Enterprise Content Management technologies supporting unified businesses

This paper provides a new perspective on Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS)-use and identify novel ways in which these technologies can be used to support organizations´ unified business processes. The main objective of this study is to understand and explain how unified businesses that employs highly integrated and standardized business operations could use ECMS to support their work operations. Consequently, empirical investigations using a qualitative research design were conducted in two unified organizations. Empirical evidence of the two cases were brought together in a cross-case analysis and the synthesis resulted in four modes of ECMS-use that could support unified businesses, that is, to: (1) collaborate among units on projects, (2) approve project documents and monitor project progress, (3) access standard operating procedures, and (4) provide links and access to information systems. This research fills the gap in the literature on the topic of ECMS-use and extends prior studies by reporting on organizations´ experiences in using ECMS and focusing on how ECMS-use can support business processes. Business and IT managers will have a better understanding on how to maximize and gain benefit from this kind of technologies by embedding the use of it to their daily business operations.