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Addressing ECM Implementation Challenges by Eng. Ismail Alani e-Document Forum Riyadh Intercontinental 20/09/04
Addressing ECM Implementation Challenges
byEng. Ismail Alani
e-Document ForumRiyadh Intercontinental
20/09/04
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
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2
3
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5
6
7
Objectives
To introduce the major components of an ECM system
To highlight the main business drivers for ECM
implementations
To explain some of the main challenges that face ECM
implementations
To introduce the solution
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Background - 1
IT investments are -and should- only be driven by business
In today’s competitive market, slow economy is forcing
companies to optimize their performance by minimizing
operational cost while offering up to quality service/product to
their customers
Accompanied with large amounts of content generated by the
business, accurate & dynamic information is essential for
maintaining customer satisfaction, reactive and strategic
enterprise planning & continually making the right decision
Background - 2
A “successful” ECM implementation enables organizations to
achieve many of these strategic objectives
A “successful” implementation is one that overcomes the
challenges that face the project life cycle achieving the initial
business objectives of the investment
According to KPMG,
Over 61% of IT projects end up failing partially or completely
According to META Group,
83 % of large scale companies prioritize ECM systems as the highest priority of IT investment projects
Numbers Talk
According to the Standish Group,
In large scale companies, only 9% of IT projects are completed on-time and on-budget
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
ECM Main Components
• Image Management
• Document Management
• Records Management
• Enterprise Report Management
• Web Content Management
• Process Management
• E-Forms Management
• Digital Asset Management
• Archive and Storage Management
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
ECM Main Business Drivers - 1
Content access and retrieval
• Universal need spans all types of applications, from human resources to claims processing to customer service initiatives
• Organizations recognize that they can enhance the operating model if their employees can more effectively access the content needed to do their jobs
• Efficient access and retrieval helps them avoid redundancies (e.g., recreating content because it can't be found), another costly waste of resources, time and storage that can also increase the risk of introducing erroneous content
• Finally, enabling customers and partners to easily find the information they need enhances an organization's ability to serve its customers
ECM Main Business Drivers - 2
Accelerating time to market
• Streamlining the process of content creation is a key driver for businesses in which content is the final product
• For example, media and publishing applications benefit tremendously from well-defined content processing workflows
• Similarly, websites are more effective when fresh content is frequently updated using standardized approval processes and automated publishing.
• Improve Business responsiveness by facilitating the development of new services through providing a rapid and efficient mechanism of updating internal corporate information and resources
ECM Main Business Drivers - 3
Managing content throughout its lifecycle
• Once organizations get a hand on their immediate goal of automating and streamlining content processing, they look to gain the long-term benefits of managing content throughout its entire lifecycle
• Content lifecycles start when content is created or introduced, include the time that content is actively used within an application, and extend to the phase in which content is managed as an archived asset.
• Industries with heavy regulatory requirements-like pharmaceuticals, financial services, and manufacturing often require lifecycle management
ECM Main Business Drivers - 4
Cost Reduction & Enhanced Services
• Improve staff efficiency by supporting key business processes with sufficient information. Ensure that information is available to staff when they need it as they need it. This translates into direct time savings by avoiding fruitless searches.
• Reduce customer support costs by providing more accurate and comprehensive information to support representatives or to customers directly (i.e. through websites)
• Saving costs on physical storage and maintenance of paper-based information and archives
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
ECM Implementation Challenges
ECM…Unique Implementations
• At a basic level, implementing an ECM system will look like deploying any other large software package, fundamental project management principles must be followed. Along with best practice technological guidelines
• The nature of an ECM system is unique in the sense that it needs more buy-in from more users since its users are very likely most of the organization’s staff
• Practically, an ECM project presents a number of unique challenges. These challenges must be addressed for the project to be successful
• If the ECM implementation is accompanied with a backlog conversion effort, then the implementation is more unique than any other IT project as it’s a hetero-combination of 2 projects
ECM Implementation Challenges - 1
Impact Scale
• Implementing an ECM solution will most likely have an impact on more staff than any system since e-mail!
• Staff impacted will include authors, editors, reviewers, administrators, readers, process designers, process approvers, etc
• A deployed ECM solution will require a lot of people to do a lot of things to a lot of content!
• Hence, change management and training present huge challenge facing ECM Implementations
ECM Implementation Challenges - 2
Active Participation
• Most IT deployments are considered successful if staff simply accept the new system and use it partially
• An ECM system requires much more, an ECM implementation can be considered successful only if it is actively used by many staff
• An even greater challenge is ensuring that this is self-sustaining long after the initial deployment project has concluded.
• While other systems –by nature- are self-enforced, content can always remain in the local machines or even on paper unless enough participation of users is planned during the project
ECM Implementation Challenges - 3
Integrating Content with Process
• The modern ECM concept heavily integrates workflow with content
• Actively using content requires the modification of the existing processes around the capture, dissemination and use of information within the organization
• Furthermore, ECM systems often aim to move the organization towards a decentralized authoring model, presenting its own challenge!
• Automating a process literally changes the job description of all involved staff which is a challenge by itself.
ECM Implementation Challenges - 4
2 Hetro Projects Need to be in Sync• In ECM implementations that include Image
Management or Content Management modules, it is very likely that the system should be uploaded with scanned backlog records to be operational
• By definition a “Backlog Conversion” project is different in nature than ECM implementation itself and hence, requires very precise project management that can ensure the timely delivery of the uploaded records
• Managing the 2 parallel lines and achieving in-sync progress is not a traditional easy task
• The delay of the backlog conversion and upload can delay the go-live date which adds another risk in such projects
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
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7
Overcoming the Challenges
Solution!
• Applying the right project management model can overcome most of the challenges discussed earlier
• The benefits of project management not only will guarantee the success of the implementation but will also ensure the active usage and utilization of the ECM system post go-life
• While the same budget can be allocated to implement the same ECM package to the same industry, one implementation can fail, another can make a success story!
Project Management Model - 1
Requirements “the Key Word”
• AS ECMs are used by many people within the organization, requirements management is an essential project management scheme
• Are all the impacted groups consulted in the requirements collection? (i.e. users, authors, approvers, publishers, etc..)
• Do the users know what they “may” want?
• Are the conflicting requirements settled down to the best benefit of the organization?
• Are the irreversible configuration steps explained well to the users?
Project Management Model - 2
Change Management “people-ware development”
• People-ware too!
• Imagine the change management scale that accompanied the introduction of e-mail technology!
• Are the process redlines really red? Or they are just seen as red?
• Do all stake holders know what's coming?
• Will the staff use the system effectively even post go-life? (people enablement)
• Are the necessary job descriptions updated?
• Is the organization ready for decentralization?
Project Management Model - 3
Planning and Progress Monitoring
• Does the planned S-Curve look like an “S”?
• Is the planned progress updated to be practical?
• Is the Weekly/Daily/Hourly backlog progress measured and monitored?
• Will the people be able to go-live when the system goes-live?
• Are “never stop” tactics applied to scanning lines? (i.e. stand-by line, frequent spare parts ready, etc..)
• Will the new trillions bytes be accommodated in the mass storage environment?
Project Management Model - 4
Issue Management
Quality Management
Scope Management &
Change Control
Risk Management
Resource ManagementCommunication
Management
Change Management
Requirements Management
Planning & Progress Monitoring
Procurement Management
Financial Management
Conclusion
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60
60
67
71
83
0 20 40 60 80 100
Operating Systems
WANs
SCM
eCommerce
Storage
Wireless
Portals
Application Servers
Middleware/EAI
Enterprise Content Management
This statistical research tells that companies are doing the right prioritization only with the assumption that the right project management model is being used for the implementation of their ECM!
Objectives
Background
ECM Main Components
ECM Main Business Drivers
ECM Implementation Challenges
Overcoming the Challenges
Q & A
Agenda
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
