Digital Landfill

8 things to consider when decommissioning legacy data to your ECM Suite

Janet Luisser is a Senior Program Manager with Open Text focused on data and content integration solutions such as Legacy Data Decommissioning and Data Archiving.  Janet works with customers and market leaders to deliver integration solutions as a component of an organization’s ECM strategy.

8 things to consider when decommissioning legacy data to your ECM Suite

Legacy systems are often maintained simply to reference historical data. This kind of compliance and discovery strategy is expensive and comes with a high total-cost-of-ownership (TCO). You could archive this data to an appliance meant for data archiving, but does help you 3 years later when your company has a product recall and has to pull together ALL the relevant information pertaining to the product? 

Why is it that we treat data and content separately when at the end of the day it’s just information. I challenge companies to examine this fact and consider unifying their data and content strategies for complete information management. When it comes to legacy data, why not archive this data alongside its sister content to increase the relevance of our discovery searches? In a time when cost cutting is key to survival and leveraging the investments we have already made – critical, decommissioning legacy data into the ECM infrastructure for lifecycle management could offer companies cost savings, resource efficiencies and time to market of business decisions. But, decommissioning this data can be a complex task. Where do you begin?

Consider these 8 tips.

1 -- Evaluate your applications inventory and identify redundancies 

The first step towards understanding the lifecycle of your critical business data and decommissioning that data to the ECM archive is to complete a full inventory of your business systems and determine what kinds of data you create, manage, support, and require. Complexities are guaranteed including managing the many overlaps and redundancies that make it confusing as to which application is being used for which purpose, as well as the increased maintenance efforts of outdated, low value applications. With a full audit of your technology infrastructure, you can identify the overlap and redundancies.

2 -- Determine your data owners and key stakeholders

When planning to decommission business data you need to understand who the key stakeholders are and what their requirements are for the movement and maintenance of the legacy application data. This data is not only important from a compliance perspective but may be critical to a line of business or department for key decision making. As you gather requirements from data owners, remember to adopt a business process and legal view of the long-term requirements of that data rather than just a technology approach. Business and legal requirements are an important factor in managing the lifecycle of application data. 

3 -- Identify types of information (Active or Inactive)

 Benjamin Franklin once said, “there are two things you can count on – death and taxes." Well, let’s add data to the list. Business data or information continues to grow at a rapid pace, with more data being created in the past three years than all other previous years combined. An important step in managing the lifecycle of this information and ensuring the most efficient and accurate means of archiving it is to clearly understand what it is and how it needs to be used. Identify active versus inactive business transactions in your systems. Separate the data into transaction categories, each with their own predefined archiving constraints. 

4 -- Consider reporting requirements

A frequently lost consideration of application decommissioning and information archiving is the longer term reporting requirements. What information needs to be recalled and how is it presented back to the knowledge worker that requires it? What about legal discovery? What are the legal and compliance requirements for recalling inactive information and its audit trail from the beginning of its lifecycle? Organizations must collect LOB and departmental reporting requirements before decommissioning legacy data. Have your means of reporting in place before you decommission an application regardless of whether you are simply moving the data to a new system or archiving it. 

5 -- Document your corporate data retention policies with a global perspective

It’s only natural for people to focus on the information that surrounds them – not often considering the perspectives outside their regional silos. But today’s reality includes the rules, policies, people, and information that span our global operations. When considering and documenting your corporate data retention policies, you must factor in the rules according to individual countries. Each country that you do business in or have operations in has specific compliance rules and policies to which you must adhere. Additionally, specific industries dictate compliance policies. By the way, talk to the content experts in your organization, they have been dealing with records management rules and policies for content for quite some time, they can help support this phase of information gathering. 

6 -- Standardize on one single archiving system

The archive can be a single source of historical data. When a legacy question needs to be asked, a single look at the archive should result in a quick resolution and complete view of the information. Take for example, a toy manufacturer — that needs to recall its best-selling doll because it may contain lead paint on the doll’s face. A cross-functional team must rally to find and pull the historical information on the product, answer customer concerns, prepare for any potential litigation, and communicate the news. Whether that information is a document such as correspondence, the image of the product, or the list of distributors, your business needs trusted information to respond within the critical timelines. By unifying your data and content strategies, teams will not scramble to decipher which sources of information to go to and how to consolidate a complete view. 

7 -- Develop a plan and schedule for decommissioning 

Because the decision to decommission can impact many departments and people, it is recommended that a full analysis of the impacts is documented including users and customers, as well as organizational and financial impacts. Questions such as; Where will the information go once we have decommissioned the application?, Who needs to be notified?, What new application, if any, replaces the services provided by the legacy system? and, What timeframe is acceptable to decommission the application?, all need to be asked.

8 -- Create a plan for data integrity validation and audit 

Content and data is only as good as the trust that people have in it. Almost every organization has a system or two that the employees are cynical about based on the quality of information it provides (or lack thereof). In order to support decision making, the integrity of our data is vital. It goes without saying that organizations require a well-documented plan and supporting technology to ensure data integrity. There are many threats to data quality including hardware problems, data entry errors or carelessness to name just a few. In order to minimize these threats, the organization must articulate its definition of what quality data means and share it across the enterprise. 

Some other posts that may be of interest...

8 things that always worried you about legacy content, but were afraid to ask 

8 things to consider when developing an information retention policy 

8 steps to an effective ECM archive migration 

8 ways to use SharePoint for social computing 

8 things to remember when implementing an e-mail policy 

The Top 18 Content and Records Management Posts of 2009

Thanks to everyone -- especially my 8 things contributors -- who have helped make this blog such a success this year.  As a testimony to the power of more collaborative content, here are a few data points...All data is for 2008 vs. 2009:

Absolute unique visitors were up 180%.

Page views up 199%.

Visits up 190%.

Thank you all -- contributors and readers -- so much.

We also published our first 2 e-books -- download a free copy of the two 8 things e-books HERE. Per some previous posts, thanks so much to David Meerman Scott for the inspiration in Rave.  Rave is well worth a holiday read if you haven't already done so.

And now -- drumroll please -- the top 18 content and records management posts of 2009 in Digital Landfill:

1. 8 Things SharePoint 2010 Needs to Be a True ECM System
2. 8 Reasons Why Google Wave May (or May Not) Kill E-Mail
3. 8 Steps You Can Take to Better Manage Your Inbox    
4. 10 Fast Facts About Document Management Value    
5. 8 More Things You Need to Know About SharePoint
6. 8 Things Small Businesses Need to Know about Document Management
7. 8 Things You Can Do With an Enterprise Wiki
8. 8 Things You Need to Know about SharePoint Governance
9. 37 Really Cool Statistics About Social Media
10. 8 Things You Need to Know to Build an ECM Strategy    
11. 8 Things You Need to Know About Making the Case for Document Management in a Recession    
12. 8 Things to Consider when Implementing SharePoint with Another ECM engine
13. 8 Things Vendors Need To Know About Selling Document Management to Small Businesses   
14. 8 Ways to Use SharePoint for Social Computing
15. 17 great presentations. Spread them around. Embed them. Make your kids watch them  
16. 8 Things SharePoint 2010 Needs to Be a True ECM System    
17. 8 Steps of the ISO/TR 15489 Records Management Methodology    
18. 8 Steps to Avoid Process and Organizational Problems when Implementing an ECM System

Download an 8 things e-book today.

Happy holidays.

Vote on your favorite #AIIM #ECM holiday video -- Just for fun

OK.  Here's the deal.

For our holiday party, we had a contest.  Three teams.  2 hours each.

The assignment?  Create an ECM video using a holiday theme.

The stakes?  Prizes will be awarded on Wednesday the 23rd at 3:30 eastern time for the favorite video as voted upon by Digital Landfill readers.

How to vote?  Go to THIS LINK.  Or paste this into your browser -- 

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB22A2GRQBLQG

We all had a lot of fun.  Cast your vote!  (Each video is about 2 min long)

Pass the word.  Happy holidays.

PS...It is snowing like anybody's business here in DC today.

8 Tips for Selecting a Digital Signature Solution

 John Marchioni is currently the Vice President of Business Development at ARX - The Digital Signature Company. John has over 20 years experience in US and international high-technology markets creating partnerships through strategic sales, technology licensing and large-scale systems-integration projects. 

For more information about Electronic and Digital Signatures visit www.arx.com or contact John at johnmarc@arx.com.  

Have you downloaded a copy of our 8 things book?  Check it out.

8 Tips for Selecting a Digital Signature Solution

As the traditional “paper-based” world gives way to digital documentation and transactions, enterprises are demanding innovative solutions for digitally signing and authenticating such documents, files, and forms with iron-clad protection against forgery. Solutions must guarantee non-repudiation and promise the same level of security and trust that exists with conventional documentation. At the same time, such a solution should be simple to use, easy to deploy and offer a rapid Return on Investment (ROI). With the rise of global digital businesses, transactions and documents may need to be signed by many people in different parts of the world. Users should be able to sign documents directly from their desktop or via a zero technology footprint using any web browser. 

Digital signature solutions should be able to: 1) Verify recipients outside of an organization; 2) Enable employees to sign documents while traveling; 3) Enable cross platform capabilities; 4) Enable the use of numerous applications, such as Microsoft Word®, Adobe Acrobat®, and TIFF images. 

1. Sealing Documents

Digital signature systems should allow you to seal the document using standard technology, allowing you to add your graphical signature to the document.  

Some solutions add a graphical signature image to any document created in Microsoft Word. This signed document can be easily changed by any recipient while the graphical electronic signature remains intact. This security flaw opens the door to fraud and forgery. The solution used has simply placed a digitized “picture” of the signature on the document, it doesn’t seal the document, verify the authenticity of the person signing, or guarantee the transaction cannot be altered.

In the traditional paper world, transactions are validated by signing them either on an accepted form, such as a check, or in front of a trusted third party. A notary or lawyer, then “stamps” the signatures, so that they cannot be changed. In the virtual paperless world, digital signatures must perform the same function. A digital signature must be able to seal any electronic document and guarantee that it is tamperproof. It uses a one-time “fingerprint”, unique to both the signer and the document to ensure that the signer is indeed the originator or owner of the document. This “fingerprint” cannot be reused or reassigned and proves that the message has not been altered in any way. 

2. Multiple Application Support 

A digital signature system needs to support multiple applications. Many electronic signature systems enable the signing of documents created with the most commonly used applications, such as Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat. However, many electronic signature systems do not support popular applications like AutoCAD, ERP, and others. Traditionally, when signing paper documents, it doesn't matter what type of document it is, be it a form, an invoice or a typed contract. The paperless world requires the same flexibility. 

3. Multiple Signatures 

It should be possible for more than one person in more than one place to sign a document. There are some electronic signature systems that only allow one signature and when the document has been signed and sealed, and it is impossible to add more signatures. 

Traditional document-intensive organizations, such as insurance companies or financial institutions, have large volumes of many different types of documents that must be processed every day. Many of these documents must be reviewed, approved and signed by more than one person. In some cases, one part must be approved by one signatory while another section needs approval by a different person. With a traditional "wet" signature, it is a simple matter of signing or initialing any place in the document. In the virtual world, an effective digital signature system should enable "sectional signing", which allows signatories to edit and sign their portion of the document. 

4. Compliance 

To be considered legally binding, documents and transactions – paper-based or electronic – must meet many basic requirements and strict standards. A digital signature solution must meet the same criteria as a “wet” signature. These include the following basic requirements: 

1. Authenticity – the signature can be authorized by a secure process.
2. Integrity – any tampering during transmission can be detected.
3. Privacy – the signature cannot be accessed by unauthorized sources.
4. Enforceability – the signatures must be verifiable by all parties.
5. Non-refutability – the signature cannot be denied or disavowed. 

The first two requirements prove that the recipient and the sender are authentic and authorized to perform this transaction. The next two provide methods to prove that the message content is authentic and that the recipient can be certain that the data has not been altered or lost in transit. The last important requirement is that the message must be able to “stand up in court”. Referred to as “non-repudiation”, this means that the digital signature must ensure that the parties involved in the transaction cannot deny sending the message or its contents. In addition to the above general requirements, some industries such as finance or pharmaceutical have specific requirements. 

5. Transportability 

An effective digital signature system should ensure transportability. If a company implements a digital signature solution and sends a signed document to a client who has not installed the same digital signature system, they will not be able to verify the document. In the traditional paper world, signed documents sent to third parties can be read and understood without a problem. In the paperless world, however, documents must be recognized by the software application. To be truly versatile, a sender must know that a digital signature will arrive unaltered anywhere in the world and that it can be easily verified without the need for complicated, proprietary third party applications. 

6. Seamless User Sign-Up 

In the traditional paper world, people who need to sign documents are identified in one of several ways: via a signature card, in-person or through a photo ID. In the virtual paperless world, signatories register electronically and obtain a digital certificate. The certificate provides electronic identification similar to a birth certificate or a passport. Digital certificates contain information about the user, such as the certificate holder's name, e-mail address and other specific identifying information. Digital certificates verify that the user is who he or she claims to be. Certificates are generated by the Certificate Authorities (CA) immediately after the identity of the user is validated. Once a digital signature system has been deployed, it should be both simple to use and as transparent as possible. Neither the users, nor the IT person, should be aware of how a certificate is generated or maintained.  

7 -- Simple-to-Use 

In the traditional paper world, signing a document is simple, intuitive and quick. In the virtual paperless world, signing a document should be just as easy. It should take no more than 10 seconds or 1-2 mouse clicks – to ensure that the document is signed, sealed and legally compliant. Users should not be required to learn new technologies or require assistance from a Help Desk. 

8 -- Total Cost of Ownership 

Traditional paper signing leaves mountains of paperwork. This requires physical storage in archives that often mushroom to warehouse proportions. To reduce costs and improve efficiency, companies should move into the world of electronic processes. Standards-based digital signature systems enable companies to become totally paperless. However, when considering a digital signature solution, it is important to look into the potential hidden costs. Many traditional digital signature systems are difficult to deploy. They involve complicated software requiring a heavy investment in IT support and development. Sometimes, a Help Desk needs to be created or additional staff employed to support the system. Other costs that need to be checked include registration and renewal fees for digital certificates, cost for smart cards, etc.

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Some other posts that may be of interest:

8 things you need to know about content classification and ECM  

8 ways to increase user adoption in an ECM project  

8 reasons why information governance makes sense   

8 steps to the ISO 15489 Records Management methodology   

8 steps to consider when starting an ECM project    

8 things you need to know about workflow and business process engineering   

From Andrew McAfee -- 6 ways to fail at #E20

1. Declare war on the enterprise
2. Allow walled gardens to flourish
3. Accentuate the negative
4. Try to replace email
5. Fall in love with features
6. Overuse the word ’social’

Here's the original post -- The S Word -- check it out.

AIIM's E20 training program.

8 Ways SharePoint 2010 Moves Toward "ECM for the Masses"

Andy Hopkins is a 20 year veteran in the information management space. Andy is currently a founder and Principal Consultant at Chrysalis BTS which focuses on vision and strategy, development and deployment, and process management of Information Management solutions for their clients.  Prior to Chrysalis BTS, Andy spent 9 years at Microsoft assisting their global alliance partners in developing their solution strategies around SharePoint technologies.

Here are some of Andy's thoughts re SharePoint 2010...

[Keep in mind these are Andy's opinions -- obviously well reasoned but his.  I'm open to helping circulate alternative viewpoints -- the point of this column is to foster communication and discussion about the options out there.  I know a large number of the recent posts have seemed a bit "Sharepoint-y" as we flesh out the content for our next e-book (on SharePoint).  Just FYI, I've decided to wait until after the first of the year to publish it -- just not enough hours in the day.  So in the next few weeks I'll get back to a bit more of the usual mix of content -- have columns coming up on legacy data, on indexing, and open source.]

Microsoft recently released the beta version of SharePoint 2010.  From a content management perspective, their goal was to provide “ECM for the Masses."  But what exactly does that mean and how does Microsoft expect to achieve it?  

I spent time over the last few months test driving the beta and the technical preview versions with an eye toward “ECM for the Masses” and below are my opinions on key investments Microsoft has made in Enterprise Content Management (ECM) that will bring this quest closer to reality.

8 Ways SharePoint 2010 Moves Toward "ECM for the Masses"

1 -- Traditional ECM Capabilities

Traditional ECM vendors have generally focused on solutions for a targeted set of users within the enterprise such as information managers and records managers.  Microsoft’s goal of “ECM for the Masses” is about changing the landscape of ECM to provide capability and access to the wealth of information across the enterprise as a whole.  The 2007 product introduced the first set of “out of the box” Records Management features and integrated the Web Content Management capabilities that were previously in their Content Management Server product line.  When you combine these features with the strength of the collaboration platform, the ease of use, and the integration with the Office client applications, Microsoft had the basis for an ECM platform that could span the enterprise and provide tools to end users that would cross the entire content lifecycle.  Even still, the product had its limitations.  Enter SharePoint 2010…

Recognizing that most large organizations have implemented more than one ECM product, Microsoft teamed up with other large ECM vendors (including IBM, EMC, Alfresco, OpenText, SAP, and Oracle) to define an ECM standard called Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS).  The goal of CMIS is to define a standard for interaction between ECM products.  This will allow the enterprise to surface and act on content in a broader way regardless of where the content actually resides.  CMIS 1.0 entered OASIS public review on October 23, 2009.  Microsoft announced that they will support CMIS in SharePoint 2010.

2 -- Taking the “Tax” out of Taxonomy and Metadata

Microsoft is introducing the Managed Metadata Service in SharePoint 2010.  This service will provide the basis for organizing and managing the “language” that end users will use to describe and categorize their content.  The service will provide the ability to synchronize the corporate managed taxonomy and the metadata model across the enterprise thus ensuring a consistent view and usage.  Further, the service provides end users with the ability to add additional context by allowing them to describe the content in their own language (folksonomy) that will also be synchronized across the enterprise.

3 -- Bringing “Social” to Content

Microsoft is investing heavily in the social aspects of content management.  When the corporate taxonomy, user defined folksonomy, and corporate metadata model are applied to the content, it gives the content more context and increases the relevance to the end consumers.  This additional context can be surfaced in a variety of ways such as tag-clouds, enterprise search, and My Sites.  When you add in user defined content ratings, content organizers, and people search, I think Microsoft is achieving the end goal of making it easy for consumers to find and act on the most relevant content in the enterprise.

4 -- Document Sets

Also introduced with SharePoint 2010 is the concept of document sets.  This will allow the enterprise to define and treat multiple content items as though they were one entity.   This is true for all of the standard content features including digital rights, business process, policy, retention, etc.  Microsoft has finally provided the enterprise with a means of managing multipart content.

5 -- Flexible Compliance

In addition to providing enterprise scale to their records management (RM) capabilities through a corporate defined hierarchical file plan, in-place records, and location based policy, Microsoft has extended their RM capabilities directly to end users in a manner that does not impact their existing work habits.  The content author and content consumer do not need to know the details of their corporate content policies in order to participate in the process.  All of the RM details can be managed behind the curtain through workflows and policy.  Additionally, content holds for compliance and/or litigation can now be applied across the entire SharePoint environment and include many new content constructs such as wikis, blogs, conversations, etc. 

6 -- Process Transparency

Microsoft had a mantra when looking at Business Process in SharePoint 2010 of “process transparency." This means that business process is surfaced everywhere with the goal of providing simple participation. You will see that the underlying workflows are surfaced through the Office clients, browser, and even through the contextual ribbon.  To put a fine point on it,  Office clients are now aware of SharePoint constructs defined for the enterprise thus allowing the end user to interact and participate in business processes from within the context of the tools that they are most familiar including metadata capture, workflows, policy, document  library locations, and more.  Lastly, the workflows themselves are now visualized in the browser so the user can see the status of the content in the context of the entire business process.

7 -- Discovery and Action

Microsoft has invested heavily in extending the discoverability of enterprise content.  Many of the topics already discussed provide building blocks that allow the end user community to discover the most relevant content within the enterprise, act upon it, and collaborate throughout its lifecycle.  You will see extensions in the SharePoint platform targeted at assisting end users in this discovery such as content ratings, search navigators, and social context.  For the enterprise with the most demanding search needs, Microsoft also offers FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint that extends the search platform with features such as deeper search refinement, broader language coverage, and more extensive visualizations of the results.

8 -- Ease of Use

A conservative failure rate estimate of ECM projects within large organizations is 50% and the number one reason for failure is low end user adoption (Source: Doculabs).  One of Microsoft’s key pillars in developing SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 is ease of use which has direct impact on user adoption.  The features outlined above are implemented to fit into the end user’s existing work habits with minimal extraneous impact and maximum productivity gains (example: integration of metadata model into Office client applications so the user doesn’t have to switch context or applications to capture metadata, initiate workflows, or publish content to SharePoint).

Conclusion

Microsoft has implemented a set of content management features in SharePoint 2010 that will help them drive toward the goal of ECM for the masses.  The integration of client and server, the ease of use, the transparency of business processes, and adherence to the CMIS standard will enable the end users within the enterprise to participate independent of their role.  The ability of any user to collaborate, develop, publish, discover, and use the content of the organization will help increase the overall user adoption and satisfaction with the underlying implementation.

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You might also be interested in the following posts:

• 8 things you need to know about SharePoint governance 
• 8 things SharePoint 2010 needs to be a true ECM system  
• 8 things to consider when implementing SharePoint with another ECM engine
• 8 ways to use SharePoint for social computing 
• 8 more things you need to know about SharePoint 
• 8 reasons you should consider automatic classification and metadata tagging in SharePoint  
• 8 things you should know about transactional processing in SharePoint 
• 8 ways SharePoint helps in Enterprise Governance, Risk, and Compliance 
• 8 things to do to make content more findable in SharePoint 
• 8 things to consider when selecting an application to scan or capture into SharePoint 
  

Nominate our 8 Reasons presentation for a Slideshare award

Thanks for all of the traction on our blog posts this week.  

For next week, watch (hopefully!) for release of a new e-book on SharePoint.  

8 things you should know about open source ECM

8 things you should know about transactional processing in SharePoint 

8 steps to going green with ECM

8 reasons why CMIS will transform the ECM industry 

If you haven't seen the presentation noted here, now would be a good time to do so.  And in the process, would appreciate it if you could nominate it for a Zeitgeist award.  You'll find the nomination link in the upper right hand corner.

8 reasons you need a strategy for managing information presentation.

8 Things That You Should Know About Open Source ECM

 Cheryl McKinnon is Chief Marketing Officer for Nuxeo. With more than 16 years experience in Enterprise Content Management,  Cheryl has developed a keen interest in the challenges facing information workers in the increasingly electronic and online work environment. Her specialty is researching, writing and educating on current and emerging trends in information management.  Check out her blogs: http://blogs.nuxeo.com/cmckinnon/ and http://candyandaspirin.blogspot.com. 

Just as an FYI, you might also be interested in our upcoming webinar on key ECM trends in 2010.  And also, 8 reasons why CMIS will transform the ECM industry. 

Here's a perspective from an open source vendor on the benefits of open source ECM...

8 Things That You Should Know About Open Source ECM   

1 -- You Can Get Started on an ECM Project – NOW.

Need to get an ECM project moving now--even if you don't have much budget today?  Open source ECM offerings let companies get started with early requirements research, prototyping, and piloting just with a simple download and installation.  In the spirit of community, of transparency, of truly believing that ECM is a critical platform for any customer in the 21st century knowledge economy,  open source ECM vendors actually want you to get moving forward on a project.  

2 -- ECM from the Open Source World Puts Value on Things that Matter to You – Not the Vendor.

Companies who need ECM will measure their return on investment once the system is up and running and savings and gains are evident. Automation of routine transactions, reduced storage costs, faster reuse and retrieval, more time to let your knowledge workers focus on the important stuff – this is why you RFP'd.  But most proprietary ECM software vendors derive their value on the upfront seat purchase – hence the haggling and legal review over the license acquisition phase of the deal. The customer and vendor parties aren't in alignment on what is of mutual benefit.  Open source ECM vendors make it easier to align the value – applications can be downloaded at no upfront cost, letting customers invest in the support subscriptions when they're ready to go live. 

3 -- You Don't Need to be a Developer to Use and Deploy ECM from Open Source Vendors.

There's a lingering out-of-date perception that open source applications are intended for the uber-geeks. That's not true as we approach 2010.  Content management applications coming out of the open source world today are simple to download and deploy and have clean and approachable UIs designed for everyday information workers.  They're built to be used by a wide range of customer skill sets and IT platforms, but still ensure companies with specific needs have full access to source code to meet unique requirements. 

4 -- Don't Confuse “Open Source” with “Free."

It's important to approach open source ECM with the same long-term planning as traditional ECM products. Be careful not to skimp on the appropriate needs-analysis, training, change management and ongoing care and feeding of the underlying IT infrastructure.  While you don't need to pay for typical license seats with open source, you do need to plan for all the same ongoing ECM deployment and support costs to be successful.  

5 -- Open Source ECM Vendors Have Been Walking the Talk Around Enterprise 2.0 for Years.

Was 2009 the year your current vendor finally set a goal to be more transparent? More community-driven? Be more open to input and feedback from customers and partners? Guess what... this is how open source ECM vendors have been operating for years.  Customers drive innovation, roadmaps can be turned on a dime to support cool new things or updated platforms. Tips and tricks are openly shared online across community sites. 

6 -- Not All Vendor Business Models Are the Same.

Nobody likes surprises.  When doing due diligence on ECM products to short-list, make sure there is full transparency on which products are vendor-supported and which are not.  Some open source vendors have free products which are great for demo/prototyping, but are not actually supported for production use. Ensure the vendor is willing and able to support the product that you've tested and meets your requirements.  Also understand the type of license agreement the vendor uses to ensure it fits your company's business needs. How well will it fit into the rest of the organizational technology ecosystem that increasingly is a mixture of open source, SaaS and proprietary enterprise applications? There are a small number of well-known license options, making it easy to verify what will work for you. 

7 -- Open Source ECM products are not are written by some guy in his mom's basement.

All of the major industry analysts agree that open source is here to stay.  Companies in this space are growing, doing business globally, and invest in the same  marketing, sales, development and support resources as traditional ECM vendors.... maybe even more when it comes to those last two, because peer to peer and community contributions are highly valued. 

8 -- ECM is no longer a frill – it is an essential platform for the 21st century digital economy. 

The rise of the web means small or new businesses can compete globally with bigger incumbents.  But with this democratization of opportunity comes the inevitable democratization of risk.  New and emerging regulations – including the US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regarding electronically stored information – apply to everyone – not just large publicly traded firms or regulated industries.  The need for an ECM platform to share, protect, preserve and dispose of business content is now for everybody.  Innovation, ideas, intelligence – this valuable business content is stored in our electronic corporate memory. Open source ECM helps keep this playing field level. 

  

8 Things You Should Know About Transactional Processing in SharePoint

 Rutherford Wilson is the VP of Application Product Strategy at Atalasoft. Atalasoft publishes Vizit, the Document Viewer for SharePoint and DotImage, a .NET Imaging SDK.  He can be reached via email at rutherford.wilson@atalasoft.com or on Twitter (@rutherfordw).

8 Things You Should Know About Transactional Processing in SharePoint

SharePoint is making inroads as an ECM or Records Management system, primarily because of its document library features, price, and integration with Office. But, for SharePoint to move beyond that and become the system to do document-centric transactional processing, you’ll need to customize and plan your SharePoint installation more carefully.

1 -- Design your Document Taxonomy. 

Before you even start using SharePoint for your document-centric workflows, create content types for each type of document, taking care to define the meta-data that must also be captured with this document. Think about the full life-cycle of the document and what data will be needed at each step.

2 -- Scan your paper documents into SharePoint. 

Many transactions start as paper, so get them into SharePoint as soon as possible. Advanced image processing techniques, such as forms recognition and OMR, can detect the content type and kick off the correct workflow automatically.

3 -- Extract information with OCR, barcodes, and manually. 

Documents that start as paper need to have their meta-data extracted from the document image that results from the scan. This can be done automatically with OCR and barcodes or manually. Even if it’s done manually, OCR can assist the data entry. 

4  -- Automate your workflows as much as possible.  

Building workflows can get complicated very quickly so start with simple processes first. As your workflows become more complex the key is to minimize the need for manual intervention as much as possible.

5 -- Use document viewers that are SharePoint-aware. 

When you do need view documents in a workflow, use a document viewer that is SharePoint-aware. When you open a file with Office in SharePoint, it knows that the document came from SharePoint and can save modifications and follow your checkout procedure. But, what about other types? There are third-party viewers that are SharePoint-aware, or even better, are integrated right into SharePoint’s web interface.

6 -- View documents in context. 

When working on a document, use viewers that can show you more than just the document. To efficiently work on a document you need to see its meta-data, its location in SharePoint, and any outstanding workflows.

7 -- Use side by side comparison. 

Many transactional workflows need to view two documents at the same time. For example, in accounts payable, you need to see the invoice and the purchase order simultaneously in order to pay the bill. Use document viewers that can support side-by-side viewing with some kind of page synchronization.

8 -- Plan for Archiving and Retention. 

The full lifecycle of a document includes its transition into a record. Design your content-types so that different policies are represented in the documents meta-data and use workflows to trigger the transition automatically.

You might also be interested in the following posts:

• 8 things you need to know about SharePoint governance 
• 8 things SharePoint 2010 needs to be a true ECM system  
• 8 things to consider when implementing SharePoint with another ECM engine
• 8 ways to use SharePoint for social computing 
• 8 more things you need to know about SharePoint 
• 8 reasons you should consider automatic classification and metadata tagging in SharePoint  
• 8 ways SharePoint helps in enterprise governance, risk, and compliance 

8 steps to going #green with #ECM

 Paul Mullon is the Managing Director of COR Concepts, a content management consulting and training firm.  He has been involved in various aspects of document and records management since the late 1980s, and assists organizations in the public and private sector with deriving operational benefits, at the same time as meeting compliance requirements. To learn more, visit http://www.corconcepts.co.za

8 steps to going green with ECM

ECM is uniquely positioned to help organizations reduce the impact they make on the environment. And yet, if this is the case, then why haven’t we seen thousands of case studies flooding the press touting the environmental benefits of ECM?   

The answer probably lies in many of the same old reasons we’ve heard before about slow adoptions of ECM.  There is no doubt that is implemented properly and with a clear focus, ECM can assist in reducing carbon footprints. It is not the silver bullet.  But it can be one of the tools that should be used as part of an organization-wide environmental drive.  Think “Less-Paper” rather than paperless, and look for processes in the organization which could be changed to become more environmentally friendly.  Adopting an incremental step-by step approach should assist in building trust and acceptance of the value of ECM in this regard.

1 -- Build a team that is committed to the initiative.   

Senior executives should be a part of this team, and need to be committed to making sure that the staff under their employ know and understand the rationale and benefits of the environmental drive.  Included in the team should also be members of the compliance or corporate governance unit, legal, IT and affected user departments. If an environmental champion has been appointed, they need to be a key figure in this team.

2 -- Make sure a robust framework of policies and procedures is in place that supports the drive.  

These corporate instruments should send a clear message of commitment, so that “green” becomes embedded in the ethos or culture of the organization.  The policy framework is essential if staff members, clients and suppliers are to be comfortable about conducting business electronically.   

3 -- Implement scanning into processes which will deliver clear benefits.  

Chose processes carefully so that quick wins are derived, and which improve productivity, lower cost and improve service delivery at the same time. It must be highlighted that scanning alone does not improve the environment, as the source documents are still in paper format. The source documents need to be formally destroyed and recycled for benefits to accrue. Before destroying originals, ensure that rigidly developed and applied policies and procedures are approved by the legal team. Other than recycling, scanning does play an important role in that it gets staff used to conducting business digitally, and may allow staff to telecommute.  

4 -- Find a relatively risk-free internal process, and go digital from start to finish.  

Once staff members (and the organization) are comfortable with handling digital documents instead of trusty old paper, find a process which can be completely digital. This will normally be an internal process such as applying for leave, or claiming expenses. Implement e-forms processes, and make it impossible for staff to revert to printing and signing the forms. Many organisations already have e-forms technology as part of their corporate platforms, so the cost of implementation could be slight.

5 -- Implement digital signatures.   

Many complex processes, or those which involve multiple parties, may require signatures of some kind. Note that the regulatory environment surrounding digital signatures needs to be thoroughly understood first. The legal team and all participants involved in the process must agree to the use of digital signatures. Involve major suppliers and customers, and identify where digital signatures can be used. Signing of contracts, and agendas or minutes of meetings may prove to be ideal opportunities to use this technology.

6 -- Implement e-forms technology where possible.   

Steps 4 and 5 above should have provided a clear indication of how a process can be implemented digitally without ever producing a paper document. Take a process approach, and find a process that will benefit all concerned by making it easier to populate forms via the internet. It is unlikely that all customers or suppliers will be willing to move to a purely digital world, but a large percentage is likely to embrace the new processes.  

7 -- Implement output management.  

Reduce the volume of paper printouts by offering customers electronic invoices and statements. Once again, involve the legal team to ensure that this meets any regulatory requirements, and then encourage recipients of your output to receive electronic information. Look for opportunities to reduce any internal printouts, by saving the output directly to the ECM repositories.

8 -- Monitor, track, evaluate and market the benefits.   

If the organization is deriving benefits, and no-one knows about it, it will have little value. Look for methods of monitoring the effectiveness of the changed processes, and report these benefits to the compliance and environmental officers. Apply the principles and technology to new processes, and roll out across the organization.

The focus of these improvements has been on the environment, and ECM can make a difference. Couple this to the fact that customer service, productivity, lower costs of doing business, and compliance will most likely also have been improved, should prove a strong motivation for introducing these new facets of ECM into the organization.

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Previous postings that may be of interest...

Our Green ECM microsite worth a look.  And also...

8 things you need to know when using ECM technologies to go green  

8 document management practices that are cost-effective and eco-friendly