Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Shared Services ECM Center of Excellence (Part 2)

In the last post (Part 1) I indicated that we were going to talk about the first steps of the establishment of an ECM Center of Excellence organization. But before we go there we have a few other things that need to fall in place.

Establish a ECM Program and Program Manager

For ECM to be successful at a enterprise level, it must be treated as a program. A program with a Steering Committee that is representative of the whole enterprise and leverage it to provide guidance, impetus, and a high-level sign-off for company-wide issues such as the corporate taxonomy, key metadata, and security models as well as critical SLA and Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity requirements. The ECM Steering Committee is responsible for the establishment of a ECM Center of Excellence, first by assigning a ECM Program Manager that is responsible:

• Ensure ECM program services are visible, planned and managed to the client’s goals and objectives

• Facilitate the development of ECM vision and strategy

• Ensures the development, promotion and management of ECM services

• Oversee the creation and adherence of best practices, proven methodologies and processes

• Develop and continuously refine COE metrics and management reporting

Develop an ECM Program Roadmap

One of the first item of the ECM Steering Committee is to assign resources to work with the ECM Program Manager to develop an ECM Program Roadmap. First step of the ECM Program Roadmap is to evaluate current state followed by gathering current and future business and IT needs. Once the current state and needs are determined then the high-level future architecture is defined. A gap analysis from current to future is performed which drives the rest of the ECM roadmap. The roadmap needs to address both the ECM COE development/implementation, ECM technology planning/design/deployment tasks and the establishment of measurements/system validation tasks.

The ECM COE Foundation Development group of tasks in the ECM Program Roadmap, includes the identification of needed services, and a development plan for the COE resources. The development of key ECM COE processes to run the COE as well as develop and deliver the needed services.

The ECM Technology Planning & Design group of task focuses on the development of the ECM Technical architecture and produce the architecture artifacts to integrate into your Enterprise Architecture. On of the important artifacts that I want to point out is the concept of Solution Patterns. Later I will discuss packaged (tiered services) and these solution patterns provide governance when to use particular packages and provides guidelines around the extension (customization) of these packages. The other activity of this grouping is the development of an ECM Technology Deployment Plan which will be a detailed plan and timeline of the deployment of all the ECM underpinning as well as the services provided to the organization

Identify ECM COE Offered Services

During evaluate the current state (first swim lane) of the ECM Program roadmap, information was gathered to define a high-level architecture to meet the business/IT needs. Now the ECM COE resources look at the business challenges/objectives and the future architecture and define appropriate levels of functionality for various segments of the potential user base.

ECM COE and business units work together to define various packages or tiers of ECM functionality (for example: ranging from packages with basic store-and-retrieve capabilities, to more advance packages offering revision-control and automated workflow capabilities). Other tiers may take into account the acceptance of change in the business units. Some business units may desire mature services and avoid change while others may require more leading edge technology which typically involves introduction of technology on a more frequent basis.

While leveraging package solutions is the desired for fast deployment and cost containment of ECM to the business, it may not meet all the requirement of the business. In that case the package can be used as the base and custom components augment the package to meet the business needs. All custom components will be design with reuse in mind and could be considered ECM COE services as well.

Using the Current/Planned ECM technology and the project pipeline, a prioritized delivery plan of packages and custom components can be developed. The Industry ECM Direction can be used to determine other services/packages that might need to be developed that are not currently needed by projects in the pipeline. Services that have no immediate need but need is expected in the near term, should be noted and once the ECM COE has needed services implemented, these will be areas of research focus (Research is a key recommended process that will not be discussed in this presentation).

So far we have been talking about technology services but the ECM COE also provides Advise & Consult Role based services to the enterprise. Services such as:

ECM Solution Design Services – ECM COE Architect Role provides the knowledge to develop business solutions leveraging the ECM technologies. These solutions can be either: Content Storage and Retrieval Solutions: These solutions are primarily focused on centrally managing content (paper and electronic) as well as content retrieval. Typically a generic client is provided for retrieval. Document Centric Workflow Solutions: These solutions not only focus on centrally managing the content but managing the business process that leverages the content. Typically this will be a BPM application with a customized user interface.

ECM Solution Requirement Gathering Services - ECM COE Process Designer/Business Analyst provides the skills to help the business gather and understand their requirement and translate them into ECM solution requirements. This information is then used by ECM COE Architect to more efficiently and accurately design a business solution.

Process Modeling Services - ECM COE Process Designer/Business Analyst is knowledgeable in principles of process modeling as well as the tools to assist the business with documenting their current and future process with ECM technology enablement. The ECM enable process models then can be used by the technical designer to automate the model with the BPM tool

ECM Technology Research Services - ECM COE provides the skills to evaluate and research new ECM technologies and help the business in the selection of technologies to meet their requirements

ECM Vendor Management Services - ECM COE provides skills to effectively manage ECM vendors by:

• Centralized ECM vendor relationship management

• Regular schedule monitoring of vendor performance, SLA, and issues against defined metrics

• Stringent change control process of vendor code

• Regular reviews of contracts, licensing and maintenance agreements

• Regular review of vendor products and roadmaps and technology vision

ECM Solution/Technology Training Services - ECM COE provides the business with ECM education and solution “train the trainer” engagements

ECM Project Oversight Services - ECM COE provides proven ECM solution project management by leveraging proven ECM deployment methodologies and experience.

The ECM COE role services should be indentified during this exercise so that it can be communicated to the customers resulting in strengthen ECM solution provided by the ECM COE

Oh, time flies when having fun. I am out of time and my daughter is waiting for me to tuck her in so on the next post we’ll pick up with a discussion of the next step of a ECM COE Foundation Development.

Please let me know what you think. All feedback is greatly appreciated.

ECM Shared Services: ECM COE

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Shared Services

ECM Center of Excellence

Are you thinking about how to get the most of your ECM investment? Are you thinking about ECM shared services as the way to achieve more out of your investment? If ECM shared services is in your future then let me make a recommendation: The establishment of an ECM Center of Excellence organization is one thing that will significantly improve your company’s chances of success with that ECM Shared Services program.

So let’s back up a little and start with some background for this recommendation

With the exponential growth in the amount of unstructured content as well as compliance exposures that all that content can bring, ECM is becoming a priority within many organizations. Where in the past, content management was deployed to meet departmental needs, in certain niches within the organizations, it is now being recognized as an enterprise-wide need: An infrastructure investment rather than a niche application. If you look at ECM for enterprise deployment, it makes sense to offer all the functionality of ECM as a shared service.

When thinking of an ECM as a series of shared services, let’s not think only of the technology services (infrastructure) but human capital role services as well. What I mean is it is easy to see the technology services such as content capture, repository, discovery, compliance, and business process management services but what about ECM solution requirement gathering, solution design, process modeling, and project management services just to name a few. And don’t forget about ECM support services like technology administration, governance, management processes/practices and others.

Just like the sharing of the technology provides cost-effectiveness, sharing of the intellectual capital of the human role and support services provides that same benefit and more:

• Reduce Risk

- Leverage experienced resources and proven methodologies to help guarantee successful solutions.

- Assist customer resources who may not have experience designing and implementing solutions

- Better positioned to support corporate and data governance

• Faster Time to Market of ECM Solutions

- Jump start idea generation for the business solution and the technology implementation and keep each group from “finding their own way”.

- Expertise to drive business process improvements

What is an ECM COE?

An ECM COE is a cross-functional team with a permanent formal organizational structure. It has defined tasks, roles, responsibilities and processes for support and promoting the effective us of ECM across the organization. It is staffed with employees from the organization itself, although some roles or functions might be insourced or outsourced. The ECM COE is tasked with driving the proper use of ECM technologies throughout the organization, making it available in the appropriate forms to business users.

What does an ECM COE look like?

Let’s start off and say there is no universally accepted standard for ECM COEs, as it will vary from organization to organization. Also there is also no “silver bullet” for implementing an ECM COE within an organization. Each organization has its own vision, mission and goals for a COE and there is the organization culture that has to be embraced as well. ECM and IT governance maturity also plays a big role in how that organization will be structured. I would like to suggest instead of “what does an ECM COE look like” we take it from a different angle. Let’s look at the mission/vision and goals of a mature ECM COE and briefly talk about the key characteristics found to meet their goals. The key characteristics that will be briefly outlined below are derived by the use of an ECM COE strategy map approach levering the Norton and Kaplan Balance Score Card Framework. My intent is to dive more deeply in future posting on each of these characteristics but for now we are going to keep it at a high level.

ECM COE Vision Example

To maximize shareholder value by leveraging specialized technical resources, competencies, and infrastructure across lines of business, providing solutions to infrastructure and business problems through world class research, architecture design and the utilization of business process management, and content management technologies.

ECM COE Goals Example

As discussed above the key to a COE success is providing both technology and role based services to accomplish the following:

Utilize ECM COE Services to enable high value solutions

• Provide proven methodologies and resources for project engagements
• Identify opportunities for appropriate use of technologies
• Use the right technology to solve the problem, not the hammer looking for a nail
• Integrate the business process and the technology seamlessly
• Match the scope of the solution with the business objectives

Faster time to market of ECM enabled business solutions

• Positioned to quickly respond to

- Ever-changing business environments as they introduce new products and services

- Changing technology demands

• Remain agile from a technology/product perspective

Enable data and corporate compliance programs

• Corporate Governance Compliance

Ensure that Corporate Compliance (Records Management) is addressed around all ECM technologies

• Data Governance

Support Data Governance by embracing corporate taxonomies across all ECM technologies

Ensure ECM effectiveness across the enterprise

• Provide shared repositories
• Develop and leverage reusable services
• Broker partnerships within the enterprise
• Provide governance and best practices
• Develop synergies of concentrated talent
• Stay in front of the trends to provide just-in-time investment
• Partner with business lines to prevent false starts

ECM COE Characteristics Example

So what are some of the characteristics in a mature ECM COE to meet the above goals? This is where the Kaplan and Norton Strategy map comes into play. Without getting in to a great amount of detail (saving that so I have something to blog about later), this framework has you focus from various perspectives to meet your goals.

Customer Perspective:

To achieve the COE vision/mission how must we look to our business lines?

This perspective is a little different than the other two we will outline in this blog. Remember ECM technology does not provide any value. It is the application of the technology in a business context that provides the value. When answering this perspective question above, three of the four goals outlined were derived. The “ECM effectiveness across the enterprise” goal was and indirect goal coming from the next perspective.

COE Internal Perspective

To satisfy our business lines, at which COE process must we excel?

To answer this perspective question the following process/plan objectives were outlined

• Research new innovative ways to leverage ECM technologies
• Expand COE services use within the enterprise
• Develop/Enhance/Deployreusable COE services
• Develop best practices strategy for ECM enabling business solutions
• Timely Delivery of COE Services
• Provide corporate ECM Infrastructure
• Quality delivery of COE Services
• Provide Cost effective COE Operations
• Broker partnership with owners of ECM technologies outside the control of the COE
• Interlink with Corporate Compliance

COE Learning and Growth Perspective

To achieve my COE Vision, how must my organization learn and improve?

This perspective question is addressed with the following objectives:

• Evaluate new ECM trends, services, and products
• Provide for the expansion of ECM proficiency within COE
• Promote ECM Technology awareness for the Enterprise
• Promote the awareness of the COE strategy and measurement throughout the COE

So we have looked at a COE vision, goals, and strategy objectives of a mature COE organization. So what do you do with all this information? In future blog posting my intent is to drill down into each of the objectives in the context of the example organization to show you how each of these objectives had a cause and effect relationship with the goals described. I will talk about what measurements and targets were put in place to ensure the objectives are being met. My intent is to show you the value of taking a measurement based approach when establishing an ECM COE.

Where do I start in building an ECM COE?

Well this high-level information is a good starting point if I am an established ECM COE. What about building a COE organization? In the next blog I would like to address that thought through a 5 building block approach.

1. Identify COE Services
2. Develop an Staff Plan to deliver and maintain the COE Services
3. Identify and develop key COE Process
4. Identify key success measurements

In this building block approach I will link it back to the perspective strategy objectives outlined above to drive home the point of the importance of developing the COE strategy and measurement as you build the organization.

Summary

In today blog we have talked about the importance of an ECM COE organization model in a successful ECM Shared Services journey. Now with that said many companies believe that having an ECM COE in place will guarantee ECM program success and enable ECM business value. That logic can be flawed. Establishing the ECM COE is just the first step but the real key to success is the measurement of results and the continual improvement of processes and methodologies to drive the result needed to meet your objectives and vision. The approach outlined in this blog and future posting are based on measuring the ECM COE organization to show success and areas of improvement.

You feedback is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if you find this information helpful or have questions.