Empowering your board in the digital era through effective project

management Christopher Wynder, Ph.DDirector of Client Services

@ChrisW_thinkdoxchrisw@thinkdox.com

ThinkDox LLC.

Managing School boards is complex

ApplicationsFor managing board operations

School level District Board level

DATE

ERM

ShrePoint

LegacyExchange

ERP

Information can be found in a lot of places- and is a mix of personal and work

On-Premise Software Cloud and SaaS

Integrated Information Management provides a single platform for all departments

R&DSalesCEOHRAfter R&DSales

CEO HR

A year later

Before

Do we have any tape?Someone needs to

organize this!

That looks great…but where do I put my vacation request-is it HR or

department?

Do we have any tape?

I thought we organized this?!

Documents consist of information that is used for particular business processes. There is no requirement for documents to be maintained for any period of time.

Records are a subclass of documents that must be treated differently. Specifically, they must be maintained in a format that can not be changed for a specific length of time.

Processes produce both documents and records.

Users do not have “silo’ed” work days where they handle just records or handle just documents.

9am

DATE

?5pm

The average user’s day

ERP/CRM

Most records handling issues are systemic not antagonistic

These first two are symptoms of how poor/slow adoption of technology has

been for records handling.

The last three are purely process maturity. Suggesting that even if

adoption of EDRMs technology was higher significant issues would still exist.

Effective ERM is service driven:

It is embedded into normal work processes

Provides time-savings to system users

Aligns with organization strategy and goals

Most records management procedures are based on “paper”

• Rigid organization-enforced taxonomy.

• Retention rules

• Disposition workflow

• Audit of deletion schedules

Capture Organize UseArchive or

retire

How it is generated does not matter in a

paper world. The physical artifact is “handed over”

Use is controlled

via ownership of artifact.

Take advantage of the metadata to route information to the right people- and only the right people

Text

Date

List

Dynamic

“In progress”

Information

Folder

Information sorting

(Templates)

Process step identification

Tags

Confidential

Templates can be applied to either folders or documents

Tags can convey information or restrict

access

Move information from source to use through a single application

THINKDOX LLC.

Capture

Organize

Use

Quick fields

Workflow

Audit trails

Laserfiche forms

Access control

Metadata

Version controlHighly searchableProperly managed

Connector

ThinkDox LLC.

Reduce the information handling applications. Focus on process level controls not application.

ERMAdd

User ECM ERP or LMS

Process level control aligns what users do across their duties into a single location.

A rigid architecture based on separate applications for different types of information requires significant customization:• This increases the IT spend for managing operations

and educational uses.• Requires existing user compliance and

understanding of information sources. • Simple access control to specific types of information.

A process based approach reduces the number of applications:

• Limits user training for submitting information to different departments.

• Alignment with ISO standards (9001 and 27001).• Reduces the number of development platforms IT

manages.• Requires access control to key information sources to

ensure user compliance.

Case study: Evaluating a broken process

Who

K- 8 School board in Mid-west US.

Central IT administration

Charter schools have own IT budget

Problem

Updating student records at end of year is time-consuming for both teachers and central admin

Process “feels” unique for each school to enter same data

Complications

Some schools use Google Apps.

Central Admin and many schools are standardized on Microsoft

Central uses O365. Most schools are migrating to O365

THINKDOX LLC.

ThinkDox LLC.

ERM

Idealized process

SIS

Add

Student records

The reality of how student records get updated

Add

1. Can we manage the customization?

2. Can we gather enough information on users

Start by defining what you want the system is supposed to do

IT Competency

1. What are users going to do IN system?

2. How embedded should the system be in our processes?

1. What can our ECM system do / do we features should we be prioritizing?

2. Do we have a taxonomy?3. What is a disposition needs?

1

2

3Information Governance

Technologyreadiness

The reality is their “process” is actually 3 processes

12

3

Records change approvalRecords change workflow

Records update capture

Optimizing each sub-process

1 Records change approvalWhy is this happening outside the system?

Do we care?

Risks?

Printing student records increases the number of different places that regulated information is stored.

Speed of process has led to paid overtime for Admin staff constraining infrastructure upgrades.

Why:

Key approval is an “email guy” doesn’t want to learn a new system.

It fits with the communication and template locations that currently exist.

Addressing the “Why” – understand how each user works

Admin

Student records

Facilities management

User Journey of a Admin’s day

Check information

Get Approval

Confirm Updates

Request updates

Review orders

Send orders

Request approval

Draft orders

Analysis:

The nature of approvals is the real issue.

Facilities management is completely done through accounting software. Has no ability to capture “wet signatures”

Approver wants to just send an email.

Identify the “most dangerous” user personasWhat core users or departments are the most dependent on ECM or have roles that generate the most content for ECM?

Go right to the source:

Where are the roadblocks in the process? • Survey users about their activities.• Compare the activities of people in

problem processes.

Where are the compliance issues?

Which group of users is the organization most concerned with?

Non-compliance from user groups that know better is often due to a lack of support for BRPs

Use IT system data:

What does the log-in data tell us? Is there an AD role that is under represented?

Users that are under-represented in access logs are likely dissatisfied with ECM.

What department has the most complex site organization?

Complex granular trees often result from user groups copying and re-filing information for new projects.

Search logs – are there commonly searched terms?Searching for the same document is a sign that users do not recall where documents live.

Dealing with capture and re-capture problems

3 Records update captureWhy is this happening outside the system?

Do we care?

Risks?

Errors in data input cause problems for teachers and administrators attempting to evaluate educational plans.

Duplicated records is an serious issue for both storage growth and audit controls

Why:

No one knows how to update documents in the system.

Information is captured in a different system then the records management system

School level

Efficient use of information requires process change not expensive software.

Board level

System of interaction

System of record

Access control

Findability

Archive

Ad hoc/ Fileshare

Holistic planning for information management

Infrastructure planning

Requirement gathering

Implementation

Integrated retention and disposition schedules

Understanding trends in content generation

Information management strategy

Technological support for managing information

THINKDOX LLC.

The technical issues typically stem from user habits

Collaboration

System of record

Access control

Templates

PDF generation as designed strips metadata and is not linked to a form type in Laserfiche

Admin kept copy of template on

HD No one actually used SharePoint for version control

TemplateIT had tied metadata to “live” copy

1. Can we manage the customization?

2. Can we gather enough information on users

Start by defining what you want the system to do

IT Competency

1. What are users going to do IN system?

2. How embedded should the system be in our processes?

1. What can our ECM system do / do we features should we be prioritizing?

2. Do we have a taxonomy?3. What is a disposition needs?

1

2

3Information Governance

Technologyreadiness

Move the whole process to form based approach

Capture

Organize

Use Archive or retire

Define the complete view of what people do to extend content descriptors

Persona

Business Process

Users Workflow

New cases

Case management

Check schedule

Follow-upSchedule meeting

Check for information

Review previous

Monitor action

Request action

Review reports

ServiceManagement

BPM case

module

CRM case # Workflow

Confirm by SMTP

Special education

Refined the process maps with the actual information they need

DATE

CRMConstituent or Council

needs

Vacation request

Agenda/Budget

What information outside of their job description do users need to “get work done”

DATE

DATE

DATE

How many of these resources are up-to-

date?

Well-governed information is both protected and used.

• Start by determining how similar the key intra- and inter-departmental information movement patterns are. Do HR and corporate services speak the same language.

• School boards with cloud based educational tools e.g. GAFE, Office 365, D2L should evaluate the processes and security of how information moves into these systems.

• Move away from “E-documents” such as fillable PDFs to dynamic forms and workflow. This is easier to manage long term

• Don’t forget about social. School officials need to have policy and process for when constituent information and conversation moves beyond community “engagement” to legally binding or regulated action.

RegulationsOrganization-wide data

Similarities

Departmentaldata

Key considerations for how to maximize the use of your ECM

Thank youHave questions or want a copy of the presentation:Email me: chrisw@thinkdox.com

Don’t want to email me:

See our websites presentation page http://thinkdox.com/news/presentations/

We are on twitter and LinkedIn@Thinkdox@ChrisW_thinkdox

https://www.linkedin.com/company/thinkdox-inc-?trk=biz-companies-cym

How people work has changed vastly

Capture Organize Use Archive or retire

Information lifecycle

User information

lifecycleGenerate Record Use Forget or

storeOrganize Re-Organize

Envisioned Starting

point

Actual Starting

point

Forget or store

Be the gardener: plant the seed, control the weeds, and nourish the environment

• Gardeners do not control growth they only maximize the conditions for growth.

• What can you as an Information Gardener do: ◦ provide appropriate access (the size of the

plot). ◦ Set limits on where the seeds can grow

(users) and ◦ provide within that plot the nutrients

(information) that seeds need.

• You cannot control the growth but you can limit the unwanted growth. Growth on ECM is going to be organic but you can limit the space provided.

The brain uses two descriptors for recall. Take advantage of this to limit the number of descriptors

• People vaguely recall the name of a document

• People recall why they made or last used a document

• People are hard wired to remember WHO they:

◦ Work with

◦ Communicated with

◦ Made the original

• The right two pieces of process information will allow users to find the right documents

Take advantage of how the brain works.

Weak recall

Weak recall

Strong recall

Object

Who

=

=

=

Describe the user journey based on how people work

Expand using descriptors that describe work patterns

Facet Description Examples

Matter Objects, typically inanimate. Desktops; Servers; Storage; Buildings.

Energy Actions and Interactions. “processes”.

Customer service; Quality control; Manufacturing; Research; Accounts payable.

Space Locations, departments, Human resources; APAC; Guatemala; Building A2.

Time Hour, period, or duration Morning; Q3; Financial close; Winter; 2011.

Build out the descriptors based discrete tasks during the process

Client size

Depart. Budget related

Location

Order

approvals

fulfillment

Initiative

Intranet ERPOther

sources

Website

HR structures

Remember our goal at the beginning is to have enough

taxonomy to confidently allow users to add content to ECM for

the purposes that the organization has defined. The

taxonomy WILL need to updated through a controlled process.

The key with “semantic search” is a clear process for evaluating the

usage. The goal should be to have these integrated into the controlled

vocabulary to replace unused terms rather than create a shadow

metadata system

Categorize the non-records descriptors based on GROW fields

Contract negotiations

Billing

Contracts

Secondary office

Remote

CRM logs

Surveys

Direct interaction

Location

financials

Call list

Daily activities

Calendar

Hand-over

Workgroup

Potential taxonomy descriptors(GROW)

These could be the drop-down terms

Wide category

Remember this initial goal is about gaining control over documents. The long term goal is a living set

of descriptors that mirror business practices.

These are probably too specific. Additional personas will generalize these further to make them usable.

Use process descriptions to enable both findability and securityLong lists of anything are a disaster for information collection

Marketing Joke: “What is the biggest state in the United States?”

The Answer:

8x3The human brain has a storage and sorting limit of eight items.

This means drop-down items 9 - ∞ will not be considered. Keep your taxonomy to three levels of detail, each with about eight items. The taxonomy for a facet, therefore, can have 83 – or 512 –

items.

Focus on the user tools that solve user frustration with

their day-to-day activities.

How many different

applications are they

using

9amDATE

?5pm

How many times are they breaking

compliance

ERP/CRM

how do users generate content-what are the filetypes, what are the key applications

where is the information from that content being recorded? Office documents, applications

what is the point of the content? Is the information being shared? Is it for revenue generation? Does it need to be moved to other people?

....is the information source used again. What do users really need, what can you securely provide them.

G enerate

R ecord

O rganize

W hen

Align user information and ECM lifecycles at key points in the process

Adoption and process management are linked together. Solve the users’ key needs and you’ll solve your compliance concerns surrounding structured documents and records.

Capture Organize Use Archive or retire

ECM lifecycle

User information

lifecycleGenerate Record Use Forget or

store

?

Organize Re-Organize

ECM works best when the information is

organized at capture

The un-asked question-”How do users get work done?”

This is key to how users expect to find documents

Users lack the tools to

appropriately archive content

Re-use leads to lots of local copies.