Biztech2.0 spoke to Siva Ganeshanandan, solutions manager, Interwoven, on the latest trend on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and his opinion on initiatives such as Web 2.0 and now 3.0.

What is the latest happening on Enterprise Content Management solution business worldwide?

I think that the biggest trend that we see is for the top line. CIOs also have to save money so ECM provides such cost cutting means. In the last couple of years, we have observed a substantial increase in CIOs asking us ways and means to help them drive customer experience. Customers are dissatisfied due to poor quality information across touch points such as retail, contact centres, print brochures, websites, e-mail or television. Deadlines slip for product launches and campaigns and customer process inefficiencies increase the company’s cost-per-transaction.

This prevents the company to compete on price. Hence the shift is on 'persuasive content management'. This term was first coined by Forrester Research where the emphasis is on using content to help customers. Whether it is providing relevant information when customers buy a product or delivering easy-to-use or understandable content for customer self-service Web sites rather than simply focusing on how to create, manage, and search for content.

Web 2.0 and now 3.0 initiatives are catching up. How do you see such initiatives affecting Web content management?

Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 is a term used for collection of technologies. From an ECM perspective, it is allowing the business users to enable marketing and turn on the functionality for the customers for better experience. It is a set of tool that a marketing person has as an enhanced functionality.

Our software is built on SOA architecture and we are currently ahead of the curve in offering solutions and supporting Web 2.0.

According to IDC, 90% of companies do not track how much they spend on producing and maintaining documents. Is Interwoven limited to solutions on content management or do you also plan to enter the services segment?

No. We do have a strong services arm but again that is more limited to implementing our solutions and customising solution according to the demand and need of our clients. We do have a model where a third party can help other companies to out source. So depending on out sourcing requirements, we have partners for the same locally and globally.

What kind of challenges do you face from the Indian market and from competitors such as IBM, EMC Documentum software and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007?

The challenge in India is the market size and the ability to go out and explore. It is important not to get carried away and be focused. Most of out current customers are through references. Prioritisation is a challenge in India.

The consolidation aspect is interesting such as Documentum bought by EMC and Filenet being bought by IBM has helped us. The customer is not limited to any one technology. This has not hindered our growth and expansion.

How would you convince the Indian CIOs on opting for the solution you have to offer?

Persuasive content management is the key. We have pretty much been there since the beginning of 1995. We have 3000 CIOs as our existing customers and this helps in further references. The product is driven by customer needs and customisation.

Dominic K