Real World Examples of Successful ECM Strategies

Brian “Bex” HuffChief Software Architect

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Agenda

What problems does ECM solve?

Why initiatives sometimes fail

How to define and measure success

Examples of success

Tips for success

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Problems Solved With ECM

1. Explosion of content, contributors, and consumers

2. Costs of storing, organizing, processing and retrieving content

3. Compliance requirements: policies, procedures, audits, etc.

4. Easy knowledge capture

5. Adding context to content to aid its re-use

6. Assurance of quality, reliability, and security

7. Making content findable, usable, and re-usable

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Why do ECM Initiatives Fail? AIIM 2007 Survey:

1. Underestimated process and organizational issues (44%)

2. Lack of knowledge or training among our internal staff (32%)

3. Project derailed by internal politics (30%)

4. Uneven usage due to poor procedures and lack of enforcement (29%)

5. Underestimated the effort to distill and migrate content (21%)

6. Excessive "scope creep" (20%)

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Why do ECM Initiatives Fail? (cont.)

7. Failed to address taxonomy and metadata concerns (19%)

8. Low user acceptance due to poor design or clumsy implementation (18%)

9. Failed to think of benefits and issues outside of our business unit (16%)

10.Poorly defined business case (16%)

11.Lack of knowledge and training amongst external staff and suppliers (13%)

12.Budget was overrun (13%)

13.Failed to prioritize high-value content (12%)

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ECM is an Initiative; not an Application!

Success is both technical, and cultural• No software will solve all your problems

Systems don't maintain themselves• Every initiative should be approached with maintenance in mind• Annual/quarterly maintenance objectives should be defined and followed• Just like a car: preventative maintenance is cheaper in the long run

Content management can't manage an organization• Executives and stakeholders must be directly involved• ECM is a living system that needs a commitment to growth

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Align ECM and Business Strategies

Is your ECM strategy aligned with your business strategy?

How do others in your industry/market use ECM?• will your strategy give you a competitive edge? how?• can usually only compare against their web presence

Where do you want to be on the innovation curve?• innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggard?

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Locate Information Management “Pain Points”

Use audits and surveys to determine current state• How usable is the system?• How many resources used to manually process information? • How much time do you spend looking for content?• How are you distributing information today? Is that a costly/manual

process? • Are you following the proper policies, procedures, and governance?• Are you making your partners more successful?• Are you making your customers more successful?• Are you creating duplicate information?• Can people verify which version of content they have, and the author?

Is ECM the optimal tool to solve the pain?• What additional software will you need / want?• What manual processes will remain / change?

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Define Success Criteria

For each project, determine precise goals• Strategic initiatives support tactical projects• Associate a dollar value for each initiative

Use goals to define ROI and success metrics• Also use it to help prioritize projects• Paper-based processes and intranets usually have quick ROI

When project is complete, measure real ROI• Did the strategic initiative support enough tactical projects?• Did it help these tactical projects be successful?• How many internal resources were used / saved?• How much was spent on consultants / offshore resources?• Can we tune the implementation to speed up ROI?

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Design Goals and Metrics around Problems ECM Solves

1. Content explosion• How much total content? How much is managed?

2. Costs• Printing, processing,

3. Compliance• Easier, faster, cheaper audits

4. Knowledge capture• Can we get more people / systems using ECM?

5. Context management• Does the information have enough context to be re-used?

6. Assurance of quality, reliability, and security• Do people trust the system?

7. Making content findable, usable, and re-usable• How much time do customers/partners/employees spend searching?

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Measure Success; Improve Continuously

Use your centralized ECM team to re-define strategy• Create a plan to communicate success within organization• Stories on how one team worked with ECM to deliver greater value

Always incorporate usability feedback into your system

Help your systems grow• Security model, metadata model, new sites, new content

Technical success measured after completion:• Usability? Maintainability? Stability? • Scalability? Recoverability? Customizability?

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Eaton

A premier diversified power management company• Founded in 1911• Over $13 billion in sales (2007)• Over 80,000 employees

Goals:• Better customer support:

• Less call center volume

• Reduced time to create / maintain web site• Improve web experience to gain new audiences

• more findable content

• better brand

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Success

Separated concerns:• Site developer, site manager, site contributor• Can re-use existing developer resources to create sites quickly• Site contributors can easily update web content

Distributed website ownership• 120+ Websites: Public, Internal, Private• 700+ Editors, 150,000+ Assets, 8,000+ Pages• Each new site is cheaper than the previous one!

Tip: a simple security model is critical for multiple web sites

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MeadWestvaco

International packaging design and manufacturing• 22,000 employees in 30 countries

Customers include:• Proctor & Gamble• Coca Cola• Phillip Morris

Goals:• Consolidation of sites, simplification of management• Sites in multiple languages to grow market share

• Don’t just save costs; increase revenue!

• Easier browsing and searching

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Success

Multiple truly localized web sites• Not just translated; specifically targeted by local content owners• Easy site creation with enforced governance• Brand assets, logos, photography, look & feel

Hard ROI from new business & print savings• $1 million in print savings, $3 million + new revenue attributed to site

Focused on information architecture• Multi-level metadata model that is easy to navigate• Spent a lot of time ensuring model was accurate and maintainable

Tip: executives won’t believe the problem needs to be solved unless you can produce metrics on waste and inefficiency.

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Emerson Process Management

Division of Emerson Electric (Fortune 200)• Global sales of about $8B in 2008

15 major divisions, including:• Analytical & Measurement Instrumentation• Control Valves• Process Control & Management Systems• Maintenance & Optimization Software

Goals:• Reduce costs• Help speed up collaboration on new products

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Emerson Success

Emerson eDocs• 200+ Intranet, Extranet, and Public web sites• 3.5 Million content items, 3 terabytes, 1400 contributors

Hard Savings:• Reduction in printing / shipping paper costs: >$720k • Reduction of headcount / call center volume: >$200k

Soft Savings:• Instant access to product specifications, and design documents

• Partners, customers, and employees more successful

• Faster time-to-market with new products and initiatives• Less communication overhead

• New initiatives implemented in less time

• Effective re-use of knowledge

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Tips for Cultural Success

Conway's Law:

• “Any organization that designs a system will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure.”

Executive sponsorship is a must• Person who “owns it” must have authority• Without it, your deployment will never scale beyond line-of-business app• LOBs are useful, but cannot support strategic initiatives

Need an ECM “Center of Excellence” • Overlapping concerns in center of excellence• Want some people in multiple groups to help communication• Help multiple departments “share in your success”

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Tips for Technical Success

Gall's Laws:

• “A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.”

• “A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”

Deploy strategic infrastructure first

Deploy small projects next to build success / knowledge• Need user training, and experienced designers• Paper and intranet web initiatives have fast ROI• High-profile, low-risk, to broaden executive support

Deploy complex projects only when you understand how

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Tips for Technical Success, cont.

Metadata model is vital, but always changing• Good information architecture can be a game changer• Be prepared to maintain and redesign yearly• Good enterprise search is equally essential

Simple security models are best• Don’t use security to organize• Complex security needs more common with Collaboration/IRM

Plan for re-use, and do it as much as possible

Keep an eye on scalability, but do not obsess about it too soon• Focus on growability and interoperability

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Resources

Transforming Infoglut!• http://bexhuff.com/books/transforming-infoglut

Survive or thrive with ECM webcasts:• http://oracle.com/goto/thrive

Getting green ROI with ECM• http://oracle.com/goto/ecmgreen

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My Company: http://bezzotech.com

My Blog: http://bexhuff.com

My Self: bex@bezzotech.com

Questions?