The changing IT landscape is affecting the way organizations need to manage their content. Vivek Pai, Country Head – India, South Asia, Alfresco Software Ltd , talks with Jasmine Desai about latest trends in ECM and Alfresco’s roadmap to ease this change.
How are Alfresco solutions much simpler as compared to other vendors in terms of integration and deployment?
Pai: We have a hybrid system based on open source model which is easily integrable. Our product is different because we understand how companies are working today. Organizations are not working by themselves anymore. Hybrid is the key, as it enables organizations to operate on different environments. It enables mobility, flexibility and is driving the security question as well. We easily integrate with SAP and many other systems.
ECM clients, are still in early stages of cloud adoption, with only 12% of decision-makers reporting use of ECM cloud applications. On-premise remains the dominant deployment model for a variety of reasons, including existing investments in infrastructure, compliance requirements and governance mandates, and integration with existing enterprise systems. However, given the compelling benefits cloud services offer, hybrid deployment becomes particularly interesting as it enables companies to leverage the cloud in stages and/or for specific projects and use cases, without radically destabilizing their business.
Alfresco when it comes to India has significant presence in the BFSI and public sector. We are leveraging expertise of our partners like TCS, Infosys to help us tap the market. The acquisition of solution provider WeWebU has strengthened Alfresco’s offerings in the transactional segment, allowing customers and partners to build a broad range of content applications with more configuration and less coding.
The focus of ECM vendors is on very targeted solutions. How is Alfresco shaping its products based on this trend?
Pai: ECM has changed a lot as a platform in past ten years. ECM has become more collaborative in nature. Content is going a lot through work-flow processes and we understand that content is key to the business. It no more stays just within the company, as there is lot interaction with different groups. n terms of changes in the way companies are working, compared to earlier, the boundaries of companies is much wider presently. It enables organization to operate in an open world.
There is lot of change in the way ECM is consumed. Presently, we are entering social ECM. There is consumerization of ECM which is going on in organizations. Just like customized solutions for different businesses, there are different users as well. Users are expecting different ways of using ECM. It is this demand which is shaping the way we produce products.
Compliance is a huge challenge for organizations and always will be so. How does Alfresco’s hybrid ECM solution counters this issue?
Pai: Compliance can be seen in different ways. There are regulations that drive compliance and there is a need to manage content in a compliant way for citizens, organizations etc. It is also about how organizations manage life-cycle of compliance in terms of being compliant with regulations and best practices. Alfresco manages the content by itself and manages the life-cycle as well. The customer can decide how and when Alfresco can manage the content, how and when to store it and secure it, who can access it etc.
