ECM Rescue Recovering from a Failed Implementation 17-Oct-08 Greg Clark, MBA AIIM International Conference 2009 2008 C3 Associates Inc. April 1, 2009
Agenda 1. Introduction (5 minutes) 2. Building the Business Case for ECM (5 minutes) 3. How is ECM Different? How Can This Lead to Failure? (10 minutes) 4. Picking Up the Pieces (15 minutes) 5. Building an ECM Governance Plan (10 minutes) 6. Discussion, Questions and Wrap Up (5 minutes)
Building the Business Case for Enterprise Content Management
Why ECM? In 18 th century it was estimated that a week s worth of New York Times contained more information than a person was likely to come across in a lifetime The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet Over 170 billion emails are sent daily That s 2 million every second In 1930, information content was doubling approximately every 30 years By 2011 it will be doubling every 11 hours Sources: Gartner Group, Accenture
Why ECM? Costs of Mismanaged Information 7.5% of documents are lost forever Managers spend an average of 6-8 weeks a year searching for or waiting on misfiled, mislabeled, untracked or lost documents Large organizations lose a document every 12 seconds One division of a large oil and gas company Source Cuadra Associates
ECM The Story So Far The Records Management Problem: 1. Keeping what we need to keep 2. Not keeping what we don t need to keep 3. Knowing when we ve successfully achieved the first two steps! This is even more challenging in the age of electronic information and ad hoc collaboration Email is the worst form of collaboration ever invented except for all the others.
Question Who has deployed ECM? Did it meet your expectations? Why or why not?
How is ECM Different? Why do Some ECM Implementations Fail?
How is ECM Different? Understanding the reasons for failed projects requires an understanding of how ECM is different from other IT systems
How is ECM Different? 1. ECM is about managing information, not just storing it ECM is not just another technology implementation Users must understand not only how but why Requires different rules may be used for all content or only certain content Requires an understanding of information lifecycle and context in which it will be used
How is ECM Different? 2. ECM is (perceived to be) optional Users have a choice ECM is not the same as an accounting system Done well, ECM can provide a significant competitive advantage 3. ECM is everywhere Shared drives Email Formal ECM systems (often more than one) Records management (physical and electronic)
How is ECM Different? 4. ECM changes ingrained work habits File / Save As Initially, can have a negative impact on productivity Can lead to pushback from end users and, through their bosses, to senior management Users developed own filing systems for email and other documents Organizational benefits may be clear, but end user community may not see What s In It For Me? Impacts many business processes: Correspondence, AP/AR, Budgeting, Contracts, Maintenance, Marketing, Projects, etc.
Top 10 Reasons for Failure 1. Underestimated the impact on business processes and organizational structures (esp. senior level sponsorship) 2. Did not train users appropriately 3. Project derailed by internal politics 4. Did not implement adequate governance processes 5. Underestimated effort to migrate content 6. Scope creep 7. Low user acceptance / poor design 8. Taxonomy concerns 9. Narrow focus (single business unit only) 10. Poorly defined business case Source: aiim.org
Picking up the Pieces
Rescuing ECM Considerations Even though ECM is different from other applications, basic project management rules still apply There s no such thing as perfect ECM should evolve as your organization changes and processes mature Do your best to respect the work done to date and the people who did it play nice!
Rescuing ECM 1. Understand the current state of ECM What is the stated goal of the existing implementation? Are some groups successful? Why? What technologies have been implemented to date? What training is in place? What governance structures are in place? Are they working well?
Rescuing ECM 2. Determine who owns ECM in your organization At a minimum this should be a departmental owner (but this will limit scope, scale and success) Ideally should be sponsorship at the senior level If no one steps up to sponsor ECM initiatives, seriously consider stopping all further ECM deployments
Rescuing ECM 3. Start the process of rebuilding your strategy Ensure broad stakeholder engagement Senior management, functional managers, end users, records management team, compliance / regulatory team, technical team Stakeholder definition document Group Name Group Lead Change Agent (s) Super User (s) Group Membership Communication Event Training Requirement Executive Sponsor Jane Smith, Executive Vice President Sarah Jones, VP Planning and Strategy Nilesh Gupta N/A Sponsor group, not a deployment group Jane Smith, Sara Jones, Nilesh Gupta Monthly Report Information Package Not applicable. Maintenance and Projects Shared Drive Migration Project Tim Wagner, SVP Maintenance and Projects Trina Busby, Chief Engineer Maintenance and Projects David Keith, Document Controller Jennifer Ross, Engineering Tech Joe Smith, Maintenance Tech Mark A Hodson, Maintenance Tech Maureen Clark, Admin Assistant Kick off meeting to inform the leads of what to expect during the project. Link to project web page Printed project information pkg Monthly update via email from Project Sponsor Requirements summary report, printed and delivered by internal mail Surveys, online and on paper Monthly FAQ, via project web page Demo One-on-one session May require hands-on class room session for some business processes but likely won t need all the training that is produced Will be informed of all sessions End-users that require hands-on, context specific training will be identified through the ECM Project for Group B Training Plan
Rescuing ECM 3. Rebuilding your strategy (cont d) Work with your Sponsor to craft an ECM Vision Statement: Our ECM Program facilitates efficient and reliable Our ECM Program facilitates efficient and reliable operations by providing strategy, processes and techniques to support information access, sharing, and security. This puts the right information in the hands of the right staff at the right time to maximize safety, efficiency and reduce costs.
Rescuing ECM 4. Create an ECM Office Responsible for implementation of ECM Program management approach Projects deliver capabilities, programs deliver benefits Align ECM activities with strategic direction of the organization Mission: Increase ability of personnel to use ECM tool Enhance transparency through better communication and training; strong change management focus Improve deployment processes to better support business requirements
Rescuing ECM 4. Create an ECM Office (cont d) Objectives Maximize use of ECM in areas where it has already been implemented Implement (or re-implement) ECM in areas where it is underutilized or not deployed Coordinate all ECM activities including deployments and change management
Rescuing ECM 4. Create an ECM Office (cont d) Roles (Some users have multiple roles) Program Sponsor Program Manager Project Sponsor(s) Business Owner(s) Project Manager(s) Business Analyst(s) Business Representative(s) Super User(s) Records Management Change Management Developer(s) Tech Support Vendor Rep Trainer(s)
Rescuing ECM 5. Execute projects Likely to find one or more quick wins Not necessarily easiest projects to implement but ones with highest value to organization Look for areas with strong business need and partial success Focus on change management, communication and training Empower end users (create experts in each area) Lesson learned initial ECM implementation was likely not a complete failure; build on successes and address issues
Rescuing ECM 6. Governance Start developing clear policies for content management Review and revise policies for content management or develop where they don t exist) Use projects to develop procedures incrementally Clear accountability and ownership of governance processes Work with existing governance teams; re-use existing policies and procedures wherever possible Align ECM with performance goals; audit system use and compensate based on contribution to ECM system
Rescuing ECM 7. Benefits Realization Objective Define the project objective Measure 1 Define qualitative / quantitative measures Measure 2 Measure 3 Realization The project or process implemented to realize the benefits that map to the objective.
Rescuing ECM 7. Benefits Realization (con t) Work with sponsors to create meaningful metrics Track and report on metrics to sponsors; trending over time is key Use findings to guide focus areas Revise / iterate metrics on at least an annual basis Examples: Number of new users Number of versions created Number of searches executed Number of net new documents created
But What About Technology? Technology doesn t matter, it just has to work HOWEVER Poorly deployed technology can seriously limit user adoption Work closely with your vendor to get it right the first time Build skills in house to keep systems working well Information Architect role is key
Building an ECM Governance Plan
What is Governance? Governance relates to decisions that Define expectations Grant power Verify performance Governance also relates to Consistent Management Cohesive policies Processes Most important: Fit with organizational culture What should be governed? Who should determine governance policies? How should governance be implemented?
ECM Governance Objectives Set clear rules so your organization can take full advantage of benefits of ECM Ensure processes and procedures are clear and well understood Ensure information is secure Ensure information is accessible Ensure ECM system can adapt to changing needs of your organization
ECM Governance Procedures Guidelines Standards Policies
ECM Governance Role of an ECM Governance Group Develop and apply rules about how the system is to be used Where do users save their documents? Which emails should be stored in the system? Can I delete documents? When? What is the approval process for access to a document / folder / workspace? What is the approval process for changes to the document taxonomy?
ECM Governance Sample ECM Governance Documents Policies Email policy Paper scanning policy Backup / recovery policy Records retention policy Metadata policy Security and access policy User support policy (service level agreements) Remote access policy (home users and partners / vendors) Electronic file format Procedures New user training procedure Document naming conventions Records disposition procedure (including disposition of backup copies) Searching / browsing and information retrieval Creation of new folders / workspaces Functional process procedure (eg. Contract management) Auditing procedure Some content courtesy: aiim.org
Resources Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) http://www.aiim.org Association for Records Managers and Administrators (ARMA) http://www.arma.org Information Zen http://www.informationzen.org ECM Network Blog http://networks.feedburner.com/ecmnetwork C3 Associates ECM Blog http://www.c3associates.com/blog
ECM Health Check Answer the following questions to assess the health of your ECM program. If you answer No to any of the following questions your ECM program is likely not meeting your stated goals. 1. We know who owns ECM within our organization Yes / No 2. If yes to Question 1 The ECM owner has the full support of senior management Yes / No 3. We understand the business case for ECM in our organization Yes / No 4. We have a clear document taxonomy that is well understood by our Yes / No user community 5. We have a good understanding of the effort required to migrate our legacy content into our ECM system (i.e. understand volume and value of existing content) 6. We have established a comprehensive training program that includes information about the business context in which the system is to be used Yes / No Yes / No 7. The onboarding process for new users is clear and well-established Yes / No 8. Our users understand how and why they are using our ECM system Yes / No
Click to edit Thank Master You! title style Greg Clark greg.clark@c3associates.com B: 403 775 4651 x.100 C: 403 863 5998 Content + Context = Collaboration TM