ECM Governance: technology matters, people more

Oct 7, 2014
Capgemini

ECMWhat does ECM governance really mean today? Is it a kind of dictatorship where IT department governs the world of your company? Does it change based on the technology you use?

In Sogeti Switzerland we have run several intranet programs during the last years and we have realized that an ECM program is more a journey rather than a project, a vision rather than a roadmap.

Three specific axes are necessary for a good ECM governance: with the right people we create rules, processes and responsibilities, aiming to guide and control a whole platform and this is completely independent from the platform you will use to build the solution.

For a good recipe and a delicious ECM cake don’t forget the following points:

  • ECM2The team: Build, run and improve the right team with the right people: when we talk about collaboration we should really mean it: business stakeholders, IT leaders, trainers, end users.
  • Information Architecture: We are moving from a knowledge centred intranet to an employee centred world: don’t store the content right, but the right content instead.
  • Processes: Everything should follow a process, because in 6 months you will not remember why you made that specific choice. Processes will help to avoid anarchy and to keep people focused on what it really matters: their daily basis work.
  • Permissions: Permissions policy are not a Damocles sword, but the only way to avoid the chaos; focus also on change management and training system in order to reward users and authorize them to do things only if they have followed the dedicated training.
  • Search, but also….serendipity: An enterprise search is today mandatory, of course, but don’t forget also the fun part of serendipity: give to your users not only a way to find things – which assumes that your users know what they are looking for – but also to discover things.

The ingredients above will help you to structure a functional ECM program with your clients. Keep in mind that technology matters, but people are even more essential to your business: what we deliver to our clients is much more than a simple intranet or software, it is something that will help them work better and improve productivity.

About the author

SogetiLabs gathers distinguished technology leaders from around the Sogeti world. It is an initiative explaining not how IT works, but what IT means for business.

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