such as Hardvard University, Citibank and MTV to create Internet and Intranet sites. Similarly, Drupal (http://www.drupal.org)  is free software that can be used to create content-driven websites. Commerical offerings in this space include Terminal 4 (http://www.terminalfour.com/) and IBM Lotus Web Content Management (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/webcontentmanagement/).

Web CMS is a well known subset of Enterprise CMS but Document Management Systems (DMS - discussed in the previous blog) can also be considered as a subset of Enterprise CMS. Thus, while a CMS may be a system that simply manages digital content it is clear that there are many facets to consider. At a high level, an Enterprise CMS can be seen as a system that manages the digital content, data and documents for the entire organisation. While this may be a simple definition, in actuality an Enterprise CMS may consists of a myriad of subsystems including Document Management, Records Management, Web Content Management, Digital Asset Management, Portal Content Management and Collaboration (including Web 2.0 collaboration - blogs, forums etc.). We have already considered Document, Records and Web Content Management.

Digital Asset Management refers to the capturing, cataloguing, storage and retrieval of digital assets. These assets have value to an organisation and are often in a multimedia format e.g. digital photos and music. Digital Asset Management can be subcategorised further into the management of brand assets such as logos and product images and library assets such as photo archives. Media Asset Management Systems helps you to organise, search for and retrieve media files while Production Asset Management Systems enables organisations to use media assets throughout the production process in areas such as digital media production. Digital Supply Chains enable the delivery of multimedia content such as video or music from the content provider to the final retailer. This latter system has been recognised as a key system for Apple's delivery of content to its iTunes store.

Enterprise Portals deliver content to different stakeholders in an organisations such as employees, investors and suppliers. Portal Management Systems enable collaboration by providing access to and the sharing of content and documents. Finally, Collaboration Systems (sometimes referred to as Groupware) enables teams and organisation members to share content and work with each other. The recent launch of Google Wave (http://wave.google.com) is just one example of such software. IBM's Lotus Notes (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/) is probably the most well known product.

The advent of Web 2.0 has led to what's sometimes referred to as Social Software for creating content such as blogs or forums. When used for business, this social software is referred to as Enterprise 2.0 and includes not only collaboration tools for blogging and providing help wikis but also the creation of online communities and the management of the organisation's social network. There are many offerings for Enterprise 2.0 Social Software. IBM's Lotus Connections (http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/connections/) is just one of many examples. 

As we see here, there are many facets to consider and some vendors provide solutions for specifc categories of Enterprise Content Management. Other software vendors provide Enterprise Content Management Solutions that incorporate all these categories as subsystems and features of their product. Solutions such as Microsoft Sharepoint (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA101747881033.aspx) and Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM - http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/content-management/enterprise-content-management.html) provide not only web site content management but also the management of diverse content across the organisation. Alfresco (http://www.alfresco.com/) provide an open source solution for managing content across the enterprise.Alternatively, organisations can develop their own CMS using programming tools such as Java Server Pages (JSPs) and Servlets or Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP).

The question we will now consider is the role Enterprise Content Management Systems have for the management of data generated by smart objects. We will again roughly divide smart objects into smart meters, wireless sensors, GPS devices and RFID. In the case of smart meters, the data generated to measure consumption of a utility could be captured by Vertoda middleware and transferred to and presented by a Web Content Management System. Consumption data could also be used to drive energy efficiency if it is stored and presented on an Enterprise Portal so that every employee is aware of utility consumption within the organisation as well as the level of consumption in different locations and departments. Indeed, the data captured by smart meters and wireless sensors can be made available throughout the organisation by an Enterprise Content Management System. Smart Meter data is often used to drive 'Green' Policies and needs to be available to many interested stakeholders within the organisation while the data generated by Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can be used to improve monitoring and generate new products and services. Whether the data refers to the measurement of aspects of a physical environment or the detection of an element in that physical environment it will need to be made available to many different interested parties within an organisation. Enterprise Content Management Systems are the ideal mechanism for making these pools of data available while Collaboration Systems can make this data available for sharing by teams in areas such as environmental monitoring. GPS data can be used within the Supply Chain to keep track of the location of a delivery or by the Service Engineering department to monitor the location of a moving asset such as a truck. Again, this data can be used to support decision making and assessing the efficiency of operations and could be provided to an Intranet driven by a Web CMS or a Portal Management System to give finer granularity in the management of operations. Finally, RFID data would be used by Inventory Systems to keep track of goods and stock levels and can provide asset tracking content for a CMS.

Capturing the data from smart objects, transforming this data into meaningful information and making this information available to an Enterprise Content Management System is not a trivial task. Middleware is required to provide Enterprise CMS with this new pool of information. Vertoda Middleware performs these tasks and can be easily integrated with any type of commercial or open source CMS, thus providing organisations with information from smart networks that improves decision making and monitoring of for their core operations. 

Information Management is a broad term that is often used to describe different concepts in Information Technology. Here, we will define Information Management as the capturing and transformation of data into information and the dissemination of this information to end users. Over the coming weeks, we will examine three key systems that are used for Information Management: Document Management Systems, Enterprise Content Management Systems and Business Intelligence Systems.

A Document Management System (DMS) is an Information System that manages electronic documents and can also capture and manage images of paper documents. Leading DMS include Documentum (see http://www.emc.com/domains/documentum/index.htm), and the commercial open source Knowledge Tree system (see http://www.knowledgetree.com/) but there are many players in this industry such as the open source OpenKM (see http://www.openkm.com/), Ademero (see http://www.ademero.com/), Documatics (see http://www.documatics.com/) and File Hold (see http://www.filehold.com/). In addition, major players such as Alfresco (see http://www.alfresco.com),  Microsoft and Oracle have document management functionality in their Enterprise Content Management System offerings. Each of these players have different strengths and often focus on the particular vagaries of document management for a specific sector such as law or pharmaceuticals.

A typical Document Management System (DMS) manages documents generated within the organisation for their entire lifecycle. A Document Management System specifies the types of documents that can be created within an organisation and provides a storage repository for these documents. The system also provides version control. When a user wants to edit a document it must be checked out from the system. When the user has finished altering the document it must be checked back into the system. The system will store both the old and the new version of this document and provides access to all versions of the document from its inception. A system will also provide templates to be used for each type of document and applies policies so that actions on the document are audited and documents are retained or dsposed of appropriately.

As part of the planning process for document management the stakeholders who will participate in the process of document management must be identified and how the documents are used must be assessed. Documents will then be organised into digital libraries or sites for teams and portals. Over the life of a document it may be moved from one area to another, - for example a document may be moved from a staging area to a public Website when it is published. This workflow is supported by the Document Management System.

The most well known Document Management System is EMC's (see http://www.emc.com) Documentum product which was acquired by the corporation in 2003. Documentum provides the features expected from a typical Document Management System i.e. the management of document content. Check in, check out and version control are also supported. Documentum is a 3-tier, client-server system which is built on top of a relational database (Relational Database Management System or RDBMS).

Document content, format, versions, security and workflows are all stored in a DocBase. A DocBase is essentially a database instance that uses a Database server such as Oracle or MySQL plus files of document content. This content is stored as Binary Large Objects (or BLOBs) within the database or within the file system of the Documentum server. The atrributes relating to the file (creation date, name etc.) are referred to as the file's metadata and are stored within the RDBMS. To query the data, the Documentum product has an extended dialect of SQL called Documentum Query Language (DQL). Software Development Kits (SDKs) and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are also provided to enable integration with desktop software such as Microsoft Office, Enterprise Resource Planning software such as SAP and Application Servers such as JBoss and IBM Websphere among many systems.

Document Management Systems, then, provide end-to-end management of the documents generated within an organisation and can also capture paper documents using scanning equipment.Sometimes the systems are distinguished from Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) on the basis that DMS specialises in document capture while EDRMS focus on the audit trail and security. In practice, however, Documentum and other leading DMS provide the functionality of  both systems. Indeed, DMS can be viewed and are often marketed as a subset of Enterprise Content Management Systems which we will discuss in a future blog. For example, Documentum is described as an Enterprise Content Management System rather than a DMS on its corporate website while Microsoft Sharepoint (see http://sharepoint.microsoft.com) and Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM - see http://www.oracle.com/products/middleware/content-management/document-management.html) are Enterprise Content Management Systems that incorporate Document Management functionality. 

The question we are now going to consider is what support can Document Management Systems provide for smart objects and indeed why would you want a DMS to present information captured from smart objects. From a technical perspective we will define smart objects as networked devices that record data and relay that data to some kind of base station. Examples include smart meters, wireless sensors, Global Positioning Satellite (GPS), Internet Protocol cameras and videos and RFID tags.

RFID systems are not only data of potential interest for a DMS but also can provide additional functionality for the DMS itself. For example, in an organisation where confidentiality and security are paramount, RFID can be used to track hard copies of documents. Other documents such as books and files can also be tracked using RFID. The RFID labels can store details of the last person to access the document, the date and time a hard copy was printed off and by whom. In conjunction with biometric technologies details of who is removing or access a document or file can be recorded. Using GPS technology the location of the document can be tracked. All of this data can be pertinent to organisations and can provide an additional layer of security within the DMS.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) provide a rich pool of data that can be used to generate documents for a DMS. In highly regulated environments such as pharmceuticals and other process manufacturing industries WSNs can generate data which could be transformed into meaningful information by Vertoda Framework. The Vertoda Framework can be integrated with a DMS to automatically generate documents based on this data. Key metrics such as temperature, humidity etc. can be recorded thus providing an audit trail for an organisation for regulatory purposes. And, of course, like RFID, sensors can be embedded in the documents themselves to control and monitor access.

The data provided by smart meters can also be captured by a DMS through Vertoda Middleware. This data is critical to utlities as it essentially determines the revenue the utility will earn. Using this information, billing documents can be generated. One of the key values of the smart grid is more accurate measurement of energy consumption. A DMS can play a key role in achieving this goal.

Smart Objects then open up an additional rich pool of data for a documents produced within a DMS. As well as measurement and detection data, multimedia data such as sound, photos and video can be captured and integrated within a DMS using Vertoda Middleware. Smart Objects provide data from a variety of diverse sources and computing environments. A typical DMS focuses on the management of documents in a fixed network corporate environment. To generate documentation from data captured in the external environment, a DMS will require the data capture and transformation provided by the Vertoda Framework. Similary, for securing documents in transit a DMS can not only leverage the features of smart objects like RFID but can also use the digital signature and cryptography services provided by Vertoda.