Looking at the myriad of offerings online – social networks, blogs, video – it’s safe to say that Gates was correct in his predictions when it comes to content. However, the ‘content is king’ mantra has not only changed the face of the internet as we know it, but has also precipitated change in customers’ own expectations and demands for content.
This shift in customer demand is evolving alongside another transformative change in business, the shift to digital. On the one hand we have businesses wrestling with legacy, fighting to embrace social, mobile, cloud and analytics, all the while trying to banish the silos and embrace data-driven decision making. On the other hand we have the tech-savvy employees, demanding a seamless experience, personalisation, a plethora of integrations and a solution which is simple, yet delivers productivity and efficiency gains.
The thread connecting these two transformative changes, in both consumer and business, is the content. Specifically, it is the way in which the content is managed, shared, governed and secured that could prove fundamental to the transformations needed for the digital future.
It would, however, be folly, for any businesses to roll-out a ‘one size fits all’ strategy when it comes to content. Indeed, if that is the path chosen, then the business itself does not understand the fundamentals of content. A one monolithic solution to address all of the wants and needs when it comes to content is simply unrealistic – content is diverse, its audience is diverse, which means the tools and technology needed to manage it also need to be diverse. That said, businesses in the throes of digital transformation now have an opportunity to break the shackles of legacy solutions and leverage a content management solution for competitive advantage.
Reinventing content management
The ways of old, specifically ‘enterprise content management’, is no longer fit for business. It most certainly is not fit for digital business. Legacy solutions lack the agility, deployment speeds and scalability required of modern-day businesses. Thus, businesses are now looking elsewhere for a solution which delivers a modern way of handling data and frees business to operate in a different way – and that solution lies in the cloud. Cloud content management is seeing exponential growth, with the market expected to grow from $9.77 billion in 2017 to $34.42 billion by 2022, according to ReportLinker.
This exponential growth predicted in the cloud content management market is for a number of reasons – the first being that cloud-based solutions are more economic. However, price is not everything. The big win for cloud over legacy ECM is its ease of use, which fosters collaboration. Gates said that ‘content is king’ in the 90s, but today the mantra should be “content collaboration is king’.
Content from our partners
Amid the shifting content paradigm, businesses and customers are putting content at the heart of their strategies. Businesses today want both internal and external collaboration; businesses want customers, suppliers and partners to be part of the content. Not only that, but businesses want content-centric applications and data-centric applications together on one platform, eliminating application silos and being able to work on a seamless end-to-end business process on one platform . This is what cloud content management delivers.
Take leading vendor Box for example – the cloud content management powers Virgin 
Trains to deliver internal and external collaboration, mobile access to content and document security. Virgin Train’s CIO, John Sullivan, says: “We like our technology to run as smoothly as our trains so that our staff can do their best work behind the scenes: making customer journeys amazing. With Box, all of our content is in one place, available anywhere, any time and on any device which is useful when you’re travelling at 125mph around the country. Box has helped to transform the way we work internally so that we’re all using our time effectively!”
Box enables Virgin Trains to
- Provide extra levels of content security and encryption through Box Governance
- Streamline processes and collaboration, using Box’s Workflow capability, to launch the new Virgin Trains Onboard Entertainment System
- Improve team collaboration which empowers employees to work in smarter more efficient ways
- Finally, by using Box Zones, Virgin Trains is able to store its data in Europe making it fully compliant with EU regulations.
Moving to cloud content management is a necessity for any business looking to transform. As emerging technologies like AI continue to infiltrate the enterprise, a platform is required that is able to integrate with future technology advancements whilst satisfying customers needs. Digital businesses must start building the blueprint for the future of work today.
