Using Content Management to Realize a Competitive Advantage
Pundits claim that the Web “levels the playing field” for many businesses today. And yet, few have been able to field a truly winning proposition online. Those that have are fundamentally changing the industries in which they compete—the others have yet to realize the promises and potential of eBusiness.
The level playing field is, in fact, not level at all—there is actually a steep slope. How well a company manages its content and its processes online dictates where they are on the slope—rising to the top or sliding to the bottom.
Defining Content Management
GartnerGroup explains that “content management is an ambiguous phrase with meanings that vary depending on what a user may need or a vendor may offer.”1 Yet, no matter how it is defined, all agree that Content Management is and will continue to be a critical success factor for implementing any eBusiness application that is content and/or process centric. As a starting point, it is important to understand the two fundamental components that are the essence of anyone’s definition of Content Management.
Content
The Web has permanently altered the way organizations communicate with their customers, employees, and business partners. We still communicate information with sound, pictures, and the written word, but in the digital economy, this information is changed and re-used faster than ever before. Organizations must keep up with the modifications of Web content for competitive, contractual, financial, and even legal reasons.
Process
Much of the content that organizations need to provide to their customers, employees, and business partners is part of a business process. The process can be as simple as an approval of certain documents prior to posting them on the Web, like a new employee personnel policy or an updated price list, or as complex as evaluating the risk of underwriting a large corporate insurance policy. These business processes represent critical corporate assets for organizations, and the Web allows them to extend these processes to engage directly with their partners and consumers.
Managing content and processes online are the cornerstones of high-performance, personalized Web sites and most, if not all, eBusiness applications.
End-to-End
It is not enough to manage content and processes in select areas of an organization. Successful eBusiness initiatives demonstrate end-to-end planning. An end-to-end Content Management capability involves everything from the back-end content repositories to the presentation of that content within a Web browser. Across the enterprise, this means addressing the demands for capture, creation and management of multiple data types, streamlined editorial/approval processes, publishing processes to multiple distribution channels, and total document life-cycle management. End-to-end also means integrating processes between functions within the business and then extending processes beyond the corporate firewall to vendors, partners, and customers.
Mission Critical
As mentioned earlier, those at the top of the slope are transforming their industries. The business transformation potential of eBusiness is contingent on how well the business manages its mission-critical content and processes on both sides of the commerce chain.
On the supply side, Content Management is a vital component for mission-critical eBusiness initiatives such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Supply Chain Management, and B2B commerce activities. With end-to-end Content Management capabilities, businesses can integrate with their vendors and suppliers. This leads to automating transactions and better managing the resources involved in buying, making, and moving products and services.
On the service side, Content Management is a vital component of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). As CRM becomes a mission-critical initiative shared across the different functions of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service, the content and processes that drive transactions and manage the customer relationship need to integrate across those functions. With end-to-end Content Management capabilities, businesses can integrate the different functions that touch the customer and better manage each and every customer relationship, from acquisition to ongoing service.
An end-to-end Content Management solution that is capable of handling mission-critical content and processes requires a best-of-breed approach. In order to understand what best-of-breed approach is right for you, start by defining your specific requirements.
Defining Content Management Requirements
A well-structured end-to-end Content Management capability is not easy to achieve. There are numerous challenges businesses need to overcome as they develop their capabilities. GartnerGroup1 states that enterprises that fail to recognize appropriate Content Management requirements will suffer numerous implications, ranging from lower efficiency to massive legal liability. To assist in defining requirements, they identified different segments along the consideration path:
Enterprise Internal Content Management:the process for integrating digitized data of multiple types, in multiple formats and from multiple sources, so that users can access a cohesive set of relevant information about a topic. This includes information internal to the business as well as information the business needs to drive external activities.
Web Site Content Management: the creation, organization, delivery, and maintenance of non-transactional Web site-oriented content.
eBusiness Transactional Content Management: The content relevant to a B2B or B2C customer transaction along with the set of business rules used to process the transaction.
Shared Content Management: the processes that allow shared information to be managed and accessed jointly. This involves the management of the document life cycle along with robust search capabilities.
Note that the considerations set forth by Gartner include both content and process issues. There are other sources that define a similar Content Management consideration path. For instance, Meta Group classifies the content and process requirements and considerations into several major categories including:
- Content Delivery/Personalization;
- Site Development/Management;
Conclusion
eBusiness initiatives promise great opportunities for operations of all sizes throughout different industries. Success for many will be contingent upon how well they manage their content and processes online today and create a solution that can carry the load in a future that will surely be more complex and sophisticated.
Case Study: Bellagio Resort
The Bellagio Resort demonstrates how content management can be successfully applied to a function every company must manage—Human Resources.
In front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, more than a thousand sparkling fountains surge skyward in a dazzling dance of water, music and light. A different kind of choreography—but even more intricate—was required behind the hotel’s majestic facade in 1998. The Bellagio Resort, subsidiary of MGM Mirage, was about to open and more than 10,000 new employees needed to be hired.
The Challenge
Arte Nathan, vice president of Human Resources for the Bellagio Hotel, had previously hired armies of employees to open new resorts in Las Vegas. He knew from experience that paper job applications would be ineffective—approximately 10% of them would be lost. And scanning in the handwritten applications would only result in unreadable files. Nathan wanted a paperless system that would not require a large human resources staff just to key in data.
“Then it dawned on me that after I hired the employees, I didn’t want to print out 10,000 applications to store in 10,000 paper jacket file folders. So I decided we needed completely electronic personnel files,” said Nathan. The project then took on an even greater dimension.
The FileNET Solution
After reviewing other solutions, Nathan realized that only FileNET’s Panagon eProcess Management products provided the Web-based, open architecture they would need as the basis for the system. Nathan partnered with Western Office Systems, a FileNET ValueNET® partner to tailor Panagon to fit Bellagio’s needs. Western Office System designed the implementation and continues to support it. “We started with the out-of-the-box functionality from FileNET and fully customized it to deliver the exact features that Mr. Nathan and his staff needed,” said Ray Hughes, general manager of Western Office Systems.
In the first phase of implementation, a custom-developed applicant tracking system was used to capture data from more than 75,000 job applicants in five months. Using a simple ATM-style format, job applicants entered their own data when applying for positions. The interface was modified so it would be easy for all applicants to use, especially those who don’t traditionally use computers.
The next goal was even more complex—to create a completely paperless human resources infrastructure. This meant setting up a system to make more than half a million electronic documents accessible to Bellagio’s managers via the corporate intranet.
The resulting system takes a Web-based approach to HR management. Active server pages (ASP) are displayed via a custom-made browser that interfaces with Panagon Content Services. Thanks to Panagon’s open architecture, it also leverages the hierarchical security features in Bellagio’s legacy AS/400-based system. Finally, the new system allows the retrieval of data residing on disparate platforms, such as the AS/400, Windows NT and SQL Server.
Bellagio managers can now access data on more than 10,200 personnel files using a common Web interface. Once a manager logs on, “look-down” security features limit his access to his employees’ files only. Each file contains a photo ID and employee signature to verify the employee’s identity. Nearly every form, from the interview rating form to the job offer card, exists electronically. The work history of each employee is captured, and the system even tracks who has reviewed the file and when.
Yet Bellagio’s system delivers much more than data access. It helps supervisors perform all aspects of HR management faster and more efficiently, without generating paper forms. The system is used to verify and change employee status, work shifts, attendance, vacation schedules, commendations, and more. Managers can post electronic “sticky” notes on any file to keep all information in one place. Bellagio has even automated its Personnel Action Notice, which is used to initiate any action such as wage changes, shift changes, promotions and more. This electronic form is routed via email, approved electronically by supervisors, and posted and filed automatically.
In short, the new Human Resources system has delivered everything Nathan had on his wish list—and more. “If you can dream it, you can do it with FileNET,” said Nathan. “It isn’t hard to do.”
The Bottom Line
To help Bellagio Resort hire staff for its grand opening, FileNET’s solution:
- Captured more than 75,000 job applications in five months.;
- Eliminated the need for 15 human resources personnel to input the data.;
- Resulted in the near-paperless hiring of 10,0000 new employees;
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The new Panagon Human Resources system now in place has:
u Saved the Human Resources operation approximately $1 million in the resort’s first 14 months in time, staff and administrative costs.
- Replaced paper files, which would contain an average of 50-60 documents each, with electronic files, saving storage and retrieval costs.;
- Provided supervisors with all the information and tools they need to perform their management duties more efficiently.;
- Decreased input errors by Human Resources personnel, and freed managers from continually retrieving existing data and keying it in.;
- Shortened the processing time of personnel actions by enabling electronic routing, approval, posting and filing of forms. ;
1.The GartnerGroup Framework for Content Management, January 28, 2000
FileNET delivers the Substance Behind eBusiness™ by optimizing an organization’s Web-based business processes and associated content to deliver a competitive advantage, maximum efficiency and increased revenue.
Lee Roberts, CEO and Chairman of FileNet, joined the company as president and COO in May 1997 and was named CEO in April 1998 and chairman in December 2000. He has made his mark with a number of initiatives aimed at leveraging FileNet’s extensive customer base, global marketing presence and vast research and development resources. His innovations include the globalization of FileNet’s sales, marketing and support organizations to build on the company’s presence in more than 92 countries. Roberts joined FileNet after 20 years at IBM in a variety of sales, marketing, and product management and general management roles.