Maximize User Satisfaction: five Steps to ECM Success

Implementing an enterprise content management (ECM) system to capture the ever-increasing number of documents produced by your organization can be a daunting task. We have all experienced, or heard from colleagues, the horror stories of limited end-user acceptance, poor search results, missing data, irrelevant archives and widespread confusion surrounding internal content repositories. The good news is that we can learn from these past experiences. The time is ripe for companies to take a step back and look at their ECM strategy from a more holistic view. The ultimate goal for any ECM system is to increase efficiency and productivity through end-user satisfaction. Too often this objective is obscured by a focus on aggressive release dates or "bleeding edge" technology. The technical features of an effective system and the speed at which you deliver that system to end users are both factors in determining the success or failure of an ECM release. However, these requirements are merely a means to an end—specifically, end-user adoption and endorsement.

To truly deliver a return on the significant investment necessary to build an effective ECM system, you need to first develop an understanding of the information workflow within your organization, including team structures, knowledge sharing, analytical techniques and fiscal compliance deliverables. Far more than merely manipulating and storing data, content management is about the bottom line. And you will positively impact the bottom line once you've grasped the concept of the interconnected nature of your ECM system within and around your organization's workflow.

A Five-Step Approach

To develop such a holistic view and to create a successful roadmap for managing, organizing, integrating and delivering content, this five-step approach can help:

1. Establish a cross-functional implementation team, with one clear leader, to develop a broad, representative ECM strategy. Regardless of which cost center owns ECM deployment, team members should include representatives from all business units/departments, including IT, the information center/corporate library, an executive sponsor and, if possible, an outside advisor to provide perspective and mediation. The multifunctional nature of this team ensures a varied approach to knowledge management that targets the needs of broad user groups and avoids the often lopsided, one-size-fits-all solutions that really don't fit anyone.

2. Survey your end users prior to, during and after investigation and implementation of the ECM system. It is critical to survey at multiple points to establish benchmarks and build an ROI story. Treat internal customers just like you would external customers—their satisfaction with the final "product" is the true measure of your success; their adoption of the ECM system ultimately impacts the bottom line productivity and profitability of your organization.

3. Clearly identify all aspects of the overall ECM system so that each basic element is adequately incorporated into the final release—even if it is not delivered in a single stage. Include applications and systems, such as e-mail, shared directories, existing portals, etc. Keep in mind this is the ideal. Unfortunately, many ECM systems are developed piecemeal, which leads to disjointed implementations and poor overall performance. Although developing a strategy at the mid-point instead of the beginning is a big challenge, it isn't too late. At whatever point you find yourself, define the blueprint of the entire system before trying to build any one piece of it.

Your ECM blueprint should also include the known "pain points" connected with each piece of the system, so that these issues can be adequately addressed before release. Conduct discovery during the initial phases of strategy development to identify:

• Sources of content (both internal and external);

• Processes for content integration and linking;

• Interface and display options;

• Search and retrieval capabilities;

• Advanced analytics; and

• End-user acceptance.

Discovery Questions—Existing Solutions, Platforms and Systems

• What types of content (both format and focus) do you create/store? How much data do you have in your personal/team archive? How much new data is created each month/week?

• How do you/does your team currently manage these documents? Do you store them in a shared directory or database?

• Who uses/reuses these internal documents? Who should be using them?

• Do you have a document retrieval process?

• Do you have a team portal or intranet site?

Discovery Questions—Potential Pain Points

• Do you have duplication of effort in document storage?

• Do you have masses of unorganized text documents (i.e., reports, training, presentations, press releases) that you want to store and reuse as a team?

• Would it save you money/time if you could retrieve past information? That is, would access to archived information allow you to get your product to market faster, save hours per employee in relation to normal workflow or decrease ramp up and training time for newer employees?

• Do you need to quickly retrieve documentation to answer inquiries, such as for government compliance? Does this monopolize your department's time without adding value?

If you answer these questions in the early stages, it will help direct vendor selection and development efforts.

4. Develop quantifiable ROI measurements and benchmark those metrics prior to system development and roll-out. ECM implementation involves a variety of software applications, crosses different business units/departments and requires very large organization-wide investment, often reaching into the millions of dollars. Despite this significant investment in time, resources and funding, many organizations do not develop metrics for determining end-user adoption, usage and preference—measures which would clearly demonstrate the success or failure of the system, as well as identify areas for improvement. Beyond anecdotal evidence, metrics should include:

• Search and response times;

• Database access statistics;

• Spend amounts on content creation versus content management; and

• Overall user satisfaction.

Also, when calculating against an investment, don't forget to include support costs such as maintenance contracts, additional software updates and other hidden internal IT costs (network and hardware) beyond those associated with the initial ECM software and implementation costs.

5. Identify and evaluate "ECM secret weapons"—third-party content and analytics products that will increase the value of your ECM system, thus driving up ROI. Relevant external content and robust analyses provide actionable information that complement internal data, creating a richer knowledge environment for end users. Again, when adopting a holistic ECM strategy, it is best to consider these features before roll-out. However, they can also serve to rejuvenate an existing underutilized ECM system. Often, these added features provide the hook to engage end users and create preference for—even dependence on—the ECM system.

The ECM secret weapons include:

• Current awareness content customized to fit the needs of specific departments/teams and end users. Delivers updates directly to the ECM system, resulting in a truly integrated, content-rich experience for the end user.

• Integrated analytics incorporating information from both internal and external data to offer not just facts but true answers to end users. Facilitates the process of turning data into actionable knowledge.

• Metadata and structure applied automatically to categorize and filter content. Metadata created via a controlled vocabulary and managed within a taxonomy produces the structure upon which to build advanced functionality, such as alerts, directories and links.

• Advanced search and retrieval, built on rich document metadata, ensures access to the most relevant content. Effective retrieval eliminates duplication of effort while promoting information discovery and extraction across departments/teams.

Ultimately, by using this five-step approach, your holistic ECM strategy will encompass all aspects of the content and information workflow of your organization. Rather than paralyzing your end users with information overload, your system will liberate them through comprehensive, effective and immediate access to pertinent, up-to-date and actionable knowledge.

Example Solutions

Organizing Data

Background/Challenge: A media company needs to streamline its indexing process. The library division realizes that its manual indexing process is draining resources and creating a lag time of content delivery to aggregators.

LexisNexis® Solution/Benefit: With the LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™ and taxonomy solution, the library now automates its indexing process to free up the library staff's time to focus on other critical projects and reduces the time it takes to deliver content to aggregators.

Knowledge Sharing

Background/Challenge: A purchasing department of a global consumer packaged-goods company needs to improve the effectiveness of its intranet site and knowledge management process. The current system is affecting productivity because materials are not always archived and employees cannot find the right information quickly. And a lot of information about vendors is not being shared across the different purchasing groups.

LexisNexis Solution/Benefit: With the LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™ the purchasing team improves its knowledge sharing. Enhanced document linkage and indexing within its portals allows it to consolidate spending pools. Now, the team saves money by taking advantage of bulk discounts with vendors. Also, the amount of time spent searching for information is reduced dramatically. The LexisNexis® Publisher tool allows a company to customize and display current news topics for different end users via different platforms, including its Web site, intranet, portal and even BlackBerry Wireless Handhelds™. Now, the right information is delivered to the right people at the right time.

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The author would like to thank the following contributors to this article, including Jennifer Aleknavage, David Hanson, Jon Klein, Teresa MacGregor and Pam Tippett.

As a world-leading provider of enhanced information services and management tools, LexisNexis® delivers access to comprehensive and authoritative business, news, legal, government and tax information in 100 countries worldwide. It unites proprietary brands, Web technologies and premium information to offer an extensive range of solutions that address job-specific and organization-wide information needs, driving productivity and confident decision making.

To learn more about how LexisNexis is helping companies organize, manage, integrate and deliver content into various platforms, go to www.lexisnexis.com/integrationsolutions/. For more information about LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology™, go to http://www.lexisnexis.com/taxonomy or contact the LexisNexis SmartIndexing Technology team directly at Smart.Indexing@lexisnexis.com.