Oops! Second part: why do we need it (ECM)? Because traditionally we've had silos of information stovepiped across the organization. Marketing has their repositories, operations, admin, engineering...as many departments/divisions as there are in your organization, there are at least that many data dumps sitting around (and probably many more). ECM brings together the silos from both a process and technology perspective - as AIIM says, to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver information where and how it is needed. So this includes everything from scanning, to storage, to workflow and BPM, to records and document management, to digital preservation and disposition. Hope this helps - note also that many vendors and consultants have wildly disparate ideas over what is and isn't included in the ECM space, and that not all organizations need everything on the list. Again, feel free to contact me on or offlist and I will be happy to provide additional information. Jesse Wilkins CDIA+, LIT, EDP, ICP IMERGE Consulting (303) 574-1455 office (303) 484-4142 fax [log in to unmask] http://www.imergeconsult.com AIIM 2005 Conference Planning Team AIIM International Board of Directors, 2004-2005 ARMA 2006 Program Committee List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance