March 16, 2020

Search for new enterprise content management system underway

A search for a new enterprise content management system to enhance how UW departments and units create and manage their electronic documents is underway, with the goal of providing better support for compliance and better integration with other major systems, including Workday.

An Oracle WebCenter system has supported the University’s document management application since 2012. But integrating it with modern systems such as Workday has been a challenge.

A new platform is expected to support better compliance by meeting HIPAA, FERPA and other regulatory requirements, and integration with major systems such as Workday, Workday Finance, Office 365, the UW’s eSignatures service, Dynamics CRM, and others.

Another goal for a new system is to provide features such as enhanced indexing, search, processing, workflow automation, dashboards and configurability.

About 20 UW departments are currently using the Oracle-based document management system, and nearly 74 units or departments have signed up to use eSignatures. But these systems currently are difficult to integrate with each other, adding extra steps for departments working with both.

UW-IT’s Enteprise Content Management team, which is currently evaluating vendors and software products, wants to ensure that any solution will allow for a smooth and seamless transition for current users, while integrating multiple tools under a single umbrella. These systems are vital to the University’s efforts to automate and streamline its business processes, create efficiencies and reduce manual and paper-based transactions.

The evaluation of vendors is expected to continue through the end of June, when a software solution will be selected and procured. The implementation phase is expected to take place between July and June 2021.