I recently read a blog post by Daniel O'Leary at Friendly ECM - Why can't everything be like Pandora One?  I'll admit I have never used Pandora One so I can't speak for the features that he thought made it such a great application.  But his point at the end of the blog post was why can't interactions with Enterprise Content and Records Management (ECRM) systems be as simple as his with Pandora One?

Some of the items that Daniel pointed out in his blog post that he appreciated about Pandora One are things that an ECRM system needs to have, although I would put them in a slightly different order:

• User Experience - I have previously written about usability in ECRM systems and how those implementing the systems must keep in mind the workflow of their clients as they move through the design phase.  Daniel goes a step further by pushing that the user experience should be the same regardless of the operating system or the device.  I have seen a few ECRM systems where the vendor has used technologies that caused the experience in the web interface and in Microsoft Office to be vastly different.  While the two interfaces may not have the ability to be exactly the same, the experience should be familiar enough for the frequent user of the system to navigate and perform the tasks they need to.
• Any device, anytime - The proliferation of mobile computing through smartphones and now devices like the Apple Ipad are driving this requirement.  Users are expecting to be able to access their content or interact with the system on any device.  This will continue to be a challenge for the vendors and organizations implementing ECRM to be able to deliver on this requirement.
• Social Integration - The rise in the use of social media, Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0 and other ESSP's (Emergent Social Software Platforms - I'm currently reading Andrew McAfee's Enterprise 2.0 book - I read of this term today) means that users want the content in these platforms to also integrate with their ECRM systems.  From their standpoint - the social components (at least those that are implemented inside the firewall) are just another type of content that they want so see show up in search results (including any physical items, too).

Some of the ECRM vendors are focusing efforts in several of these areas.  Some have done a better job than their competitors in the area of User Experience.  But I believe there is room for improvement.  Users of the systems are going to demand their ECRM systems be more friendly if for no other reason to make it easier for them to deal with the overload of information they encounter every day.