Is Your Organization At Risk?
Why Legal, IT and Business Need to See Eye-to-Eye
A year after our last SAP implementation, my organization was forced to start thinking about archiving: ERP systems such as SAP generate lots of content and data, and maintaining a production environment along with multiple supporting environments (e.g., development, test, quality assurance, training, etc.) became expensive and harder to manage. This was due to more arduous upgrades to higher software releases, longer runtimes for back-up and recovery, increasing hardware and administrative costs, longer response times for users and lack of compliance (not establishing data retention requirements and end-of-life scenarios for mission critical content). Our legal, IT and business units needed to agree on when data should be archived, how long it should be retained and how it would be re-accessed when needed.
This methodology, with legal, IT and business collaborating with one another to manage, store and archive content and to define a successful approach to managing information isn't restricted to only ERP information; it can and should be applied to all content in an organization. In the long run, this effort establishes the infrastructure that can be leveraged throughout the business to deliver on the promise of compliance, while also enabling business process improvement, process and information integration and transparency, business intelligence and information lifecycle management across the enterprise. We also needed to look at what options were available for a long-term archive repository.
Manage Content, Not Systems
I first met the "wise man" in 2000 while evaluating content management systems (CMS) for my organization. His company specialized in CMS and had a unique approach to it. His solutions were able to index, archive, manage, audit, balance and re-access information, all while ensuring compliance and providing the lowest possible infrastructure cost by storing all information assets in the content repository regardless of content source, format or type—and managing it throughout its lifecycle. This was a revelation for me, and I could see that he had created something very special. I wanted to be part of it, and within the year, I was working for the "wise man" as part of his team.
His commitment to the CMS market never wavered, and although the wise man has retired from the industry, the solution I discovered in my days as a customer has never been stronger. Further delivering on the original vision, the technology has incorporated new functionality. Recognizing that many enterprises have multiple content repositories and that in many cases it's very expensive or prohibitive to convert large volumes of archived content to one standard, we've added content integration functionality and have been a strong advocate for the OASIS CMIS standard. It's much easier to use a solution that provides a single point of access to all archived content (regardless of which repository content is stored), rather than consolidating applications into one über-enterprise content management system. We've also delivered on his commitment to records management, adding everything needed to ensure that archived records can be automatically placed on hold for e-discovery purposes, and so that end-of-life scenarios are managed seamlessly. And, we've done this while ensuring that records, regardless of origin and and volume, can be managed in-place.
The benefits of an enterprise CMS offering go beyond improving e-discovery and enabling compliance. An enterprise CMS reduces IT maintenance costs, enhances customer service, supports decision-making and revenue growth, and enables companies to implement governance rules and business process controls. While I'm glad my company ultimately made the decision to search for this type of solution—post ERP integration—wouldn't it have been wonderful to have enjoyed the benefits of an enterprise CMS throughout the integration process?
Although the task of managing ever-growing volumes of content may appear daunting, many companies know that putting off this issue is not an option. An automated, enterprise CMS reduces the risk of lawsuits and regulatory action and ensures that employees have fast access to accurate and timely information. In order to make this a reality, legal, IT and business need to work together for their mutual benefit and for the long-term benefit of the company as a whole. And just as important as having a clear game plan is the execution of that game plan by legal, IT and business. Your organization shouldn't settle for anything less.
ASG Software Solutions (ASG) is a global software solutions provider that helps more than 85% of the world's largest companies drive business success by managing complex IT and business operations across distributed, mainframe and cloud environments.
More than 3,200 customers worldwide successfully reduce costs, improve business-service delivery and reduce risks by using ASG's broad portfolio of solutions, including cloud management, metadata management, information management, applications management, infrastructure management, operations management, performance management and enterprise automation management (EAMS). To further capitalize on technology innovation, ASG's Cloud Orchestration Suite offers companies an easy on-ramp to the cloud by integrating cloud-based applications with existing applications and databases.
Founded in 1986 by Arthur L. Allen, ASG is a privately held company based in Naples, FL, with approximately 1,100 employees and 74 offices in 31 countries. Learn more at www.asg.com.