Hyland, creator of OnBase, Bill Priemer President and CEO: View From The Top

Mar 1, 2017

This article appears in the issue March 2017 (100 Companies) [Volume 26, Issue 3]

 Bill_Priemer_CEO_Hyland1A Time of Transformation

If there is one word that could define what’s happening in business right now, perhaps “transformation” is it. Certainly the term defined as “a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance” not only sums up what’s happening in the information management industry; CIOs and IT leaders are also transforming their thinking about how they manage information digitally across their enterprises. Both transformations are connected, presenting tremendous opportunity for businesses today.

ECM Transformation

The field of enterprise content management (ECM) vendors continues to transform as it becomes clear which companies are investing in innovation, and which seem to be simply hoping that inertia will keep their existing customers from switching to modern platforms. In the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for ECM, only three clear industry leaders emerged, and Hyland is proud to be among them. Our market position is especially notable in that we have attained it primarily through organic growth and internal product development rather than through acquisitions. Moving into 2017, prominent analyst firms covering this space are looking to further transform the definition of ECM, which I fully support given that this legacy term no longer encompasses the true transformative nature of the solutions we are delivering to customers. In fact, we now more accurately describe OnBase as an enterprise information platform for managing content, processes and cases. This takes me to my second transformation topic.

Digital Transformation

 There’s no doubt that digital transformation is a hot topic in business right now. Organizations have been managing information digitally for decades; however, they now realize that simply storing information digitally will not enable the degree of agility, efficiency and effectiveness needed to thrive in an environment of constant change and disruption. And frantically buying a mish-mash of niche cloud applications has the potential to do more harm than good by creating more siloes of information.

Digital transformation is more of a mindset shift than any individual technology purchase. Some of the most visionary CIOs are consolidating their environments onto a handful of core platforms to manage key areas of their business, such as sales interactions, financial transactions and HR information. They are quickly realizing that there is still a tremendous amount of content, processes and casework managed by niche or outdated applications outside of their core platforms. These multiple, disconnected silos of information make it impossible to provide a complete, centralized view of information to their employees and the people they serve. That’s why OnBase, as a single enterprise information platform, is such a key part of the journey toward digital transformation.

Companies embarking on digital transformation journeys are becoming the disruptors of their industries. But the question we must ask is, “Do we want to lead the transformation, or do we want to be disrupted?”

There’s no doubt our industry is experiencing one of its most exciting times. Last year marked Hyland’s 25th anniversary as a company, and we can’t wait to see what transformation the next 25 years will bring!