Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in SharePoint Server 2007

 

The slide below represents a conceptual view of ECM from Microsoft that shows the deep integration among the various components.

The foundation of ECM is provided by a unified storage architecture based on SQL server which acts as the repository for all types of content.

 

The ECM solution provides a set of core services that are shared across the ECM components. These include workflow, search, metadata and library services.

 

Next, Microsoft’s ECM solutions consists of document management, records management, web content management and forms management which utilise the shared services and storage architecture.

 

The user interface is provided either thru a browser experience, Microsoft Office or a third party application. These third party applications offer huge possibilities for Microsoft Partners to develop custom based applications that can also intergrate with the ECM components via web services.