ECM: Now I Understand!

I have been approached many times to explain Enterprise Content Management (ECM). I usually answer with a question like, what do you think it is? The majority of people will respond that it is technology, software or start listing vendor names. This is a part of it but not the whole picture. When our conversations end they often say, Now I Understand!

Simply put, while technology is an essential element of ECM, you should think of ECM as an environment rather than a solution. ECM is comprised of the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to key organizational processes. ECM is not just about creating, retrieving or maintaining content for 50 years. It encompasses the entire lifecycle of content, from the beginning to the end, aligning the information systems within your enterprise to provide end to end access by the user. ECM must focus on the vision and goals of the organization and be purpose driven. Always keep the business goals and the final or multiple uses of content in mind as you go about creating your ECM environment and putting your ECM solution together.

Organizations do not buy or implement ECM because it’s “the cool thing to do.” When planned and implemented correctly it takes time, effort, commitment and resources to achieve success and meet your expectations. Successful ECM environments are typically tied to a specific outcome with a focused purpose in sight. You need carefully to examine and understand what you are trying to accomplish as a business through the use of ECM. A useful tool to help you identify and view your needs is Donald Marchand’s Strategic Information Alignment Framework, or SIAF.

The fact is that organisations have a hierarchy of business needs or drivers and that organisational focus shifts in turbulent times. The question is, how rapidly can you re-align your organisation if at all, and more important to this discussion, is your ECM environment flexible and ready to re-align in support of these needs?

In his book entitled “Competing with Information: A Manager's Guide to Creating Business Value with Information Content”, Marchand suggests that organisations focus their attention on information in 4 key ways:

   1. Minimise risks

   2. Reduce costs

   3. Add value

   4. Create new reality

 

The Strategic Information Alignment Framework focuses on using information to create and make intelligent decisions, and solve internal pains while addressing the desires and issues of customers and partners outside of the organization.

 

These dynamics tend to be at odds. In these tough economic times, how do you reduce costs, yet add value? When times are good, it is easy to say you are going to add value and create new realities but in today’s business climate most managers/executives stick to managing risks and reducing costs. Is it because this seems the easier path to take? As we saw and hopefully learned in the near past when the bubble burst in the Dot Com era, cutting costs will only take you so far. Once you’ve cut to the bare minimum, or perhaps cut too deeply to recover, staying alive is a daily struggle let alone thoughts of growth.

 Pursuing multiple facets of Marchand’s framework AT THE SAME TIME helps keeps balance so that no single area of focus stakes all of the attention. After all, the objective is to maintain and increase revenue while in pursuing of cost cutting. It is to add value and create new realities that help sustain you today and help you grow tomorrow.

Not sure how to start? Reading Donald Marchand’s book is one step forward and taking classes from AIIM is another. Check out AIIM training at www.aiim.org/training today. Take the first step in creating a complete and successful ECM environment that has focus and purpose.

What say you? Have you taken an AIIM Certificate program? Do you have a story to tell? Are you thinking about it and not sure where to begin? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.