The digital era has given rise to a new generation of information governance best practices, while organizations in virtually every industry have started to focus their efforts on automating a multitude of core content management processes. With the help of new reporting analytics technology, companies that have reached a preferable level of strategic success with content management are now becoming more intelligent, efficient and effective than ever before. 

However, one of the main themes that has prevailed is that the rules of engagement are changing constantly, driven to these highly unstable grounds by the constant stream of new technologies and trends that are impacting the ways in which content management should be approached. Businesses that do not embrace automation for relevant tasks will likely have a bit more difficulty fielding these trends as they manifest, and this could end up putting them in a precarious position from a competition perspective. 

At the end of the day, information governance is simply rooted in digital technologies at this point, as fewer files and forms are being generated in physical environments. Companies must take steps today to shore up their defenses and embrace the modern era of content management and analytics to truly take their operations to the next levels of performance, and knowing which trends might come with an impact is a critical activity in this regard. 

Here are five considerations to keep in mind when refining and building content management strategies:

1. Globalization
One of the key outcomes of the digital era of commerce, markets are becoming more globalized with the passing of each year. This translates to not only increased opportunity to drive revenues up, but also a more diverse and intensive line of information governance demands given the greater variety of sources. Even small businesses are becoming more prominent in the international community, meaning all businesses can benefit from making the right preparations. 

Ensure that storage, archiving, security, access and reporting policies are refined to be relevant in a global setting, and leverage automation to keep those processes moving along comfortably without straining resources. 

2. Internet of Things
Similar to globalization, the Internet of Things will undoubtedly generate even higher volumes of valuable data before long, and can present a wealth of challenges by way of too many sources to handle. Luckily, automation software that is used to streamline some of the more repetitive aspects of data collection, archiving, capture and storage can help move companies along the right path toward capitalizing on IoT's massive potential. 

3. Analytics
Virtually every consideration that has to do with content management can be viewed through the lens of analytics, as so many are beginning to fuel big data and other intelligence programs. As such, have plans in place to drive information garnered from content management programs into analytics arrangements, and consider using automation software to take care of the bulk of the labor involved. 

4. Ecommerce
Electronic commerce appears to be decidedly moving ahead after a few hiccups in the past few years with respect to market size and demand. This will inherently impact invoicing strategies, accounts payable and receivable departments and more, and must be faced head-on from the information governance angle. By leveraging automated e-invoicing and similar tools, data generation will be smoother and control more feasible. 

5. Security
Perhaps the most critical aspects of information governance and content management today revolve around security and privacy, neither of which can be overlooked should the company hope to enjoy benefits, rather than risks, when expanding analytics programs. Data breaches, hacks, information loss and other occurrences have become quite common in the past few years, leading the nation in economic damages among crimes through fraud and identity theft. 

Now, while automation cannot necessarily be used to cover all bases in the content management and information governance security conversation, it can certainly be a massive help. Monitoring, control, data storage procedures and, maybe most importantly, reporting can be automated to ensure the integrity of a content management program is sustained regardless of how quickly the company scales the relevant projects up. 

Additionally, many businesses have started to successfully use reporting analytics and big data automation solutions to become more intelligent on the security side of things, which is certainly an achievable and righteous objective for all in the highly threat-filled markets of the modern era. 

Get projects moving
Above all else, businesses need to begin recognizing the vast benefits automation has to offer within a content management strategy, and always work to identify the service providers that can most efficiently and effectively help the company move closer to achieving its goals. With a vendor of diverse automation software, bringing all of these matters together and getting the project in motion will often be a simpler endeavor.