> 
> Looking for some assistance. Anybody willing to share their definition of
> what ECM is, and why we need it? 

 I think you've received some good, solid definitions of what it is... or at 
least what it purports to be, but the bigger question of why "we" need it 
depends quite a bit on YOUR definition of "we".
ECM is not a one size fits all type thing, and for the most part although it 
is scalable upwards from a specific number of seats, it doesn't scale 
downwards very well. The typical situations where I've seen ECM installed is 
in larger environments, or environments that are very wide in their extent 
of operations and need to share repositories of information for making 
critical business decisions rapidly. 
 In some cases, these are highly regulated industries (energy, 
pharmaceutical, communications) and in others they may be involved in 
rapidly changing industries (research and development, quick to market 
products, finance). In most cases, they are spread across larger geographic 
areas, or in multiple facilities in the same area, but need access to 
certain aspects of siloed repositories of information to guide decision 
making.
 The thing to keep in mind is the "E" is enterprise, so if your organization 
considers itself an enterprise, then maybe this is for them. They do help 
get control of many forms and formats of structured and unstructured data 
and information, but it takes a lot of steps to successfully implement and 
deploy an ECMS... it's not a simple OOTB type thing. There are many modules, 
all of which typically have there own licensing and support requirements and 
there is a lot of training involved as well.
 Larry

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