Enterprise content management (ECM) is an inaccurate term causing buyer confusion and needs to be "blown apart into its constituent parts" according to web content management firm Interwoven.

Speaking exclusively to IT Week, Interwoven's vice president of Europe, James Murray, argued that the term ECM covers such a broad range of technologies that it lacks any real meaning. The industry should instead revert to talking about its individual components such as document management, search, and records management, he added.

"ECM is poorly understood and our [part of it] is poorly understood – it's time for ECM to be blown apart into its constituent parts because it's confusing for customers," Murray argued.

He added that customers are often misled by the term ECM when applied to technology products, thinking that it will take care of all their content management problems, when in fact an ECM solution is likely to only address a small part of their requirements.