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ECM FACTS
ECM Basics
ECM is defined in various ways by different vendors and
consultants. One thing is clear - it is not just Web
Content Management. ECM is a process that takes your
content throughout its lifecycle - from the creation of
an idea scribbled on a sheet of paper, to the management
of multiple working documents to flush out an idea, to
the archival and ultimate disposition of the policy that
had its genesis in that flash of inspiration.
ECM technologies, properly implemented, improve access
to your content, enable the reuse of content, and can
provide faster time to market. Just remember that
technology is only part of the solution. You must select
the right technology for your particular business
issues. The best technology installed in the wrong way
(or as a solution for the wrong problem) is often
useless.
Compliance
Companies must be compliant. This necessity permeates
organizations. Because existing regulations are revised
and new ones created continuously, compliance is a
moving target—a company is never finished with a
compliance initiative. To most effectively cope with the
ever-evolving need to comply with multiple regulations
simultaneously, companies should develop a culture of
compliance. This culture is focused on the
implementation of policies, procedures, practices, and
audits as part of everyday business operations. A
framework is needed.
ROI Factors
Cost justification dollars typically fall into two
primary categories.
The first is hard dollar savings or increased revenue in
the operating budget. Hard dollar savings are usually
the result of having tangible and identifiable
reductions in expenses. Examples of hard dollar savings:
 Reduction in
personnel
Business
operating costs (photocopying,
postal mailing, courier services)
Reduction in
facilities costs (sell a building
used for file storage or an 'averted cost' in
not renewing a lease)
Reduction in
computer system costs
(fewer computers, more efficient
computers, less IT overhead, fewer
training sessions, etc.)
Increased revenue
may come in the form
of new product offerings as a result of the
technology
The second type of cost justification revolves around
soft dollar or intangible savings in which benefits are
realized but they may not easily translate into
verifiable hard dollar cost reductions. Examples of soft
dollar savings:
Improved customer
service
Increased
competitive advantage
Better and faster
access to information
Faster internal
communications |
ECM
| ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT
What
is ECM?
Enterprise Content Management is the technologies, tools,
and methods used to CAPTURE, MANAGE, STORE, PRESERVE, and
DELIVER information, content, and documents related to
organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the
management of an organization's unstructured information,
wherever that information exists.
Years ago when speaking about technologies used to capture,
manage, store, preserve and deliver information the
technology solutions were referred to as records
management solutions or document management solutions.
More recently those technologies have been rolled into ECM.
Content at Work
It's not enough to "manage" content. Of course, the ability
to access the correct version of a document or record is
important, but companies must go further. Content must be
managed so that it is used to achieve business goals.
Central to this strategy are the tools and technologies of
ECM, which manage the complete lifecycle of content, birth
to death.
While there are ECM technologies, more importantly, ECM is
an ongoing and evolving strategy for maximizing how your
content is to be used. Use the information below as a
starting point to review a common content lifecycle. Map a
current process to see where you may find overlap and room
for improvement for the applications and strategies that
your business is developing. The information below only
hints at the complexity inherent in any process that deals
with managing an organization's content. As always, you must
match up the technology tools to address YOUR businesses
needs. Technology can enable streamlined management of
content, but the underlying strategy must come first.
WHY
DO COMPANIES NEED ECM?
Top Reasons to Implement Enterprise Content Management
Unstructured content is increasing between 65 to 200
percent annually within most enterprises, depending
on the industry sector. This growth is largely uncontrolled
and undermines a company's ability to achieve:
- Content
return on investment (ROI) – Employees can spend
up to 40 percent of a workday searching for content and
untangling issues with versioning, ownership, and
reformatting. As a result, too much valuable content goes
underused or must be recreated. Enterprise content
management provides the infrastructure to put your content
to work.
-
Compliance – Virtually all organizations are now
legally compelled to securely store and access various
content for a defined period. With enterprise content
management you can set policies for retaining, storing,
and retrieving specific content as well as mitigate the
enormous risk of noncompliance by getting content under
control.
-
Collaboration – Content restricted by geographic
or functional boundaries prevents the sharing of valuable
knowledge by distributed teams. Enterprise content
management enables people to create, capture, and
distribute collaborative content with relevant context,
increasing productivity and facilitating innovation.
-
Consolidation – An enterprise content management
strategy leveraging a single infrastructure rather than 'siloed'
content systems dramatically reduces costs while
increasing overall productivity.
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BUSINESS PROCESS
MANAGEMENT/WORKFLOW
The tools that move content throughout an identified
business process, such as claims processing. BPM
(Business Process Management) solutions are frameworks
that can be used to develop, deploy, monitor, and
optimize multiple types of process automation
applications-including processes that involve both
systems and people. Consider which processes are
candidates for automation, and whether they require some
degree of ad hoc processing or manual intervention.
Workflow is now commonly associated with the manual
processes of managing documents. Workflow handles
approvals and prioritizes the order documents are
presented. In the case of exceptions, workflow also
escalates decisions to the next person in the hierarchy.
These decisions are based on pre-defined rules developed
by system owners.
CONTENT AND DOCUMENTS
Unstructured content enters an organization's IT
infrastructure from a variety of sources. Regardless of
how a piece of content enters, it has a lifecycle.
Follow a document through its lifecycle as viewed
through the use of ECM technology.
1. Electronic Unstructured Data: email,
instant message, text document,
spreadsheet, etc.
2. Electronic Forms
3. Paper Documents/Forms
SCANNING
Paper generally enters the organization through a
scanner, or sometimes, a multifunction device. In
centralized scan operations, large volumes of paper are
put into the system by dedicated workers. In distributed
operations, smaller volumes of documents are captured
with lower volume scanners or multifunction devices
closer to their point of creation.
DOCUMENT IMAGING
Software captures the image of the paper document.
Increasingly, electronic document images have the same
legal status as a paper document.
FORMS PROCESSING
Business forms are ingested into the system. Most forms
today are "structured"-the location of the form elements
are known. The ability to process unstructured forms,
those without a pre-defined form template, is improving.
RECOGNITION
Technologies that allow paper information to be
translated to electronic data without manual data input.
Recognition technologies have progressive capabilities
from optical character recognition (OCR) to intelligent
character recognitions (ICR) and are important for
converting large amounts of forms or unstructured data
to usable information in a content management system.
CATEGORIZATION/TAXONOMY
A taxonomy provides a formal structure for information,
based on the individual needs of a business.
Categorization tools automate the placement of content
(document images, email, text documents, i.e., all
electronic content) for future retrieval based on the
taxonomy. Users can also manually categorize documents.
Critical step to ensure that content is properly stored.
INDEXING
An essential part of the capture process, creates
metadata from scanned documents (customer ID number, for
example) so the document can be found. Indexing can be
based on keywords or full-text.
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT
Document management technology helps organizations
better manage the creation, revision, approval, and
consumption of electronic documents. It provides key
features such as library services, document profiling,
searching, check-in, check-out, version control,
revision history, and document security.
RECORDS MANAGEMENT
Content of long-term business value are deemed records
and managed according to a retention schedule that
determines how long a record is kept based on either
outside regulations or internal business practices. Any
piece of content can be designated a record.
EMAIL MANAGEMENT
As the de facto standard for business communication,
removing emails from the server and saving them to a
repository isn't enough. Email must be classified,
stored, and destroyed consistent with business
standards-just as any other document or record.
WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Web content management technology addresses the content
creation, review, approval, and publishing processes of
Web-based content. Key features include creation and
authoring tools or integrations, input and presentation
template design and management, content re-use
management, and dynamic publishing capabilities.
DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT
Similar in functionality to document management, DAM is
focused on the storage, tracking, and use of rich media
documents (video, logos, photographs, etc.). Roots of
the technology are in the media and entertainment
industry, currently experiencing growth, especially in
marketing departments. Digital assets typically have
high intellectual property value.
REPOSITORIES
Structured and unstructured-the core of many ECM
systems. This is where the data resides and where much
of a company's investment in ECM resides. A repository
can be a sophisticated system that costs hundreds of
thousands of dollars, or as simple as a file folder
system in a smaller company. The key is to have
information that can be found once it is placed in the
system.
PUBLISH
Content gets where and to whom it needs to go through a
number of tools. Content can be delivered via print,
email, websites, portals, text messages, RSS feeds.
PAPER ELECTRONIC
Portal, Intranet, Extranet, Email, Fax
SECURITY
Restricts access to content, both during its creation
and management as well as when delivered. 1. Digital
Rights Management - prevents the illegal distribution of
rights-managed content by restricting access to content
down to the sentence level as well as
granting/restricting permissions for forwarding and
accessing content.
2. Digital Signatures - ensures the identity of a
document sender, and the authenticity of the message. 3.
PKI - uses a public and private key pair held by a
trusted third party to transact business over the public
Internet.
COLLABORATION
Collaboration technologies enable individual users, such
as employees or business partners to easily create and
maintain project teams, regardless of geographic
location. These technologies facilitate collaborative,
team-based content creation and decision-making.
LONG-TERM ARCHIVAL
Content that must be preserved over decades must be
saved to media, such as paper and film-based imaging,
with longevity to match.
STORAGE
Content needs to "live" somewhere. Storage technology
(optical disks, magnetic, tape, microfilm, RAID, paper)
provide options for storing content online for rapid
access or near- or off-line for content that isn't
needed often.
CONTENT INTEGRATION
Enables disparate content sources to look and act as a
single repository.
MIGRATION
As storage media ages, content must be moved to new
media for continued accessibility.
BACKUP/RECOVERY
Backing up content in various formats and/or locations
helps to ensure business viability in the face of a
disaster.
SEARCH/RETRIEVAL
One of the greatest benefits of a strong ECM system is
the ability to get out what you put in. By having strong
indexing, taxonomy, and repository services, locating
the information in your system should be a snap.
SYNDICATION
Distribution of content for reuse and integration into
other content.
SYNDICATION
Distribution of content for reuse and integration into
other content.
LOCALIZATION
Recasting content based on the needs and cultural mores
of different global markets.
PERSONALIZATION
Drawing on a taxonomy and based on established user
preferences, various types and subjects of content can
be delivered via user-defined preferences. |
ECM BUSINESS
DRIVERS
Enterprise Content Management enables
four key business drivers:
-
Compliance
-
Collaboration
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Continuity
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Costs
Compliance
The key to a successful compliance strategy is
integrating the idea of compliance success into your
business - not viewing compliance as a project that can be
completed and then considered "finished." While painful,
complying with regulations should be viewed as an
opportunity to improve common business processes and not
just an ongoing cost to the business. It is no secret that
there can be high costs associated with your compliance
initiatives for both technology and employees. Only securing
compliance for one regulation such as Sarbanes-Oxley or
HIPAA will cause your costs to continue to grow as each new
regulation is delivered over the years. To help limit the
risk and cost, proactive ECM strategies must be developed
within key areas, such as records management and business
process management. Ensuring that the proper business
practices are followed and that content is properly
captured, stored, managed, and disposed of at the
appropriate and legal time in its lifecycle. Developing a
compliance initiative properly will tap many areas of
expertise, particularly legal, IT, and records management;
all in support of the overall business objectives of the
organization. Individuals from each of these areas must
contribute their knowledge and perspectives to ensure the
benefits of a sound compliance program. While compliance is
not always a technology problem, information technology, and
the massive growth of unstructured content, contributes to
corporate exposure. The tools of ECM, properly used, can
help reduce the overall cost of compliance to the business.
Collaboration
Collaboration is the art of working together. The key to
strong collaboration is utilizing the set of technologies -
instant messaging, whiteboards, online meetings, email, etc.
- that allow work to take place wherever and whenever
needed. It's good business; groups can accomplish more than
individuals. Collaboration allows individuals with
complementary, or overlapping, areas of expertise to create
better results faster than before. With today's
collaborative tools, business units and teams can work
together anytime-whether in adjoining offices or a world
apart. The technology can now address operational objectives
like saving time, streamlining processes, cutting costs, and
improving time to market. With the many different types of
collaborative tools available, companies must be sure they
select the correct tool for their business need.
Functionality can be broadly grouped into (1) communication
channel facilitation, which enables short-lived interaction
such as chat, instant messaging, white boarding, etc.; (2)
content lifecycle management, which manages content objects
involved in a business process; and (3) project
facilitation, which organizes and simplifies the way that
people work toward a common goal. However, there is a catch
with collaboration. When using collaborative tools, you must
be aware of records management, knowledge capture, and
compliance requirements. For some industries, all customer
communications must be kept. And, for a collaborative
product design process, companies must be sure that the
results are kept as business records.
Continuity
Keeping a business going 24x7 is the task of business
continuity planning. While often mentioned with disaster
recovery, business continuity planning is the overall
strategy for ensuring that operations continue in the event
of any disruption - natural or man-made. Disaster recovery
is more narrowly focused on getting an organization's IT
infrastructure going again, a subset of business continuity.
Because the lifeblood of most businesses today is
represented by electronic documents, ECM has a key role to
play in continuity. After all, without access to the most
vital electronic documents, a business is dead in the water.
ECM technologies allow the creation of centralized
repositories where all vital corporate information can
reside. The method of storage will vary depending on how
critical the content is to the company - from off-site back
up tapes to redundant, mirrored sites separated by geography
and on different power grids. A strong continuity plan will
show you that not all content is critical. Companies must
prioritize their content to determine how quickly content
needs to be back online in the event of a disaster. Business
continuity begins with a sound plan and high-level executive
support. Next, mission-critical processes and the entities
on which they are dependent must be determined, followed by
a business impact assessment to determine the impact of a
disruption, or losing, those processes. Defining what a
business considers a disaster and explaining how key
processes will be recovered are the next steps in the plan.
A crisis operations center should also be established with
procedures for chain of command and other roles. Finally,
don't forget to update and test the plan annually or as
business needs change. Effectively delivering on a
continuity plan will enhance your ability not only to
recover during a system failure but will enable you to
better define the priority of your business content and
improve your overall ECM strategy.
Cost
While ECM can be a costly initiative, what are the costs of
not properly managing your content? The cost of not
implementing ECM tools is too often left unmeasured until
too late. Things like the cost of long legal proceedings,
the loss of repeat business through the inability to perform
simple customer service interactions, and the cost of
typical business process delays are easy to measure after
the fact-lawyers' time, the cost to acquire new customers,
and FTE salaries. Understanding the cost of these potential
losses will allow you to see that ECM investments have
valuable benefits that often can be measured, but not
always. The key is to set your key metrics for success up
front and measure your success based on those expectations.
Measuring the revenue based on improved information in the
call center can be done as well as measuring the cost
benefits of improvements in process speed for a loan
application, claim process, or FDA drug approval (to name a
few). The improvements will not always show on the final
balance sheet but they are out there. While identifying a
direct ROI can be difficult, it is not impossible to see the
impacts of the improved process efficiency on the business.
ECM tools can make your organization more efficient and
drive down the cost of doing business. These technologies
provide value to your organization by more efficiently
organizing information for its subsequent retrieval, use,
and, ultimately, disposition. Plus, as these tools are used
by more organizations, it becomes part of how you work.
What's the ROI on a telephone? Yet, you wouldn't think of
doing business without one, would you? |
