Johannesburg, 27 Jan 2010
A little over four years ago, we realised that when organisations finally enter the magic land of ECM (enterprise content management) and ERM (electronic records management) strategy, it usually felt a bit like a Muggle stumbling into Hogwarts. Users entered a strange and magical world totally incomprehensible and dominated by a coterie of wizards speaking of, and doing, incomprehensible things.
(Author's note: For those who have been under a rock for the past decade, this is a Harry Potter allusion. See the Wikipedia entry on Harry Potter for details.)
In this strange world, there was little standardisation of techniques, approaches or best practices. Vendor case studies were helpful, but they were not standardised to allow comparisons. The language and terms used in the industry were cryptic and focused on communication among the insiders. There was no place to go online to ask questions and connect with others with similar problems. There was little industry data on what end-users were actually doing with our technologies and few places that organisations could go to benchmark their own activities. But most importantly, there was no standardised training or methodology to allow users to follow a somewhat predictable path toward implementing a content or records strategy.
The net result of the above was that when you stumbled across an organisation with an actual information management strategy, it seemed so unusual that it was natural to conclude that they must have had some sort of secret elixir that none of the rest of us had access to.
In short, the ability to share and standardise implementation approaches was simply non-existent.
So, we (AIIM) set out to do something about it.
We launched the Information Zen site, and that has gone a long way toward the goal of giving the industry - users, suppliers, and the channel - an online place to “hang out”. (www.informationzen.org)
We launched an industry research program, and now produce four to six highly readable industry studies per year - and make them available for free to the end user community. (Digital Landfill blog - http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog)
We reconfigured E-DOC magazine as Infonomics and refocused it around end-user stories and successes.
We refocused our seminar series around the intersection of process, control and collaboration.
But most importantly, we launched the AIIM Certificate program and created Educational Advisory Committees to oversee the program. We began the task of standardising best practices and information related to ECM, ERM, Enterprise 2.0, e-mail management, business process management, and information organisation and access. We made this content available via online courses, public courses held around the world, and through private courses for individual organisations. And we kept the focus not on the bits and bytes, but on strategy and best practices.
So, if you have finally gotten to the point of: 1) Identifying a strategy; and 2) Want to actually go about implementing it, let me offer eight steps to think about as you begin your 2010 planning. (I should note - and this is admittedly self-serving - that these are drawn from our training.)
1. Build a business strategy and blueprint.
2. Conduct a technology assessment and create a blueprint.
3. Think through a governance structure and approach.
4. Create a roadmap and project plan.
5. Build a sound foundation.
6. Design the plan.
7. Deploy the plan and cycle through phases of assessment and improvement.
8. And do not forget change management!
(8 things eBook series - http://www.aiim.org/8things)
Well, that about does it. At this point, you are likely thinking: 1) Right. Easier said than done and 2) Do I really want to do this?
Obviously, we feel the answer is yes. It was not easy for organisations to set up strategies and structures to manage money, people and resources. But we all did it because these areas were deemed strategically important to organisational success.
Developing - and implementing - an information management strategy is hard work. But it's not impossible work.
AIIM research, training, publications and events can help your organisation understand and streamline the journey. Let us know how we can help.
Regards,
John Mancini - President, AIIM International (www.aiim.org)
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