dc.description.abstract | This era is an information era. The amount of content, which consists of data
and information, is rapidly growing in our society, in public entities as well in
private corporations. The options and tools to address the problems when handling
content are exhaustive and can be specialized at times. These systems are
called Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS) and enable an organisation
to structure their content and make it available in an easily accessible way. It
is known how to implement these systems in organisations properly, and it has
been researched what influences these systems have on organisational performance.
However, it is unknown for what reasons organisations actually choose
to adopt an ECMS. This exploratory research identifies key areas for possible
adoption drivers based on prior literature and presents nine case organisations
which chose to adopt an ECMS. It presents the reasons and drivers why these
organisations adopted the system, if it was because their competitor had a system
in place, if it was merely a coincidence, or if it was strategic planning and
strongly aligned with business functionality and the processes in place within the
organisation. The study proposes adjusted and extended framework based on the
case interviews. As this exploratory research emphasises the strategic aspect, it
is mentionable that among the cases, the organisations where the adoption was
driven also by strategic aspects, thorough planning and alignment, came out on
top. These organisations had a stronger performance than others. However, the
most likely driver for ECMS adoption is the discontent with the organisational IT
landscape and its scatteredness. That factor, along with improved ability to search
for documents and make content easier available, was the most cited among the
cases. The easiness to adopt ECMSs has also been a factor, as most of the systems
are easily integratable nowadays. The study proposes an extended framework
to assess ECMS adoption for future researchers to give additional coherent and
holistic insight into reasons and drivers for ECMS adoption. | |