Enterprise content management (ECM) is a set of tools and methods that allows a corporation, agency or organization to obtain, organize, store and deliver information crucial to its operation. The fundamental objectives of ECM are to streamline access, eliminate bottlenecks, optimize security, maintain integrity and minimize overhead.

According to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), ECM can be broken down into five major components called capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver. The purpose of each component can be briefly defined as follows:

• Capture: Create, obtain and organize information.
• Manage: Process, modify and employ information.
• Store: Temporarily back up frequently changing information in the short term.
• Preserve: Back up infrequently changing information in the medium and long term.
• Deliver: Provide clients and end users with requested information.

Reference : http://www.aiim.org