Content management systems may not be the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of IBM's name, but this week it's being made clear that they play a critical part in IBM's Information On Demand strategy.IBM is playing host to its third annual Information On Demand conference in Las Vegas this week, and while the content management offering aren't quite at center stage, they are a key component of the Agile ECM initiative, which promises to help companies make "better decisions faster."

The FileNet P8 platform is at the core of IBM's enterprise content management offerings, and upgrades to a number of its components are being announced this week. IBM announced updates to both the IBM Content Manager and IBM FileNet Content Manager, both of which will now support integration with Lotus Quickr team collaboration software. In addition, FileNet Content Manager 4.5 introduces integration with SharePoint and MS Office. CMSWire.com has a good wrap up of the other changes to the FileNet platform, as well as enhancements to IBM's content management, business process and document management offerings.

These improvements seem like they'll do a nice job of rounding out IBM's enterprise content management portfolio. And while these tools may not seem to be breaking a lot of new ground, many organizations are looking for solid, well-integrated tools, instead of something overly flashy.

IBM has spent a lot of money and effort in building a strong enterprise content management offering, and it promises to be interesting seeing how this investment pays off in a very competitive marketplace.