The best way to turn revenue into recurring revenue and long-term engagements is to make sure that clients are getting the full value from enterprise content management (ECM). These current and prospective accounts are fully engaged in their own day-to-day business matters. They may or may not even know what the heck ECM means.
That puts the onus on you. Clients only want to know what is going to make their daily processes easier and smoother. It’s your job to communicate, again and again (note today’s fleeting attention spans), how they can get optimal value from the tools you’re offering. You’re their knight in shining armor.
We open this month’s State of the Industry report on ECM by reviewing the various potholes in the road that are preventing end-users from enjoying the maximum benefits it offers. As you mount your trusty steed in preparation for battle, here are a few viewpoints from our dealer panel.
Some of the biggest issues fall at the feet of the dealers, notes Marc Segal, solutions specialist for Doing Better Business in Altoona, Pennsylvania. They’re sometimes guilty of not taking the time to customize the software to address the client’s needs, and they’re also coming up short when it comes to post-sale support.
“Rarely will an ECM design be perfect at the time of installation,” Segal said. “The workflow and forms will need tweaking and slight changes to function properly. Do not nickel and dime the client during this period. Make those adjustments so the software works for the client.”
Need for Leadership
A major reason dealer clients fail to maximize the value of enterprise content management is the absence of strong executive sponsorship, according to Josh Britton, president of imageOne in Oak Park, Michigan. Because document management initiatives cut across departments and reshape daily workflows, they require visible leadership support to maintain momentum, secure resources, and reinforce organizational accountability. Without that top‑down alignment, projects often stall or get overshadowed by short‑term operational demands.
Britton notes that another barrier is the tendency for organizations to pursue document management through isolated departmental projects rather than a unified enterprise strategy. While individual wins in areas like AP, HR or customer service can be helpful, siloed deployments limit scalability and long‑term impact. When companies fail to connect these efforts to broader workflows and data strategies, they end up with fragmented systems that are difficult to integrate, maintain or expand. Cultural resistance—whether through reluctance to standardize processes or hesitancy to rethink inefficient workflows—further undermines adoption and value, he added.
“Organizations that address these challenges proactively—through executive alignment, enterprise-level planning, and thoughtful change management—are far better positioned to unlock the full operational, financial, and strategic benefits of document management,” Britton said.
Many of the challenges confronting users are not of the technical variety, notes Lauren Hanna, president of Blue Technologies Smart Solutions in Cleveland, but rather are organization-based. Companies often underestimate the continuous post-implementation efforts that are required. Notable tripping points include changing workflows and regulations, in addition to employee churn. Organizational neglect can put end-users behind the eight ball, so dealers can earn points by ensuring governance, training and adoption don’t fall by the wayside after the initial project is complete.
These circumstances place an emphasis on a managed administration model, she added. “From the customer perspective, managed administration ensures the platform stays aligned with business needs, compliance requirements, and user expectations without overloading the internal team,” Hanna noted. “From the partner perspective, it allows for proactive optimization, monitoring and continuous improvement. Organizations that adopt this approach consistently see stronger long-term value because ECM evolves alongside the business instead of stagnating.”
Laundry List
Mark Ellickson, director of business process automation at Proven IT in Tinley Park, Illinois, cites a number of issues that prevent users from enjoying the maximum benefit of the software. These include resistance to change, poor user adoption, data migration challenges from disparate systems, integration gaps with core applications, compliance worries, and persistent information silos that undermine automation.
“Additionally, there is often a misconception that a current application module is the right choice when, in most cases, it is not,” Ellickson added.
