Indeed, most enterprises seem only to be inching in the direction of ICM. "The question for the enterprise is, What makes sense, and at what time?" says Brad O'Neill, an analyst at Taneja Group in Hopkinton, Mass.

The decision about whether or when to adopt ICM could have much to do with how difficult it is to improve the security of unclassified data through the use of these new products, O'Neill says. "Setting security policies can range from very easy to incredibly complex, depending on the number of variables and scale of informational security desired," he says.

Because of product complexity, a content management approach still makes sense to some enterprises. "Too often, there is a rush to try to apply structure to unstructured content. Anecdotal evidence suggests these efforts don't always address all business requirements," says Scott Bentivegna, project manager for knowledge management at Washington Group International Inc., a Boise, Idaho-based engineering, construction and management solutions provider. The firm uses EMC's Documentum content management system for its unstructured data.

The perceived lack of maturity among ICM vendors has much to do with sluggish adoption rates, says O'Neill. "To me, this is very much an emerging category," he says, although he is quick to add that ICM's appeal can be very powerful, especially on a security level.

Despite the newcomer status of ICM vendors, enterprises scrambling to secure unstructured data will want to watch these small players carefully. Analysts predict that many ICM product vendors will soon make significant corporate inroads.