Economic Content Management Part 2 – Eliminating Redundancies

This post is a continuation of the discussion we began before the Thanksgiving holiday where we started to explore simple, cost-saving ECM projects that could be planned for 2009 without a wholesale examination of how documents and files are managed within your organization.

Several customers suggested that implementing enterprise search technology was a good method to improve discovery and content re-use and I agree. However, the right content or metadata needs to be available in order for search requests to be most effective.

The benefits of improved content discovery can quickly add up to measurable cost savings for organizations of all sizes. For larger, distributed enterprises those benefits can often be quite significant. Just consider the following:

• Employees can spend up to 50% of their time searching for information they need to complete assigned tasks.
  
• The amount of unstructured data (documents and files) created and stored by US businesses is growing by over 100% per year.
  
• The estimated labor cost to re-create a typical business document is $220.
  

Obviously, data like this provides a compelling argument for organizations to improve how they manage and store content in order to reduce costs and improve operating efficiencies. In tough economic times like these, improved content management might even mitigate the need for staff reductions.

A simple way to get started doing this is to begin adding extra metadata, or tags to business documents so that they can be more easily discovered and re-used. Coupled with a common content repository this can provide employees with a safe and easy way to access and share documents, helping reduce work duplication and its associated costs.

Instead of a complex document classification project, document tagging is a more free-form exercise that will probably be familiar to anyone who has uploaded photos to web services like Picassa or videos to YouTube. However, I wouldn’t recommend letting the project become a complete free for all. Consider appointing a tagging expert among your staff. Ideally, this should be someone who is already a well-organized administrator who can perform the task consistently.

Work together with your new project administrator to define a meaningful set of tags that will help other employees easily discover documents regardless of how they might normally be named or where they might be stored. Next, your administrator will need to be empowered to apply these new tags to everyone’s documents prior to them being saved. This will require a new business process, but not a very complicated one (hopefully).



The easiest way to direct documents to your administrator is probably the path that requires the least change for everyone else in the organization. If the team is already experienced with using network drives to store and backup data this can be relatively simple.

First, create a new storage area in your content management system (this will only be a temporary work folder). Then map a drive letter reference to the new folder on each employee’s PC. Even relatively simple content management applications like Microsoft SharePoint and Xythos EDMS support this type of process.

The only change you’ll have to ask employees to make is to save their files to the new network drive letter. Once the files have been tagged by the administrator employees can retrieve them and store them as they normally would, or the administrator can simply return them.

Alternatively, if a network folder hierarchy is already well understood at your organization, the administrator can restore files to their proper locations by themself. This will help reduce data redundancy and file inconsistency. Either way, your organization will have begun to develop a more meaningful content repository that can help reduce work duplication and the costs associated with it.

If you’re interested in demonstrating more immediate value via document tagging, consider asking your administrator to apply the process retroactively to high value documents already stored in your file system prior to announcing the project. That way, employees can quickly begin experiencing the advantages of searching tagged categories for the information they need. This may encourage them to become more active supporters of the project from the very beginning.

Economic Content Management – ECM for Tough Times

I don’t know anyone who is feeling more prosperous today than they were a year ago. That’s the bad news. The good news is that 2008 will soon be over and many of us are busy planning for what will hopefully be a better 2009. It’s probably not going to be easy though and I suspect we'll have to make some tough decisions. When we can’t be confident about the economy or our future business prospects it makes sense to focus on those factors that we can positively influence.

The feedback I’ve received at this fall’s conferences and web seminars suggests that IT leaders are still optimistic about being able to deliver improved business value through the prudent application of web technologies. Even if budgets get squeezed, some have told me that they are confident they can achieve meaningful cost savings in 2009 from the infrastructure improvements they’ve already put in place. I’ve also heard talk about better leveraging Web 2.0 services (yes – even the free ones) to enhance business responsiveness.

When it comes to saving money there are practically countless ways that content management technology can be put to work. Obvious targets include reducing the number of documents organizations actually print, distribute and store. Managing electronic documents costs money too. Especially if they are scattered across dozens of individual file servers or worse, left as attachments in email systems. Automating document workflows and migrating paper-based processes to the web are proven cost-savers as well.

What’s less obvious, yet potentially more costly for many businesses is the amount of time employees waste searching for the information they need to perform their jobs. In fact, some analysts have estimated that time spent looking for documents and files can exceed 25% of an average knowledge worker’s day. What’s worse is that when documents can’t be found, sometimes they must be reproduced. That’s like having to pay double for cost of goods - hardly a recipe for success in tough economic times.

So, if managing content more effectively has the potential to help save some serious money then why aren’t more organizations doing it? Well, just like trying to go on a diet, getting started is often the most difficult part. Staying on the plan isn’t always easy either. In addition, the fact that unstructured data (all the different types of content) continues grow at an exponential rate practically demands that businesses begin with a well-conceived plan.

This post isn’t intended to review content taxonomies or best storage practices. Instead, the goal is to provoke action and help identify realistic cost-saving opportunities that can benefit from basic applications of content management technology and know how. So with the emphasis on making getting started easy, here’s a short list of “low hanging fruit” that might be worth adding to your 2009 project list. (I’ve collected these examples from a number of different types of businesses. If you know of an obvious one that’s missing, please feel free to contribute to this list).

Simple Cost-Saving ECM Projects for 2009

The theme around these suggested projects is “start small” so that you can develop early successes that will hopefully promote the use of ECM throughout other parts of your business in the future. It’s also important to identify project’s that provide an easy opportunity for cost-saving measurement, just so there won’t be any misunderstanding the project’s results. (I’ll post the first one today, and try and get the rest of these listed before the end of the week).

1. Scan documents intended for distribution
This is an easy project to begin with because it doesn’t require significant re-architecting of how your business manages or stores documents. It also creates visibly measurable benefits. Begin by looking at those processes which require documents be exchanged with either external parties or geographically separated offices within your own organization. Consider items like contracts that require multi-party review or service and support agreements.

First develop an estimate, of the average monthly costs related to the printing and delivery of these documents. You may even want to assess a storage cost fee if office space is particularly expensive in your location. Don’t forget to include all transport costs, including express and courier service fees if documents aren’t always faxed or sent via email.

Create a client or project based folder structure in your document store. If you don't already have an ECM system, you could even use a networked file server, but a web-enabled system such as a SaaS ECM solution, like Xythos on Demand will probably be much easier for external parties to use.

Next, determine if your current scanners or multi-functions devices can scan files directly to your document store. This is an ideal method, as it requires the least amount of employee interaction. Look to scanning software vendors like eCopy, or Kofax to help connect your input devices if they are not compatible. Newer MFP’s like those from Canon, Ricoh and Sharp can generally connect directly to the repository via http and WebDAV, or FTP. That will allow documents to be scanned directly into the folders you want them stored in.

Once your contracts, etc. are scanned into the system the real fun begins. Now employees can embed links to their documents within their email correspondence. This will allow them to monitor when customers read them and track changes as contracts are being negotiated and reviewed. Of course, a complete history of each document related activity can be maintained, helping you do a better job of supporting the business process.

That’s just the beginning of the benefits that can be gained from scanning documents that need to be distributed. However, the cost saving can add up quickly. Express delivery fees can usually be reduced significantly. Even documents requiring signatures can often be submitted with a digital version and thus avoid physical exchange. If your business is required to save its contracts as records in protected facilities, electronic records storage may also become a cost-saving alternative, once the documents have migrated to electronic form, of course.

More iPhone Excitement at Educause 2008

I guess Steve Jobs already knows this, given the displays I’ve spotted in Apple retail stores recently. Enormous versions of iPhones quickly stop people who are walking by. That was certainly the case at Educause this year. While we didn’t actually have gigantic versions of my favorite phone, large on-screen replicas seemed to work almost as well, thanks to the iPhone simulator in the iPhone Developer's Toolkit.

We chose the simulator to present the customizations to Xythos created by Abilene Christian University (ACU) as a part of their campus-wide iPhone initiative. The iPhone team at ACU, lead by Dr. James Langford has really done some groundbreaking work turning the device into a true enterprise solution for a wealth of academic and administrative purposes. They truly deserve the recognition this project has received and it was no different on the Educause 2008 show floor. Crowds of onlookers literally blocked the walkways around the Xythos booth to see what they had done.

MyACU’s MyMobile Portal

(Navigating from the portal into an iPhone customized version of Xythos and opening a Quicktime video)


The interest in the “One iPhone for Every Student” project continued in packed meeting rooms off the show floor where ACU twice presented the project’s implementation and faculty use cases. For those institutions considering similar projects, I would encourage you to take a look at the resource links at the end of this post to learn more.

The most common comment I heard after these sessions (following various expressions of jealousy) was “When will this be ready for Blackberry’s?” Hopefully, some of the institutions standardized on that platform will see that anything is indeed possible when they choose open standards-based software technologies like Liferay and Xythos.

While economic and political concerns may hinder projects like this at larger, state-funded institutions, those problems may begin to correct themselves as more students arrive on campus with their own iPhones, Blackberry Storms, or Google Android equipped devices. To get a picture of what this future might look like take a look at these ACU videos on YouTube:

"Connected" Part 1: Social Uses

"Connected" Part 2: Academic Uses

Recent ACU, iPhone and Xythos Articles:

Computerworld
iPhones go to front of the class at Texas university
CIO Magazine
iPhone University: At ACU, Students Navigate College Life via Apple iPhone
Macworld
At ACU, students navigate college life via iPhone

ECM Plug-ins and Integrations Popular at Educause 2008

For once, a fall conference in Orlando didn’t include 90% humidity and matching temperatures, The unseasonably cool weather made it easy to get between hotels and the convention center, where the activity level was definitely creating some heat! Sure, there was talk of budget challenges, but most of the IT Execs I had a chance to chat with seemed eager to learn about new solutions that could help them combat rising costs and improve services across their campuses.

There seemed to be plenty of interest in the latest academic learning solutions, judging from the consistent crowds over at the Blackboard booth trying out the new Bb 9 Suite. I also listened to a growing number of conversations related to back-office automation. A couple administrators I spoke with said they almost welcomed the tough economy because it was finally forcing their institutions to take a serious look at the business processes in search of improved efficiencies. As one executive said to me “unlike banks or other commercial organizations, we haven’t experienced the same pressures to update how we manage the “business side” of education”.

This might explain the considerable interest we heard regarding ECM plug-ins and integrations this year. Scanning solutions designed to integrate physical document processing into electronic workflows captured a lot of attention. Outlook plug-ins intended to more closely tie administrative activities with content repositories were also popular. The overall interest in administrative solutions might even indicate that institutions are recognizing they can leverage their experience with academic content management across other parts of the enterprise, just like other businesses.

The excitement around integrating other business processes with a common content repository wasn’t limited to administration either. Interest in multiple learning management system integrations including Blackboard, Moodle and Sakai continued. However, the ECM integration that most attendees seemed to be talking about was a Zimlet. In both the Xythos booth and Yahoo’s Zimbra booth activity around the Zimlet demo’s was quite busy. Perhaps the potential benefits of ECM and email integration can be even greater when the process is accomplished using 100% Web 2.0 technologies instead of just thick clients.

I even learned about a real-time (synchronous) collaboration tool called Dimdim that employs the same Zimlet type of integration and would appear to be an ideal complement to asynchronous collaboration tools like ECM and email. What each of these products have in common is embedded support for open technology standards including flexible and open API’s. This might explain the enthusiastic response their integrations were receiving at Educause. I was already hearing attendees talking out loud about how they could create their own mashups using them in their portals and elsewhere.

We’ll post recording’s of more of the presentations and activities from Educause 2008 shortly on Xythos.com. In the meantime check out educause site to learn more about what happened at this year’s event.

Outlook Hassles, Zimbra and Web 2.0

I don’t really hate Microsoft Outlook. I’ve trusted it to manage my email and calendars for as long as I can remember. However, as the web has grown up and I’ve begun to rely on a growing number of other services instead of email to collaborate Outlook seems more like a stubborn old partner unwilling to adapt and change. My ultimate frustration is Outlook’s inability to easily exchange contact records with its own sibling, Entourage. What devilish plan did Microsoft have in mind by not simply creating Outlook for the Mac? (PC guy wasn’t even on TV when that decision was made).

Yes, I was able to configure my iPhone to connect to our Exchange server without corporate IT assistance (which I can’t say the same about for my Blackberry), but I think time’s running out for me and the Outlook/Entourage combo. I don’t want my most valuable personal data locked up in .pst formats anymore. I’m not sure I even want to depend on Exchange either, although that’s mostly up to my employer. I’m becoming more comfortable with Gmail each day and while it’s not ready to be my Outlook replacement yet, Web 2.0 applications like Zimbra’s Collaboration Suite (ZCS) just might be.

I want an email client solution that doesn’t care that I live in both a Mac and a Windows world. Ideally, I’d like that solution to behave about the same on my iPhone too. I also don’t want to have to use a half dozen different converters to move my contacts between my social networks, email, IM and other collaborative tools. I’m a content creator and I need my editing tools to work seamlessly together with email and the web so that I can rapidly share my work with others, solicit feedback, secure approvals, and get things published. It would be great if my email tool could help keep track of all these processes too.

When my email client can’t quickly find the contacts I need, I have to engage in time-consuming mailbox searches or begin looking in other services for data it hasn’t already captured. When my email can’t interoperate with my content management system my ability to collaborate on projects slows down. Maybe I’m expecting too much of an email/contact/calendaring tool, but I still want it to be the hub that manages my interactions with others and my tasks. I think it just needs to be a lot more web-aware, and flexible. Proprietary storage formats like .pst really don’t support that kind of improvement.

I watched a Zimbra demo last week that showed how email messages and their associated file attachments could be easily captured, categorized and stored in Xythos using open Zimlet protocols and Xythos’ open API’s. That was an impressive example of the benefits of Ajax based interface design and web-enabled interoperability. What if the next step allowed Zimbra and Xythos services to share each other’s user names and permissions? Maybe all they would need to do is authenticate via a common directory service? OK, great now what about my Google and Linked In contact lists? Could those be accessed by Zimbra as well?

Even if I could just find a way to make my contacts more portable and accessible to my other apps and devices, that would be a big plus for me. How is this working for you? Does anyone have suggestions who has tried to tackle this issue? Are we going to have to wait for a cloud based OS or something like that? BTW – If you’re interested in seeing that Zimbra demo, it should be posted over www.xythos.com under “Events” shortly. Better yet, if you’re attending the annual Educause event this week in Orlando visit either the Xythos or Zimbra booths and see it live for yourself.

Online Storage vs. Document Management – What’s the Difference?

With all the talk about SaaS and cloud computing the question about whether a business needs an online storage solution or something a bit more sophisticated seems somewhat irrelevant. However, for distributed enterprises and small-medium sized businesses in particular this can be an important consideration. Both technologies can provide measurable benefits, yet while they are directly related, each addresses quite different business objectives.

One could argue that ECM (enterprise content management) and certainly online document management really can’t function successfully absent some sort of commonly shared content repository. On the other hand, if the motive for storing documents online is to better protect them and potentially provide a solution for disaster recovery, then the collaborative benefits provided by ECM may not be that important. What’s common in both cases is a need for network and more commonly these days, web-enabled access to the repository for improved data redundancy and remote access.

So, what guidelines can businesses follow to help decide which option is best suited for their needs? The first factor to consider is the relative value of business data and the cost of alternative storage methods vs. online options. For most situations (and this can even include home based businesses) there are ample arguments for storing backup data off site. Sure, you can create your own backup tapes and store them in a fireproof safe or in a safety deposit box, but is that really something you want to perform each week, or night? The cost of managed storage has declined incredibly over the last few years making do-it-yourself backup seem somewhat archaic.

Once you’ve decided that your files can benefit from online storage protection, the next thing to ask yourself is who else needs access to them. If your documents are going to be primarily archived for data protection purposes and possibly only used by applications in your own office, then it may not be necessary to employ the more advanced features of an online document management service. However, it’s important to consider this scenario carefully.

Think about the different types of documents and files your business uses today. Are they shared with other parties? For example, does your attorney review your service or supply contracts? Do your employees exchange proposals with clients? There are expenses associated with each of these activities such as travel and distribution costs. Consider if you can reduce, or possibly eliminate some of these costs by sharing documents electronically. You may even discover these savings can help justify the service subscription cost itself.

The degree to which your business relies upon the secure exchange of content, particularly with external parties and the frequency with which that information changes can have a significant impact upon your technology choice. If your business does not support remote offices or mobile employees and if the majority of the documents and files produced are only released in final format (pdf or html) then you may not need the collaborative features of a document management system. However, be sure to also consider how often employees are using email as a means to exchange files and whether your business must keep certain documents stored as records for prescribed periods, as these tasks can often be better performed by a document management application.

In summary, online file storage can often be a smart choice for organizations seeking to better protect vital business information as service based solutions are generally more focused on performing back-ups, providing redundant storage and disaster recovery solutions than most individual businesses are prepared to do themselves. The problem is that once organizations begin storing documents online expectations can quickly grow to include other, more collaborative processes.

Some online storage services have evolved to offer document sharing and even some basic document library services, like version control and document check-in/out. This is where careful service evaluation is a must. Once online storage becomes a shared resource it’s critical that you consider group authentication methods, file level access controls and features to track and report upon system usage.

Its quite possible employees will even want to scan documents into the service’s online repository and once it becomes larger, cry for search tools to help them find everything they’ve uploaded. You may want to begin automating document processing tasks in order to achieve greater business efficiencies. At this point you’ve already crossed over the line into the realm of online document management. 

So as you can see, it’s probably a good idea to ask yourself and a few thoughtful employees what they would want to do, if they could store their documents online. You might be surprised about where those responses could take you. Of course, If you'd like to learn more why not try out Xythos on Demand? It's free (for 30 days) and is an easy way to get more familiar with what online document management can do for your own business.

Where is ECM at Educause 2008?

Educause is just a few weeks away and even with all of the bad economic news it would seem that little can stop the popularity of this event. It’s been sold out for months and sponsors like Blackboard and Xythos have been busy preparing to make the most of it both on and off of the show floor. While the higher education community certainly isn’t immune to economic downturns it is somewhat comforting to know that it won’t disappear overnight as the investment banking industry seems to have done.

However, we are experiencing increased requests from institutions about how to reduce administrative costs and better streamline business operations in response to tighter operating budgets. From undergraduate admissions processing to alumni relations there are still a lot of paper documents passing through colleges and universities and, as a result there remains plenty of opportunity to automate these processes and reduce waste.

Enterprise content management (ECM) technologies would appear to be a natural fit to address these campus-wide challenges. Yet, when I look at the list of content management vendors planning to exhibit at Educause I see just a few familiar names such as Oracle, Paperthin, Perceptive Software and SunGard. While Oracle’s Stellent based applications are true ECM solutions, I suspect the primary reason that both SunGard and Oracle attend is to promote their dominant ERP and student information system applications, vs. content management. That basically leaves a couple dedicated web content management suppliers, and Xythos representing the ECM industry to higher education institutions this year.

Of course, Google and Microsoft will each have a big presence at Educause and I suspect both will feature plenty of document collaboration solutions, including Microsoft’s ubiquitous SharePoint. But what explains the absence of traditional ECM leaders like EMC/Documentum, Filenet and OpenText? Are they simply ceding the market to smaller competitors while they focus on healthcare and financial services? Perhaps the academic market is considered unable to afford enterprise quality content management solutions? Maybe the institutions themselves haven’t focused enough attention on the business side of education and the technology needed to help them become more efficient.

I suspect a combination of the above factors contributed to this situation. Coincidentally, most institutions have already become familiar with managing electronic content through their adoption of learning management systems (LMS) such as Blackboard, and WebCT. According to ECAR (EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research), over 82% of higher education institutions have already adopted an enterprise standard LMS. Once content management technology has succeeded improving the core mission of these institutions, it would seem reasonable to expect that it be considered for related business processes. So, perhaps we’re close to a tipping point in the adoption of ECM for managing the business side of higher education.

While success selling to academic computing departments doesn’t guaranty the same in administrative computing, I suspect leading LMS vendors like Blackboard could have an advantage. If solutions from Xythos can appeal to IT administrators in medical research institutions or government agencies, what’s to stop campus admissions or athletics departments from being next? After all, ECM can deliver a wide range of cost saving benefits across distributed campus environments. In tough economic times it would seem to make sense to take advantage of technologies like these to reduce operating costs and keep constituents satisfied