Content Management and its role in the effective management and exploitation of corporate Intranets

Transcription

1 Content Management and its role in the effective management and exploitation of corporate Intranets Presentation to the Ark Group Conference Strategic Intranet Management for the Public Sector Sydney, NSW: November 2006 Terry Gaston Manager, Information Legal Aid, Western Australia The Currency of the Legal profession is Knowledge and Information 11/12/2006 1

2 Content Management and its role in the effective management and exploitation of corporate Intranets About Legal Aid WA Legal Aid Western Australia is an independent statutory body set up by the Legal Aid Commission Act Established in 1978 through a joint initiative of the State and Federal governments (the first Commission of its kind in Australia) Our Mission: To provide quality legal services to those in need and to assist the Community to access justice. Our Vision: To be recognised as a leader in the coordination and delivery of legal assistance services that reflect community expectations and are responsive to need. 11/12/2006 2

3 Legal Aid Services We provide information, advice and other legal assistance. Services provided to clients are dependent upon a client s finances, the type of legal problem and available agency resources: Information Services: Through a telephone call centre, internal and external web environments and a range of printed publications. Legal Advice: Through our duty lawyers at court or at legal advice sessions via face to face, telephone or video conference. Minor Assistance: Through solicitors or paralegal advisors who can assist with negotiation, letter writing, document drafting or preparing for court self representation. Legal Representation: Through in-house lawyers as well as private practitioners. This is dependent upon client eligibility. 11/12/2006 3

4 What this Presentation Covers My focus is more strategic than operational Wholistic ECM rather than just WCM Draws upon my experience, my research discovery processes and recognised best practices Includes an knowledge management and collaboration perspective Information Management practices in general and RM compliance issues (Of relevance to all Government agencies) Provides a show and tell on some LAWA experiences Not just the how but also the why 11/12/2006 4

5 Current Information Challenges in Government Agencies Slow take-up of e-government processes Convergence of the IM disciplines and technologies (Portals, retrieval/search, collaboration, RM and DM, KM, workflow, CM, metadata management) Information as a key strategic resource, it drives business today. Importance of the IM strategy (What, who, how, when, where, why). Successful exploitation of corporate information assets is 80% about getting the strategy right and 20% about the supporting technology. Butler Group The changing mix of Structured Vs Unstructured information Was 90:10, is now 60:40, will move further. Agencies require seamless access to applications, data and content and the ability to retain and re-use information and knowledge. 11/12/2006 5

6 What is Content Management? What is CM? A set of processes and technologies that support the evolutionary life cycle of digital information. Digital content may take the form of text such as documents, multimedia files or any other file type that follows a content lifecycle that requires management. Inherently a collaborative process. Wikipedia, 2006 Critical components: - Defined roles and responsibilities authors, editors, publishers, administrators, consumers - Ability to manage versions of content as it evolves - Requires creation, maintenance and application of review standards - Requires defined work-flow processes; and (for government agencies) - RM Compliance What is ECM? ECM is concerned with the effective capture, processing and storage of all information types, with an emphasis on providing a convenient framework for information retrieval and utilisation. ECM has become a key technology as it has expanded to include many of the key information sources within the organisation, including , working documents, formal legal and historic records, and web pages. Butler Group, /12/2006 6

7 What Content for an Intranet? Most Importantly: That which is consistent with the defined Intranet purpose (from the IM Strategy). Aligned to the business focus. Typical Intranet Content : Key communications from the Executive Group, policies and procedures, Key corporate plans and reports, Business Unit home pages, staff directories, news and forthcoming events, social activities, links to external stake-holder sites, collaboration facilities, linkages to other applications, local/regional activities, business enablers such as templates, how to s, business terms and acronyms, training and induction materials, FAQ s and How To s, organisational charts. 11/12/2006 7

8 An Automated Content Management System? What is a CMS? System to support creation, management, distribution, publishing and discovery of corporate information. Provides easy to use tools to author, publish and archive content, manage site structure, version management, appearance of pages and navigation tools. A Good CMS is Critical: Streamlines authoring process, faster turnaround for changes, improved navigation and consistency, supports decentralised authoring, reduced maintenance costs e.g. Broken links management (and more). Adapted from Step Two Designs, I would also emphasise: - Empowers content owners and allows devolution - Separates design from content authoring (Style templates) - Eliminates webmaster bottleneck. - Provides work-flow to manage the processes and approvals 11/12/2006 8

9 Sourcing Relevant Quality Content (1) A key content management issue in itself Develop techniques to identify end-user information needs. Set up Focus groups, conduct surveys, interview key stakeholders. Appoint Intranet contact point in each business unit. Convince the Executive Group and business unit managers to make Intranet the key vehicle for all cross-organisation communication. Utilise Corporate announcements to abstract information and refer on to the Intranet via a direct URL to the full item. Link EDRMS to CMS and source key content from it. Replace public share drives and folders. Reward content authors (A bottle of wine works wonders) Use Information Audits to identify information gaps, then plug them. 11/12/2006 9

10 Obtaining Quality and Relevant Content (2) Create and enforce content, style and writing guidelines Write at the appropriate level for the audience; e.g. LAWA s year 10 English website Vs internally orientated pages of legal information resources for practitioners. Use highly scannable text that is easy and quick to read. Provide link to a Word or PDF document for the detail (in a new window) Employ the 6 principles of journalism; who, what, why, when, where, how. Ensure style consistency (page layouts, colours etc), force through the CMS. Utilise the official taxonomy and approved lists of abbreviations etc. Take the wording of page headers very seriously. Provide owner/author details and review by dates for information (Keeps contributors on their toes) 11/12/

11 Keys to CM Success (1) Taker a broader ECM Perspective. Allows integration with other components and facilitates re-use of information. Spend time on Information Architecture. Group the content, create labels, design structure (and don t use the Org. Structure), user test and refine. Content Authors; get trained and involved early, rewarded and nurtured, succession planning etc. EMPOWER THEM. Protect the Home Page. A Navigation tool primarily. See GESB example. Continually seek feedback and act on complaints. Utilise good IM and RM disciplines (See later) Concept of Information Scent to complement navigation labels 11/12/

12 GESB s Intranet 11/12/

13 Keys to CM Success (2) Provide key Business forms and templates on-line. Importance of Meta-data: AGLS standards, facilitates Search by properly indexing pages and may be a big time save for users. ECM issue here. Acquire and exploit a Good Search Tool (Users will always compare it to Google) Provide Intuitive Navigation; what site am I on?, where in the site am I?, where can I go next? User test your sites in development following a structured approach. 11/12/

14 Intranets for Knowledge Management and Collaboration Capture the knowledge in an organisation. The Intranet as a shared information space for content, communication and collaboration (uncensored). Now a corporate requirement. Intranet as a KM environment; Information-centric view of Intranet not sufficient. Three perspectives; - Information, Awareness, Communication. (Dick Stenmark) Growth of Social Computing RSS, Wiki, Blog, collaboration KM for Front Line Staff for consistency, accuracy and repeatability. LAWA example. Communities of Practice. Horizontal learning. The learning institution now has competition. (Nancy White) 11/12/

15 Compliance and Best Practice Issues Take an ECM Approach Source key corporate documents and templates to Intranet from EDRMS, Intranet will always be easier to negotiate. Makes RM compliance easier also. Permit web-based search of ERDMS repositories Use agency taxonomies/bcs where possible, use both subject and functional approach as required by the business. Eg. Use in:» Navigation - Usually hierarchical and» Search - Synonym control. 11/12/

16 Compliance and Best Practice Issues Recordkeeping Compliance for Intranets. In WA Government web based records must be captured into the agency s Recordkeeping system. Website records, and records of changes to the website, must be included in the R and D Schedule component of the agency s Recordkeeping Plan. National Archives of Australia: Guidelines for web based records: - (Identify them, capture to a RKS with sufficient metadata - Retain web resources for as long as required..by the business or to meet community expectations. - Ensure ability to re-establish website content at any point of time in the past. - Capture full records for web-based transactions. (Paraphrased) 11/12/

17 Legal Aid Show and Tell 11/12/

18 Legal Aid Information and Advice (1) General (and simplified) legal information on our Website and available to the public. Year 10 level English. Not intended as a substitute for professional legal advice. 11/12/

19 Legal Aid Information and Advice (2) 11/12/

20 Legal Aid Information and Advice (3) 11/12/

21 Legal Resources System Intranet/Extranet repository A repository used by paralegal workers, solicitors and community workers to aid in the provision of initial legal information and advice, as well as providing reference to other sources of information and assistance (referrals) Used by internal staff to provide information and advice; over the counter or via a telephone Infoline (averaging 800 calls/ day) - Family matters contact visits, residence, property settlement - Civil matters contracts, employment, restraining orders - Criminal matters assault, drink driving Used by external legal stake-holders eg Community Legal Centres, via secure VPN access. Accessible to increasing numbers of private practitioners with whom we have a higher level service partnership eg Alternative Dispute resolution (ADR) professionals. 11/12/

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24 Legal Aid WA ADR Community of Practice There is an emerging requirement to provide improved, web based collaboration tools, for special interest areas, both internally and within the wider legal community. What is a Community of Practice? Peers in execution of real work held together by a common sense of purpose and a real need to know what each other knows. Communities are defined by knowledge, not task. John Seely Brown; Vice President, Parc Xerox Desired outcomes from our ADR Community of Practice To capture and share knowledge To communicate quickly and effectively Publish material to a select group for critical evaluation Mapping networks of expertise Encourage social interaction 11/12/

25 ADR Community of Practice 11/12/

26 ADR Community of Practice 11/12/

27 Content Management and its role in the effective management and exploitation of corporate Intranets Presentation to the Ark Group Conference Strategic Intranet Management for the Public Sector Sydney, NSW: November 2006 Terry Gaston Manager, Information Legal Aid, Western Australia The Currency of the Legal profession is Knowledge and Information 11/12/