Notes

Content Management Technologies and Alphabet Soup: 26 Ideas to Spell Success
Content management technologies advance so quickly that it's hard to maintain. From enterprise content management (ECM) to electronic document management (EDM), business process management (BPM), business intelligence (BI), EDRM (electronic document and records management), records and information management (RIM) and more, technology increasingly resembles a plate of alphabet soup. So many acronyms are floating around that it's hard to know what order to place the letters in and what they're likely to spell.

Whether you're scanning files for historical reference, providing information access with a customer portal, or are in the midst of enterprise-wide process automation, you can find standard steps you need to take that will help you to succeed. Whatever acronym your solution spells or what your targets are, these 26 steps should be applied and revisited throughout your project implementation. If you miss one, your project might turn out a little differently from everything you are hoping for. How and when you use each tip is up to you, but make sure to use them all!

Align your business and IT goals. A number of the greatest project failures derive from a mismatch. IT's role would be to support business objectives, nonetheless it resources tend to be stretched. Educate each other. Negotiate.

Budget carefully. Software and hardware alone don't represent Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Customizations, disaster recovery planning, training, and testing carry costs. Plan accordingly.

Collaborate with all your department managers. Set enterprise goals even though you're you start with a departmental project. Think globally. Otherwise, you'll find yourself reworking projects unnecessarily.

Document your business processes carefully. Diagram the steps in each process. Know where processes and documents intersect. Look for duplication that may be streamlined or eliminated.

Evaluate project goals against your company's 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year vision. Know where your organization and your department want to be later on. Does your project support those goals?

Fight to do things right the 1st time. It's better to undertake an inferior project and take action well than to fail to meet end goals. Select a painful process first, or one where automation will produce substantial ROI.

Gauge employee readiness for change. Resistance can result in sabotage. Don't keep your employees in the dark about your targets. Show your employees how you intend to help them succeed.

Hire outside services wherever you do not have time, skills, or resources. If there are too many slowdowns, hiccups or delays, assembling your project will miss deadlines, won't be taken seriously, and could risk irrelevancy.

Involve your staff. Understanding, improving, and automating processes requires knowing every part of your business. Getting to the bottom of how things actually work requires everyone's help.

Judge no one. You can't embrace every scheme for improvement, but you need creative ideas. If you squash a few, you might silence the voices it is advisable to reach your potential. Be considered a good listener.

Keep nothing that isn't essential. If there isn't a regulation requiring you keep a document-and you know it isn't very important to legal, historical, or business reference-get rid of it. No more clutter!

Learn what you can from peers and colleagues. Talk with other people who have implemented similar solutions. What advice do they have from their experiences? What would they do differently?

Maximize efficiency wherever possible. Is similar information collected for multiple departments? Are more people involved in an activity than necessary? Can forms or steps be condensed or eliminated?

Notify your vendor immediately when expectations aren't being met. Most problems derive from miscommunication, not poor technology. Address issues while they're small. Don't allow them fester.

Orchestrate efficiency with smart integration. To recycle meaningful information wherever it has value, information technologies must be connected. Otherwise, you're underutilizing your computer data.

Prepare staff for change. Be sure you not only have an exercise program in place; communicate early and often with employees to allay concerns. Remember, you want them to succeed. Help them to do it.

Question how things are done and make improvements. Because you've done something a certain method for years doesn't mean it's still relevant. Automating poor processes makes them faster, not better.

Review goals regularly and make adjustments. Even though it's important to stick to your vision, sometimes things are discovered mid-way that demand rethinking. Schedule periodic reviews.

Start small (but think big). Despite the fact that technology projects should be designed with enterprise goals in mind, start small and build on each success. Set realistic, achievable goals. Employees will value that.

Test, test, test. Whether you're scanning documents, automating routine processes, or mechanizing your retention program, make certain it works. Testing is relatively cheap. Fixing things later is costly.

Understand the needs of everybody on your team. Encourage ideas for ongoing improvements. Plan face time as an organization so diverse needs and possible solutions could be discussed. Keep an open mind.

Verify what you think you realize. Restate goals along with next steps. Clarify who's responsible for what, where time, and required resources. Put expectations and deliverables on paper.

Work diligently toward your goals. Internal demands can distract staff from project goals. Give staff enough time and resources they need to stay focused. If you cannot, hire your vendor or other qualified help.

Xerox forget about. Capture information at the start of the information cycle-upon creation or receipt-not by the end of your processes. Otherwise you're extra cash unnecessarily and losing efficiency.

Yield to cost cutting with great caution. If you budget your hardware, software, integration, upgrades, and staffing needs carefully, and put all expectations on paper, you shouldn't need to cut.

Zero in on success. Mark milestones. Frame your first shredded file. Hand out t-shirts when ROI is achieved. Give a pat on the back. Show appreciation to encourage repeat performance. Celebrate!

*****

Optical Image Technology provides an integrated suite of imaging, document management, and workflow software, including document archiving, lifecycle management, electronic forms, and email management products. For more info rmation about our services and products visit our website at http://www.docfinity.com, email [email protected], or call us at 800-678-3241.

Laurel Sanders joined OIT as the Director of Marketing in August, 2004 and was named Director of PR and Communications in January of 2008. Business articles by Laurel have been featured regularly in imageSource, Office World News, Today, and ECM Connection.
Here's my website: https://writeablog.net/dodsonschneider64/content-management-technologies-and-alphabet-soup-26-tips-to-spell-success-qx55