Enterprise Content Management (ECM) can be a daunting goal, and the concepts touch nearly every aspect of your business. Important facets include the capture and management of documents, email, records, and a host of other information assets. Process workflow, information storage, security, and retrieval, are important aspects that demand thorough attention as well. Finally, you must grapple with the delivery of information in both electronic and printed formats—its enough to make your head spin.
Companies find that ECM brings significant benefits and is worth the effort, however. Collaboration is at the heart of ECM. Collaboration tools, a.k.a. groupware, help individuals work together more effectively through the use of online conferences, email, digital whiteboards, and instant messaging. These tools have become popular features offered by ECM vendors. Software enables a team of users to convene in one virtual boardroom to develop documents and other projects. As a result, organizations work smarter, not harder—whether they are onsite or working remotely.
The Benefits of Collaboration
"Collaboration tools are important in today’s business world because they allow teams to work more effectively without losing time to travel to a location to work jointly," says John Mancini, president of AIIM (the Association for Information and Image Management). "With the ECM tools of today, we now can truly collaborate by bringing together people’s minds to enable them to share ideas that eventually end up in something great."
According to Michele Stevenson, a senior manager, Corporate Communications at Hummingbird, Ltd., project management can be improved using ECM collaboration tools. "They provide an environment for managing complex projects using dispersed, cross-functional teams. The key benefit is to allow team members to share information, set timelines and objectives, and streamline business processes across an entire organization."
Over the past several years, a number of concepts have surfaced that focus on bringing people, information, and processes together. The terms knowledge management, content management (CM), and document management (DM) often converge and the differences are not always clear. Scott Testa, COO, Mindbridge, Inc., reminds us of the common value of each. "Fundamentally, it’s about getting accurate information to the right people in a timely manner, and preserving that information in such a way that anyone can access that data at a later date."
Chris McLaughlin, director, Product Marketing, FileNet Corporation USA, stresses that no matter what you choose to call your initiative, ECM collaboration tools can improve your overall productivity since people and information are focused on a specific task, project, or work process. "In my view, the benefit of a collaboration solution is that each team space has its own context which is unique to a specific activity," says McLaughlin. "Therefore, all of the content, discussion threads, calendaring, and activities contributed to a team space are specifically relevant to the project."
Richard Maganini, director of Media Relations for Open Text Corporation, sees the benefits of collaboration falling into two categories. "First is the need for workers to stay connected with each other on an ongoing basis. Second is to facilitate more complex collaboration required for critical projects, processes, and content."
Implementing Collaboration Tools
Many organizations find that a vision of improved collaboration is not enough. Successful implementation takes thoughtful planning, clearly defined needs, and thorough investigation of the solutions available.
"Implementing collaboration tools is much like implementing any other technology," says Mancini. "Before anything is initiated, it is important to fully understand your requirements in order to ensure that the tools you select are appropriate for your organization."
Mancini stresses that a formal analysis should be conducted in which employees are interviewed about what they do and how they use information. An implementation team should be established with representatives from key functional areas such as the legal, procurement, records management, and IT. Testa agrees; "Putting aside infrastructure requirements, what it really takes is commitment and wide scale participation."
Once requirements have been determined, a survey of available solutions should be conducted. This may involve a Request for Proposal (RFP) to a number of solution providers. Your team should educate themselves about the technologies so that they may accurately evaluate the proposals.
The expertise of your supplier will not only help to ensure a successful implementation. Often, vendor installation is required. "To implement our collaboration solution, customers are required to use FileNet Professional Services or one of our certified partners," says Eric Tran, Team Collaboration Manager, FileNet. This is not a requirement of all vendors, however. "Unlike traditional ECM systems, Xythos solutions can be installed and used in just a few hours," says Jim Till, VP of Marketing, Xythos Software, Inc. "We have built a reputation in the ECM market by providing open standards based solutions that provide customers with a high degree of flexibility."
The Challenges
Whatever solution you choose, it is important to carefully educate end users so that they will realize the most benefit from using the technology. Even the best solution will be of little benefit if users resist change or fail to use the new system effectively. "Our most successful organization designated a lead on the project who became the internal expert," says Testa. "That expert then guided the specific departmental administrators throughout the implementation and post-install education."
Another important challenge to overcome is the establishment of clear policies and procedures. "When policies and procedures are not addressed early in the implementation process, it can lead to long-term difficulties," says Mancini. "Be sure to establish the necessary rules to ensure that the technologies will be used to benefit the organization."
New systems can be a challenge for any organization. One way to overcome the learning curve is to integrate your collaboration solution into applications that are already familiar to your users. "We’ve learned that if collaboration tools can be seamlessly integrated within the applications that users already know and use, like email, browsers, and common desktop applications, adoption can be very rapid," notes Till.
Who’s on Board?
Once somewhat mysterious and complicated, ECM has finally come of age. Organizations around the world and from varied industries are using ECM technology to foster collaboration, implement vital process improvements, and to protect and retain mission-critical information. One example is Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). INAC deployed a Hummingbird solution to improve the effectiveness of team activities involving representatives from multiple geographic locations. In the past, representatives traveled to visit clients across 13 regions to perform negotiations or to participate in various decision-making processes. Now they use Hummingbird to conduct these meetings virtually, thus reducing travel costs.
Another example is the U.S. Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) which began using a Xythos system designed to make it easier for coalition forces to manage and access war-fighting information in Iraq. The system allows troops to securely exchange any type of information and review it with a common Web browser. Access to real-time information improves decision-making capabilities and provides a life-saving benefit on the battlefield.
Fidelity Bank of Wichita, Kansas uses a collaboration tool from Mindbridge to access commonly used documents such as policy and procedure manuals, reference material, and standard forms. This crucial content was stored in multiple locations and often replicated on branch servers. Mindbridge provides a central document library that helps organize the content with proper security, access, and version control.
Collaboration on the Increase
Whether intentional or not, most organizations have already positioned themselves for collaborative technologies. According to a recent study conducted by AIIM, the use of these types of tools is expanding throughout many organizations. The study found that 48 percent of the organizations surveyed allow their employees to use instant messaging—this is an increase of nearly 20 percent over the last 18 months. The use of discussion forums, message boards, and the like is nearly 69 percent.
"In the world in which we work today, people and information are already online," says Maganini. "As a result, ECM collaboration tools are poised to become part of the critical interaction between people within an organization." He offers a word of caution; "To be truly successful, these collaboration tools must also be tightly integrated with your document and content management strategies in order to effectively tie people to the information they need to be productive and to improve operations."
With the maturity of ECM, one thing is clear. If your organization is not adept at using the information within your enterprise you will be at a disadvantage. Collaboration tools may be just the solution to conquer the pressures of changing markets, shrinking margins, and increasing competition.
