<p>For the better part of the 21st century, content management vendors have tried to sell comprehensive systems to enterprise customers with the promise of having one system to manage all of their content. It sounds enticing in theory, but for the most part, it hasn't worked for a number of reasons.</p><p>Perhaps the biggest reason is that big, complex pieces of software are hard to implement and frequently fail. Want proof? First of all, we have a survey from AIIM which shows on one hand that only 18 percent have implemented a comprehensive content management solution however they define that. On the other, we have companies that frequently have multiple content management systems with some reporting four to 10 systems or more in one organization. Hard to manage content when you don't know where it is or what system it's on.</p><p>And presumably, that's not including file shares. The survey found that a full 61 percent of respondents still use network file shares as a significant part of their content management strategy. Wonder how that's working for them in today's content intensive environment.</p><p>That could explain why 54 percent long for a single vendor solution to manage their content, even though most must know that no single vendor can resolve this issue for them. Even if they could, it's a rare vendor who does everything well. There are always going to be weak links in the solution package, no matter who they are--and managing content across enterprise systems is a lot harder than it looks.</p><p><a href="http://www.fiercecontentmanagement.com/story/face-it-ecm-has-always-been-false-promise/2013-06-03">Keep reading...</a></p>