Transparency Is The Next Step In Compliance . . . Bring On Enterprise Content Management

Milestones in regulation such as the USA PATRIOT Act, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, and amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) helped drive substantial enterprise content management (ECM) enhancements for better document management and control of records. The current economic crisis — once the ship is no longer sinking — will require even greater regulatory oversight, increasing pressure on ECM technologies, and placing a sharp focus on transparency. The SEC is helping to lead the transparency charge with the passage of mandatory XBRL filing requirements for financial statements. To be prepared, business process and applications (BPA) professionals must take a fresh look at business intelligence (BI), business process management (BPM), enterprise content management (ECM), and other technologies.