Six Questions about ECM You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

You’ve probably heard a lot about how ECM software can improve your productivity and your bottom line. Maybe you are considering an investment in an ECM system. Or perhaps, like many early adopters of the technology, you are contemplating replacing an older system with software that is less rigid and more agile. Whatever your situation, there are some basic concepts with respect to the technology that can help enrich your understanding of the possibilities that implementation has to offer—whether or not you are new to ECM:

1. What is ECM and how does it differ from EDM?

It is understandable that there is confusion surrounding these acronyms. After all, many of us vendors are guilty of using the terms interchangeably. To be fair, both terms originated from similar needs. EDM, or electronic document management, was a term used when electronic imaging, management, and storage technology first came about. The purpose of an EDM system was to eliminate paper and make information available electronically.

EDM technology eventually evolved into enterprise content management (ECM) software. ECM still entails going paperless, but its goals are far more expansive than those of EDM. ECM lets organizations manage different types of content—not just scanned images. In addition, ECM is a launching pad to overall enterprise efficiency and connectivity, enabling workflow, automation, electronic forms (eForms), records management, and other advanced capabilities that deliver significant ROI.

Although the technology had advanced dramatically, the mindset, unfortunately, has not. Far too many organizations use their ECM systems solely for electronic storage and retrieval. In these cases, the system has become little more than an electronic filing cabinet, managing information statically rather than dynamically. Signs that a company has not evolved its mindset beyond paper processing include:

• Scanning and saving business documents after they have been processed manually
• Routing documents via email for processing after they have been scanned
• Printing out paper copies of electronic documents as part of standardized business processes
• Off-site box storage of the paper records

What is the difference between EDM and ECM? It seems like a simple question, but the answer can be complicated. The important thing to remember is that if you are using your ECM system solely for electronic storage and retrieval, expansion offers the potential for dramatically improved returns on your investment. Using an ECM system for simple electronic storage and retrieval is akin to using a smartphone just to make calls. It is important to know your system’s capabilities so that you can make the most of the technology.

 2. How can I get better performance from my ECM system?

If your ECM system is not performing up to your expectations, it is likely that your organization falls into one of the following scenarios:

1. You have not approached your ECM implementation from a business performance perspective. In this case, it is possible that in spite of advances in ECM technology, your organization hasn’t let go of a paper processing mindset. It is easy to fall into this trap. Processing information the same way that your organization has always processed information—in spite of advances in technology—means that you don’t have to go through the sometimes difficult exercises of change management, process analysis, and organizational assessment. Coming up with more efficient ways to process your information takes some work. Is it any wonder that so many organizations opt to continue outdated, inefficient practices?
2. You are using a legacy system that lacks the agility to be configured quickly and easily. This scenario is not uncommon for some of the early adopters of ECM—particularly those in the insurance, government, and healthcare industries. At the time that they were introduced to the business world, legacy systems solved a myriad of problems associated with document management. Unfortunately, for all of their robustness, they are typically very rigid. And because they are difficult to program quickly and easily, not only are they unresponsive to today’s immediate business demands; they usually have an extremely high TCO. You may be surprised to learn that a high-performance ECM solution can offer improved functionality and be more cost-effective than your current legacy solution.
3. You have processing bottlenecks, and your implementation hasn’t led to reduced costs. These are issues that could definitely benefit from a thorough process analysis. Check out the troubleshooting guide, When Workflow Doesn’t Work, to learn more.

 3. What is the difference between an ECM system and an ERP system?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, also known as point solutions, focus primarily on structured data. ECM, on the other hand, manages both structured and unstructured content, data, and documents — even those that accumulate outside of processes that are strictly transactional.

ERP systems tend to be used to address specific areas of a business — accounts payables, accounts receivables, inventory management, HR, etc.— and they do it well. Oftentimes, these systems offer lightweight imaging and document management functionality. However, these systems do not necessarily lend themselves to the true enterprise connectivity afforded by ECM. ECM not only extends the functionality of ERP implementations; it connects your diverse departments, enabling security, access, and scalability for each of those different areas.

If your enterprise relies on the functionality of an ERP system, imagine what you could accomplish by integrating it with ECM software. You could implement electronic forms throughout your enterprise, which would provide the opportunity for self-service of your stakeholders and enable you to dramatically reduce incoming paper. At the same time, eForms would allow you to digitize incoming information immediately upon receipt. Technologies like workflow and BPM would enable you to automate the flow of information across your enterprise for significantly expedited turnaround and error reduction. Integrating ECM with ERP and other core business solutions helps you to extend the life of your existing systems, providing them with enhanced functionality.

 4. How does ECM help with compliance?

No matter what industry you are in, compliance requirements are made up of three major components: privacy, security and accountability. You need to be certain that your stakeholder information is protected and secure. At the same time, you need to be sure that you are managing your records in such a way that they can be produced on request. (Or upon demand, as the case may be.) Your ECM system can help you maintain compliance in the following ways:

• Security. ECM offers unparalleled security of your protected information, allowing you decide who can access, view, sign, act upon, annotate, or distribute documents. An ECM system that supports redaction can guarantee that your customers’ personal information is not accessible to processing staff. ECM’s authentication and authorization measures further secure your confidential information, ensuring that identities are protected and that data is viewed only by individuals who need to see it for processing purposes.
• Audit trails. ECM enables digital audit trails of all business activity, offering verifiable evidence that shows who has accessed your documents (and when). If your company is audited for any reason, ECM provides you with the tools to demonstrate that you have taken every effort to enact privacy measures and secure your information. Inspections and auditing become significantly easier with digital records.
• Produce documents upon request. As you know, audits, assessments, subpoenas, eDiscovery requests, and right-to-know laws mandate strict financial penalties for organizations that are unable to provide records when they are requested. ECM solutions offer indexing capabilities to enable you to produce information on demand. Systems that offer enterprise search enable you to query your repository for text matches in non-text file formats such as PDF, TIFF, HTML, and JPEG. Enterprise search combines keyword and full-text searching, helping you to locate structured and unstructured data contained in files and other documents.
• Records Management. A high-performance ECM system allows you to automate the retention and disposition of your records. This ensures that records are not kept beyond the time period that is mandated by law. It also prevents records from being destroyed prematurely. A superior ECM system will also enable legal holds: records can be set aside for the litigation process and kept unaltered until the legal hold is released, but files are still available for staff to access and use. Seamless records management also enables companies to create retention plans for each document type, ensuring standardization and removing the human factor from the records management equation.

5. What is the ROI for an ECM system?

This is a question with variable answers, which are dependent on your specific needs. Are you considering a traditional on-premise ECM installation? Or would the monthly operating fee associated with a cloud based subscription solution work better for your budget? When determining ROI, it is is important to have a keen awareness of how the system would enhance your business goals as well as your work environment. Typically, the better you understand your business processes today, the better your potential to lower your TCO tomorrow. Consider that ECM offers the potential for significant returns in the following areas:

• Reduced costs associated with storage: Obviously, ECM software will help you reduce costs related to physical storage. But why stop there?
• Improved productivity: Implementing advanced ECM technologies such as workflow, BPM, eForms, and process automation will help you expedite turnaround without increasing your workforce. The technology also helps you reduce errors and better serve your stakeholders.
• Risk mitigation: ECM allows you to reduce discovery costs and risks associated with litigation in a way that is proactive rather than reactive. Audit trails, compliance with e-discovery requests, and records management capabilities enhance compliance initiatives no matter what your industry.
• Disaster recovery / business continuity: The idea of your business being affected by a natural disaster used to seem farfetched, unless you were located in a hurricane zone or an area that was prone to earthquakes. Realistically, with wildfires, floods, and severe weather becoming more prevalent, savvy organizations need to enact a contingency plan to ensure that operations are up and running regardless of environmental conditions. ECM is a crucial component of your disaster recovery plan. Furthermore, if your business is located in an area that is prone to disasters, a cloud-based SaaS ECM implementation may be the smartest way to protect your assets.

An investment in ECM has the potential to pay for itself in very little time. That said, it can be difficult to make broad-scale predictions with respect to how quickly ROI will be realized. One of the best ways to quantify an investment in ECM is with an organizational assessment. This will help you gain a more thorough understanding of what type of system would help you best reach your goals. At the same time, it would ensure that you are not overpaying for ECM modules that you don’t need.

6. What is involved with migrating information from an older ECM to a newer solution?

Are you paying a lot of overhead and a lot of money to service a system that takes too long to modify and is difficult to use? If you were an early adopter of ECM technology, you might be surprised by the degree of agility and affordability that the newer systems offer. And fortunately, if you are considering an upgrade, you have some options with respect to accommodating your existing ECM system:

• If you are replacing your current ECM system, you can migrate all of your necessary documents, files, and associated metadata from the original system to the new system.
• If you are retiring an ECM system but would like to leave your documents in their current storage location, your new system can import just the desired metadata and the pointers to all associated documents that are still housed in the previous locations.
• If you are continuing to use your current content management system along with your new solution, you may be able to leverage a repository plug-in. This allows you to import the document’s data into the new system but leave the document itself in the other ECM.  When you request to view the document, the new system will use the repository plugin to find the document in the other system and display it in the new system’s viewer as if it was in new system.  For example, if one of your departments is using SharePoint and the rest of your enterprise is using an ECM system, you don’t need to duplicate the actual document in two repositories; and yet, users can access the document from either system.

The big picture:

It is natural to have questions about how to best access, control, and use the information that drives your business forward. If you’d like to learn more about ECM software and how it can enrich your business, we’re here to help. Whether you are new to ECM or are contemplating replacing a system that is underperforming, you can most certainly benefit from consulting services from an experienced vendor with the technical and business expertise to address your needs. Discover how an organizational assessment, workflow analysis, and change management consulting can help take your productivity to the next level. It is never too late to learn how to get the most from your ECM system implementation.

SOURCE: docfinity

Social, to Knowledge Management's Rescue?

Knowledge management — as most people think of it — never existed. So anyone proclaiming its "death" can't be right. How can something that never existed die?

Let me explain.

Knowledge Management Meets Enterprise 2.0

Last week I read an interesting article by Nick Inglis (@nickinglis), “Knowledge Management rises from the dead.” In it, Inglis suggests the resurrection of KM is due to Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), which got me thinking. In spite of what I said above, I do believe knowledge management is alive and kicking in various forms and doing very well in specialist niches across a number of industries. I use Claire McInerney's definition for KM: “KM is an effort to increase useful knowledge within an organization. Ways to do this include encouraging communication, offering opportunities to learn, and promoting the sharing of knowledge objects or artifacts.”

The post argues that many KM initiatives fizzled out in the late 90s or early 2000s because the technology tools could not facilitate the capabilities required for a broader uptake. My take — what many people consider to be KM is actually Information Management, and that in the late 90s and early 2000s, many organizations were doing good things on the unstructured information management front. That time saw the introduction of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) strategies, many ECM suites and platforms, a focus on metadata and taxonomies and web based collaboration tools. And then came Enterprise 2.0.

MIT's Andrew McAfee coined the phraseEnterprise 2.0 in early 2006 to describe the use of new web 2.0 tools and techniques to internal enterprise systems. This concept worked for me because McAfee provided us with the SLATES model for assessing systems and their use. Move forward one year and a lot was going on in the E2.0 world:

• Dion Hinchcliffe (@dhinchcliffe) expanded on the original E2.0 model with his expanded FLATNESSES model
• David Gurteen (@davidgurteen) coined the term KM 2.0, suggesting that E2.0 “social” technologies would push us into a new way of looking at KM
• Microsoft release SharePoint 2007, a huge improvement over the 2003 version and introducing basic social tools like blogs and wikis to many enterprises (and with add ons such as NewsGator, even more functionality).

So eight years ago we had a major KM luminary like David Gurteen suggesting E2.0 / social would push us into a new way of thinking about KM. In the eight years since, not only has SharePoint moved on by two major versions (both of which have been somewhat deficient in social collaboration functionality), but the market has proliferated with tools and platforms like IBM Connections, Jive, SalesForce Chatter, TIBCO Tibr, Yammer, ThoughtFarmer, ThreadKM and many, many more, reaching new levels of maturity, and being joined by start ups on a regular basis.

Nothing That a Teaspoon of Social Wouldn't Help

Back to the article. Inglis states that knowledge serendipitously captured in a social collaboration platform is in essence "feral knowledge" (as opposed to well classified knowledge). This concept doesn't work for me. Writing something down in a platform doesn't constitute “knowledge capture.” I believe knowledge is mostly tacit and in our heads. Efforts to capture and share knowledge generally turn it back into information, which brings us back into information sharing and information lifecycle management. 

Inglis goes on to write:

“One major problem that ESNs have is not the capture of knowledge, but the transfer of knowledge from the individual to the collective. Yes, ESNs are searchable, but they often live in a disconnected space, separate from primary systems for managing information. To move from Capturing Knowledge to Transferring Knowledge throughout an organization, ESNs need to continue their march from fringe outlier systems to connected enterprise systems.”

On this we agree. Social collaboration functionality does need to be embedded in business processes and into the major business applications that facilitate them. And enterprise search platforms can provide an enhanced capability for linking information content residing in various silos.

Let’s take a look at Hinchcliffe's FLATNESSES E2.0 model with a KM viewpoint, to see how social is continuing to change our view of KM. 

• Freeform: “Old style” KM platforms were criticized for making users jump through hoops to enter additional content. The freeform nature of social tools helps with usability and user experience while enabling information capture
• Links: Link to content and perhaps more importantly to people, through rich profiles or content they published, their comments, likes, etc. Finding the right people (expert finding) has always been a key KM concept
• Authorship: The egalitarian approach to content creation. Although I don’t necessarily agree that “capturing” your every working moment in a blog constitutes knowledge capture and transfer, it certainly can build up the searchable corpus of useful information
• Tagging: Potentially one of the most useful elements of E2.0, the use of simple and situationally appropriate metadata without recourse to overly broad or complex taxonomies is highly important to KM
• Network Oriented: Small pieces of information, that are re-usable, but are also easily discoverable an addressable across the network, that can be surfaced in a news feed
• Extensions: “Other customers who purchased this book, also purchased these ones” — extending the references to an individuals previous transactions or operations. In a KM context this can be useful for gauging both provenance and authority of a source and assisting in navigation towards other useful information
• Search: A crucial element from a KM perspective, the search capabilities of a social platform, or its abilities to open up and be indexed by an enterprise search platform actually under pin many other functionalities. There is no point in capturing all this stuff if search cannot surface it for re-use
• Social: The truly transparent exchange of information either within groups, or across the enterprise as a whole — this can only benefit a broad KM strategy
• Emergence: “The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” In other words, patterns and structures which have a meaning at a higher level of abstraction than at the lowest levels of detail. In a KM context, harvesting valuable insight from those high level perspectives may illustrate patterns or trends that constitute knowledge objects themselves
• Signals: RSS, email alerts, news feeds and other elements which can send signals to users that something of interest is taking part makes for highly contextual KM

So can enterprise social collaboration platforms help push KM? It depends on your definition of KM, and what models and concepts within the broad academic area of knowledge management and related studies you subscribe to. I believe “social” has a very important part to play in information capture and information sharing. Social collaboration platforms democratize content creation and information sharing, in smaller “bite size” chunks, which may in some situations constitute McInerney’s “knowledge objects.” I also firmly believe that you cannot enact a knowledge management enabled strategy without good information management, and that social collaboration platforms or social intranets have a role to play.

Has social resurrected KM from the dead? Not really! KM was, in the words of Miracle Max from the Princess Bride, only “mostly dead” — but it can certainly be invigorated by a dose or two of social.

 Title image by  James Loesch 

SOURCE: CMSWiRE

As Forces Collide, IT Disruption (and Content) Will Soar

Forces are colliding to make 2016 an interesting year for those trying to manage information with technology that touches end users. The traditional IT role, as we know it, is undergoing disruption. As I survey the macro trends impacting Enterprise ContentManagement (ECM) and cloud, I am ready to bet that radical change will be the IT norm next year and in the foreseeable future. Based on my years in enterprise IT and my on-going customer interactions, I thought I’d share my own thoughts about the coming year ahead and the sea of change that will be fast upon us, at least the way I see it.

My first prediction?

Power to the People

We are experiencing a major shift in who has control over application choice, and that control will readily land with end users, placing the heaviest pressure yet on internal IT departments. We are seeing a rapid wave of change that won’t stop anytime soon, arming end users with even more choices in tools they can procure—and procure them they will.

With the advent of IoT and exponential growth of practically everything internet-related, end users are becoming more and more empowered. They curate their own content, self-publish in multiple content formats including unstructured data (e.g. images and videos), and consume from their device of choice (or multiple devices simultaneously).

Shadow IT already has savvy end users self-selecting the IT tools and apps they want, even in the workplace. Further abandonment of sanctioned in-house tools will leave IT seriously rethinking how to change their ways and live up to the new user expectations.

In the ECM space, success will be measured by how many end users are productive and empowered, not by “go-live” milestones. The need for content management will continue to soar, just like content volume itself and the number of individuals creating it.

Software in Slivers

This leads to my second prediction – a shift in how software is designed, both to speed up functionality to these empowered end users, and to provide more technical flexibility. Business requirements from technology will continue to ebb and tide as companies keep up with the rapidly changing dynamics and stay one step ahead. Agility and flexibility will be pushed ahead of other requirements.

These business demands will force IT to rethink their standards on application development and how they leverage software to deliver specific solutions for groups of users. A “Lego” approach will become that standard, allowing for even more rapid development on top of existing software development frameworks currently in place. The list of approaches is also growing — agile, waterfall, iterative, scrum, etc.. Slivers of software functionality, widget-like, coupled with discrete services will be snapped together to deliver specific solutions for groups of users.

These purpose-built blocks in the ECM world will deliver individual capabilities, such as “capture” or “esignatures”. Snapped together, these blocks will quickly deliver a full, rich solution like claims processing, for example. Less and less will vendors design monolithic code sets packed with comprehensive functionality, but instead offer a plethora of blocks that IT organizations can pick and choose from, resulting in a well-tailored solution.

The open source movement originally ushered in the building block model for software development. Moving forward, more of the industry will turn to the speed and nimbleness that these use case-driven development models can offer. It won’t be overnight – there is too much investment in existing IT infrastructure. But just as the IT role will look vastly different in the future, so too will the software IT needs to service end users.

Hybrid Cloud Front and Center

What will happen quickly and take off is the shift to cloud, and more specifically, hybrid cloud in the ECM space. That’s my third and last prediction (at least for this blog!).

IDC already predicts that half of IT spend will go to cloud infrastructure and cloud-based solutions in just a few years. The appeal of hybrid will fill the mix and match approach many businesses need. For example, highly regulated industries may place certain functionality in a private cloud on premise, while other functionalities sourced from a public cloud, and still, other functionalities may continue to reside in traditional on premise environments.

In my experience, every customer has a unique situation, set of users, and specific use case. There is no right or wrong cloud answer — they need cloud options to suit their IT requirements placed on them by quick changing business demands. Hybrid cloud will deliver the flexibility to create environments that fit and meet their needs. Companies will master their cloud formulas and hybrid cloud will become front and center.

It’s obvious the IT world has started to change dramatically. More upheaval is still yet to come, but those who foresee the shift will move quickly to develop new skills and innovate, to deliver to new demands.

SOURCE: EMC SPARK

IoT & Cloud Are Transforming ECM

The combined impact of the consumerization of technology, cloud, mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT) is ushering in a new era of information management that will change the face of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) as we know it.

Cloud, mobile and IoT together have accelerated a mighty upheaval in the technology landscape as more content enters the enterprise than ever before - leaving enterprises struggling to manage it effectively. The modern ECM platform is required to scan, store data, manage work flow, business process and compliance. Mobile, Analytics, Cloud and Collaborative (MACC) technologies will be the nerve center for big data and predictive analytics.

Cloud is quickening its momentum. IDC predicts that by 2016, there will be an 11% shift of IT budget away from the traditional in-house IT delivery, toward various flavors of cloud computing as a delivery model. By 2017, 35% of new applications will use cloud-enabled, continuous delivery - driven by faster DevOps life cycles to streamline rollout of new features and business innovation.

At the same time, IoT is moving far faster than anyone expected. Market research service BI Intelligence forecasts that device shipments will hit 6.7 billion by 2019. The enterprise sector is currently leading the way on IoT, accounting for 46% of device shipments this year.

ECM - back on the enterprise agendaThis evolution is putting ECM back on the radar and urging enterprises to look at where ECM fits into their roadmap and how it can address a number of issues on the horizon. These include privacy and security issues, universal connectivity, increased regulation of cloud by governments, assessing cloud risk and enhanced virtual and distributed work modes. All of these will put ECM firmly back on the agenda.

Traditional ECM is still working for many enterprises, with more than two-thirds of organizations in AIIM's recent (Q2 2015) ECM Decisions Industry Watch saying they see ECC/DM as mission critical. In addition, 75% of enterprises see ECM/RM playing a key role in their information security strategy going forward.  Undoubtedly ECM is firmly rooted in the enterprise, but with the arrival of mobile, cloud and IoT, enterprises are starting to look at it from a different angle.  They are beginning to realize that ECM has the scope and functionality to deal with the sea of technological change they are faced with and the mountain of data it will create.  IDC has forecasted a 50-times increase in digital content from 2010 through to 2020, with a staggering 90% made up of unstructured data such as emails, audio, images and video.

ECM in the cloud?In our increasingly connected world, ECM comes with its challenges to satisfy the ‘work anywhere' generation, and some enterprises are just dipping a toe in the water.  From a personal point of view, respondents to AIIM's survey were largely in favor of moving ECM content to the cloud, mostly as a small on-premise/large cloud hybrid.  Enterprises themselves, however, are less positive with 48% in favor of cloud.  The dominant preference, as expected, is private cloud (71%).

Many enterprises have established on-premises information governance principles and are worried that moving their ECM system to the cloud could leave their data exposed. But they are realizing that an internal data breach is probably more likely to happen than in the cloud.

They are aware that cloud-deployment of ECM would improve universal access, but for most this equals dedicated deployment on servers that they control rather than multi-tenanted public cloud.

Many enterprises have established on-premises information governance principles and are worried that moving their ECM system to the cloud could leave their data exposed. But they are realizing that an internal data breach is probably more likely to happen than in the cloud.  And they are costly. According to the Ponemon Institute annual Cost of Data Breach Study, the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $3.8 million.  The question today is not where is the data stored, but are the right information security and governance measures in place to protect it.

Enterprises have wrestled with how to manage the intersection of people, process and information and for the past fifteen years or so we've had ECM on board. With mobile access and large amounts of data existing outside structured processes, the whole perspective has changed. You only have to ask current ECM users, 52% of whom believe that within five years, ECM solutions will combine as a uniform part of the entire IT infrastructure. ECM is entering a new age where hybrid deployment options are expected, but the term ECM is no-longer a moniker for an industry that is going through major disruption. It needs a name that more accurately reflects the changing landscape.

SOURCE: Sys.con

Customer experience management becomes a CIO priority

Nobody can ignore the importance of customer experience management - while the wave is hitting almost every industry, its amplitude varies from sector to sector

An increasing number of companies are moving away from product differentiation, and are instead focusing on customer experience as their key differentiator. Research firm Gartner has conducted surveys that indicate as many as 89% of companies think they will have to compete primarily on the basis of the customer experience by 2017.

This shift in focus not only changes the priorities of marketing managers, it also affects the CIO role. Many IT directors haven't yet felt the change because most organisations start out with CEM projects that don't involve IT. But after going through the initial phases where they conduct customer satisfaction surveys and analysis, companies tend to move into a phase where they look to attain multichannel consistency and a single customer view. That's where the CIO must get involved.

The nature of the CEM trend

Nobody can ignore the importance of customer experience management (CEM). While the wave is hitting almost every industry, its amplitude varies from sector to sector. In general, wherever it's easy for the customer to switch, CEM has a large impact.

As we have already seen, where customers can easily change supplier, upstarts are disrupting well-established industries. Teleco is the perfect example of this phenomenon, with WhatsApp and Viber threating established companies like Telefónica. Retail is another good example, with startup e-businesses like Farfetch overtaking established brick and mortar stores.

In the midst of all the turmoil, one thing that's interesting to note is that while some companies are able to quickly attract and retain large customer bases, others are losing paying customers in droves. The difference lies in customer experience.

The crux of the matter is that shoppers make decisions differently than they did 10 years ago. Customers have access to price and a lot of other information. Customers can easily educate themselves on the differences between products and services. Vendors no longer hold the power they used to enjoy by simply hiding knowledge from customers.

Because customers now have power to get comparative information on products and services, the emphasis has switched to total customer experience. Vendors that treat their customers well tend to retain customers. Even though the customer knows that in some instances competitive products and services are less expensive or of superior quality, the customer develops a loyalty towards the vendor that provides the best overall experience.

The difference in customer experience can be felt in terms of revenue growth. According to Harley Manning who conducted a study with colleagues at Forrester Research, in industries where customers can easily change suppliers, companies with superior customer experience enjoy superior revenue growth as compared to direct competitors.

In industries with a higher switching cost, customers tend to stick with the same suppliers, but only because they have too. As soon as the switching barriers are lowered (as we've seen happen in the telecom sector of the last fifteen years), customers run away like a long-suffering spouse, bad-mouthing previous partners at every opportunity.

How IT gets involved

Differentiating oneself on total customer experience implies a coordinated multi-channel approach. The same messages need to come across each channel—and this includes the good old-fashioned face-to-face channel. Information needs to be collected from each interaction and stored in a common repository for use at other touch points.

That brings us to the discussion about the CIO. CEM projects can be as simple as collecting and analysing customer feedback, but the ones with the biggest impact are those aimed at improving consistency across channels. That's where the CIO needs to get involved.

Improving consistency means implementing (or improving) content repositories so that all users get the same view of the customer and the customer's most recent interactions. Improving consistency also means implementing (or improving) interfaces between enterprise application to consolidate data and to have more timely information on customers as they interact with different parts of your company.

Finally, improving consistency means thinking through how you use your different channels. One should pass consistent messages across the different channels, but one should certainly not refrain from using the unique features inherent to each channel. After all, video communication is inherently different from email communication, and one should benefit fully from the advantages of each.

The following is a list of technologies IT directors should think about before starting a CEM project:

• Dedicated CEM platforms: Many vendors are offering CEM platforms, in the form of cloud-based or on-premises solutions to help manage customer interactions, similarly to CRM. If you already have CRM, you should first see if your CRM will do the trick.

• Personalisation technologies: Personalisation technologies that help provide product recommendations can also be used to improve the customer experience. Automated product recommendations are not just appropriate for web interactions. They are also useful when provided on a mobile device to help the sales force come up with product recommendations while talking to customers.

• Enterprise content management tools: Some of the enterprise content management (ECM) platforms provide tools that can be used to improve collaboration across channels. Such tools might improve collaboration internally, and they might help track customer feedback externally on social media platforms.

• Customer service and contact center software: CEM may also involve changes to customer service and contact center solutions. If these platforms do not yet handle multiple channels, they'll need to start doing so.

Establish how you'll measure results before you start

As is the case with any IT project, the proactive CIO will sit down with business partners and agree on how they will measure benefits before implementing the change. There are a variety of metrics that indicate positive results of a CEM project – things like, customer satisfaction scores, competitive benchmarks, and brand value. But while it's always good to track changes in customer satisfaction, what you really want to achieve are changes in the following three metrics: customer lifetime value, repeat orders, and churn rates.

SOURCE: CIO.co.uk

ECM: Gearing Up For A Much Bigger Race

AIIM’s CEO John Mancini explains why Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is preparing for a new age.

Consumerization, cloud, mobile, and the Internet of Things (IoT) have all arrived at breakneck speed, signalling up the end of ECM as we know it — as organizations battle to cope with content overload in the triad that is made up of people, process, and technology. This gargantuan growth in Big Data will see a metamorphosis of ECM to cope with the new landscape that is being driven by connected devices. AIIM’s recent (Q2 2015) ECM Decisions Industry Watch revealed that in some ways, ECM is still alive and well. In more than two-thirds of organizations surveyed, ECC/DM (enterprise content collaboration/document management) is still seen as mission critical. In addition, 75 percent of organizations see ECM/RM (records management) as a key part of their information security strategy. But in the wake of mobile, analytics, cloud and collaborative technologies, organizations are beginning to view ECM in a very different way.

Of course there are still organizations that benefit from the more traditional ECM solutions that automate document-intensive processes. But the huge amount of data existing outside these structured processes, along with the dramatic change in the how, when and where knowledge workers do their jobs is having a dramatic impact on the technological vista. Even among the current users of ECM technology, 52 percent believe that within the next five years, ECM systems will be an undifferentiated part of the IT infrastructure as a whole.

Back in 2004, the main reasons organizations deployed ECM were down to cutting costs and efficiency. Those reasons have not changed. But more recently, compliance and risk challenges have been added to the list. We’ve also seen customer service replaced by collaboration, as a primary focus, undeterred by the hurdles of rapid response and multi-channel input.

The IoT Revolution

Our “always connected” world is set to see a boom in the IoT space. The global market for IoT is forecast to grow to $1.7 trillion in 2020 — up from $655.8 billion in 2014, according to market research company IDC, as we see the release of more devices, platforms and services. IDC predicts that the number of connected devices will grow from 10.3 million in 2014 to more than 29.5 million in 2020. The IoT revolution has taken hold far faster than many expected and will create even more turmoil for enterprises who are already trying to fight back a tidal wave of data.

From our survey we can clearly see that ECM is firmly embedded in the enterprise. Whilst looking after mission-critical needs, it still has room for growth into other fields of functionality. Over half of respondents said they still have a single enterprise-wide system as their goal, notwithstanding the number of ECM/DM/RM systems they currently support. The remainder said they want to hook up their content and enterprise systems to create a single point of access for search and lifecycle management. Consolidating social platforms, capture systems, and records management within the ECM suite is an engaging option to explore.

The “MACC Stack”

In light of this, one cannot get away from the fact that a remodelling of the technological landscape is under way, driven by mobile, analytics, cloud and collaborative technologies —   or what is known as the “MACC stack.” This is forcing enterprises to look at how ECM fits into their roadmap. These changes include approaches to take on privacy and security, pervasive connectivity, increased regulation of cloud by governments, debate on the new nature of cloud risk, enhanced virtual and distributed work modes and a bottom up take on innovation.  Not to mention a drought of IT ‘connective’ and analytical skills that needs to be addressed.  The net impact of all of this on ECM will be significant.

There is no avoiding the fact that ECM does not come easy, it can be a challenge to any enterprise. Although 29 percent of organizations with an ECM solution are planning or currently deploying mobile access, only 39 percent currently provide mobile access of any sort. The majority of mobile functionality is restricted to search and view access, and this can be through the browser rather than a dedicated app, limiting offline capability. 55 percent of respondents have no app-based capability.

Basically this translates into usability issues for many ECM systems and “shadow IT” content solutions. Over 60 percent of those with ECM systems say they have usability challenges. In addition, 62 percent confirmed that file shares continue play an important part in their organization. Only 30 percent have integrated multi-channel inbound capture. Over 60 percent of organizations said they don’t have any link between their ERP (enterprise resource planning)/finance and ECM/RM systems.

People, Process And Technology

This brings us back to people, process and technology. Here content management is where technology has received the attention. When analyzing ECM deployments that have been a success against ones that have failed, a common thread in those that realize their goals is an understanding that “ECM” isn’t about technology per se. It is about people and process connecting with technology. This is something we need to gain a far stronger understanding of in the content management arena, particularly in the age of consumer technology.

The score on the door is that enterprises still need their content managed.  But the term “ECM,” which has done for so long what it said on the tin, no-longer adequately describes what this exciting era of technology is bringing. Coupled to this, enterprises need guidance in best practice to handle the disruption that is happening as a result.

Change, however, should be seen as positive.  Best practices in this emerging age of IoT have not been written yet. This is the task in hand for AIIM and others in the industry over the coming months. Dissecting the issues in practical terms so that they can be easily understood and put into play by business to extract maximum benefits.

SOURCE: BusinessSolutions

Taking Enterprise Content Management from Reactive to Strategic

ECM can’t happen in a vacuum – or, at least, it shouldn’t. The best-laid information governance plans are ones that are implemented to support business processes and organizational goals, and there are two avenues where we at Systemware see huge potential: augmenting existing business operations and preparing for crisis scenarios.

 

Strengthen existing operations

ECM shouldn’t be disruptive. In fact, it should be the opposite. A well-designed ECM program can help your organization streamline existing business operations.

Assess your current operations and ask yourself these questions: Are there redundant or repetitive steps? Are you seeing duplicate data? Are you encountering shadow IT projects? If you’ve answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’ve just identified an opportunity where an ECM program can help.

Let’s take the first question as an example. Are there redundant steps in your operations or workflows? If there are, an ECM program should be able to eliminate those steps. Systemware’s Content Cloud, for example, helps to create, manage, and modify workflows for efficiency. Clients can access, manage, and audit content and processes, allowing them to redesign workflows that need to be improved.

The same holds true for those steps that are simply repetitive. Many organizations come to us with complaints about end-user productivity being hindered by repetitive processes. This is point where we, again, see ECM playing a useful role. Content Cloud enables clients to drive end-user productivity by automating certain processes. User-driven scripting allows you to record, edit, and play back those repetitive processes (like end-of-month reporting), freeing the user to focus on other tasks.

Plan for the unlikely

In the event of a crisis, a reactive approach to content management can cost you dearly, so take a cue from the Boy Scouts on this one: Always be prepared. As an information management decision maker, you likely don’t have time to sit down and plan for every possible crisis scenario, but your organization could benefit from planning for the unlikely event of just a few possible situations.

Investigation preparedness

Depending on what industry you’re in, litigation may or not be a regular concern. For organizations in the financial sector, it’s par for the course; for those in retail, it might not be top of mind. If you’re a Fortune 500 company, though, you’re at higher risk for litigation regardless of what industry you’re in.

A comprehensive content management program can go a long way in helping ease the pain of legal investigations and making sure your organization is discovery-ready. At Systemware, we’ve designed our offering to address three critical pain points for organizations facing legal inquiries:

1. Compliance: Are my retention schedules being executed according to internal and external regulatory policies? Is my data being archived in compliance with industry standards? These are questions you don’t want to be asking when suddenly faced with litigation. Be proactive. Systemware has helped some of the nation’s largest companies manage petabytes of data without compromising on compliance.
2. Find data for legal hold: You’ve been asked to put aside all information relevant to an inquiry, but you first need to determine what data falls into that category. Systemware’s powerful indexing and search capabilities allow you to easily find any content relating to a specific case. 
   
3. Monitoring and audit trails: Most investigations call not for just content but also records detailing if and when content was moved and who has accessed it. Systemware provides both monitor capabilities and comprehensive audit trails for every action or activity that occurs within the system.

Disaster recovery

In everyday life, we don’t plan for disasters, but it’s a best practice to prepare for them. In business, it’s much the same. An ECM program that thinks ahead to the possibility of an IT crisis can be your best defense. This is why we’ve designed our Content Cloud to automatically replicate content across all Content Stores. In the event of a disaster, the system will automatically switch to another Content Store, ensuring continuous availability for business continuity.

When implemented in support of existing procedures and preparation for unlikely (but potentially damaging) scenarios, an ECM solution can be a major advantage in realizing and protecting your organizational goals. The business cases listed above are really just a few of many to consider when designing a comprehensive ECM strategy.

SOURCE: systemware