Develop an Enterprise Content Management Strategy and Roadmap

Organize your documents and files to make your content findable.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Good content management empowers digital transformation

Unstructured data – content – makes up over 80% of all our business data. It includes contracts, invoices, resumes, financial agreements, student transcripts, architectural and engineering drawings, recordings, emails, and marketing images. It’s a wide assortment of information types and value. There’s an ever-growing volume with more places in the information landscape for it to live and move.

Remote work has made digital formats like videoconference recordings and online chats a core part of the information deposit. Chats and recordings, along with email, are subject to audit, record retention laws and eDiscovery. Critical records are no longer contained in a central controlled chamber. It’s imperative we understand our increasingly complex information environment and manage it.

That content also holds rich insights and valuable assets – if recognized and made accessible.

Every business process generates and revolves around information. With the arrival of digital transformation, business partners and customers expect answers to their questions instantly and from anywhere. It means untethering our information from individual applications or business units and treating it like the valuable corporate asset it is.

Andrea Malick
Director, Research & Advisory, Data & Analytics Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• Content is a key part of internal workflows and external touchpoints.
• An enterprise content management (ECM) capability manages the quality, findability, delivery, and risk of your content across organizational processes.
• The need for an ECM strategy, either on its own or as part of broader information management, is increasingly apparent in organizations everywhere.

Common Obstacles

• The volume of organizational content continues to grow exponentially.
• The Digital Revolution is accelerating market disruption and forcing organizations to transform or die.
• The lack of an ECM body of knowledge for developing ECM strategies and capabilities makes defining a roadmap a challenging, if not impossible, endeavor for non-experts.

Info-Tech’s Approach

• Set the scope for your ECM strategy. Understand the four major forces (ECM use cases, content-centric processes, external parties, and compliance and risk) that define ECM operating models. Identify the current priorities within each. Tackle manageable slices of your ECM solution – build foundations while fixing real pains.
• Understand the root causes behind your ECM improvement opportunities. Systematically review the in-scope elements of your ECM operating model to generate a comprehensive list of potential improvements. Transform this insight into a future-state vision for your ECM capability.
• Build an ECM roadmap collaboratively. Leverage the input of stakeholders from across the organization to determine the work required to cross the chasm from your current to future state.
• Invest in change management. Current content management capabilities are powerful and customizable for a positive user experience. But those capabilities mean a shift in how we relate to our information and do things (e.g. using metadata instead of folders and subfolders). Ensure users and stakeholders are consulted and informed early and often.

Info-Tech Insights

• ECM is critical to organizational survival. ECM underpins effective information management, which is vital to surviving and thriving in the Digital Revolution.
• Engage many hands to make light work. Changing your ECM capabilities is about changing organizational behavior; take an all-hands-on-deck approach to make the most of information gathering, create a vested interest, and secure buy-in.
• ECM is a living, breathing thing, and world-class ECM capabilities are not built overnight. Be realistic about what you can achieve in this iteration based on your organization’s maturity.

Frame the problem

This research is for:

• CIOs charged with mandates for innovation or digital transformations.
• Information, records, and content managers charged with optimizing information management practices.

This research will help you:

• Systematically scope out the focus of your ECM strategy.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand your current ECM operation.
• Develop a vision for your ECM capability.
• Build and gain buy-in for your ECM roadmap.
• Coordinate the execution of your ECM roadmap.

This research will also assist:

• CEOs looking to get the most out of ECM investments.
• Heads of lines of business (LOBs) looking to drive higher quality and risk management from their content operation.
• Process owners looking to increase efficiency through improved access to and delivery of content assets.

This research will help them:

• Understand the importance of an ECM capability to long-term organizational success.
• Prepare for and make the most out of information-gathering sessions required to assess current operations.
• Contextualize their role in the ECM roadmap.
• Bring to life and sustain an effective and strategically aligned ECM capability.

The data journey

Effective data management requires a cross-functional approach that engages both the business and IT.

What is content management?

Content is everywhere in the business

ECM can look very different for different organizations and use cases. It can be focused on storing documents for reference and findability. Or it can be managing complex information sets through workflows for regulatory compliance, from when files are scanned and digitized to when they are archived.

ECM is a comprehensive set of capabilities and tools. Your job is to find the right mix of these ingredients to make a solution – both tactical and strategic.

Definition: Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

“Enterprise content management is the systematic collection and organization of information that is to be used by a designated audience – business executives, customers, etc. Neither a single technology nor a methodology nor a process, it is a dynamic combination of strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver information supporting key organizational processes through its entire lifecycle.”

Definition: Content

“Content is information produced through editorial process and ultimately intended for human consumption via publication.”
(Source: Barker, 2021)

This description of content is important because we are designing ECM experiences for different groups: the content author (or manager) and the consumer.

“Content is information produced through editorial process and ultimately intended for human consumption via publication.”
(Source: Barker, 2021)

This description of content is important because we are designing ECM experiences for different groups: the content author (or manager) and the consumer.

Different types of content

ECM includes documents, records, digital assets, and web content.
Each of these types of content requires different practices and technology solutions.

Information management model

Case Study

INDUSTRY - Municipal Government
SOURCE - Info-Tech Research Group

An ECM roadmap allowed the City to obtain buy-in from senior management for an upgrade of its ECM capability

The City of Cambridge

The City of Cambridge, located in Ontario, is one of three cities making up Canada’s Technology Triangle. Canada’s 38th largest city, Cambridge is home to 130,000 residents. The City worked with Info-Tech to develop an ECM vision, system requirements, roadmap, and execution toolkit.

ECM Initiative

Faced with increasing volumes of content to manage and pain points with legacy content management processes, the City decided to develop an enterprise-wide strategy. Having used an ECM system to manage records, the City was considering how it could use technology to improve other content management operations across the organization. However, the need to represent perspectives of seven departments with over 75 unique divisions and services would require a well-thought-out plan.

Results

Working collaboratively, the City’s IT and records management divisions assembled a project team and conducted operational assessments with key stakeholders from other departments. With stakeholder input, they defined a future-state vision, built a roadmap, and assembled an execution toolkit. The ECM project team was able to present a confident plan to executives to secure project and budget approval.

The Digital Revolution is (finally) upon us

The advancement of organizational process and technology from analog to digital has been underway since the 1980s. Today we have reached the tipping point.

Three mega-innovations drive organizations toward digital transformation:

Digital Revolution

• Powerhouse Computing
  • Scalar CPUs
  • In-Memory Databases/SSD
  • Neural Networks
  • Massive Computer Arrays
  • Quantum Computing
• Seamless Connectivity
  • 5G Network
  • Global Internet
  • Four Billion Connected Users
  • One Trillion Devices
  • Zero Distance
• Extreme Automation
  • Robotics & Autos
  • 3D Printing
  • Digital User Experience
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Machine-to-Machine (Internet of Things)

Info-Tech Insight

As the innovations of today diffuse more generally into the global economy, Info-Tech sees two massive impacts:

Accelerated Large-Scale Disruption

We will see a rapid emergence of newer, faster, and more direct models of design, production, and delivery. Pioneering businesses will displace legacy organizations (think Netflix and Blockbuster) and industries (think Uber and the taxi industry). Leaner workforces will produce exponentially more output, leveraging intuitive cognitive systems and outsourced or subscription-based services. Higher-order skill sets will be demanded as automation takes over in physical, clerical, analytical, professional, and creative labor markets.

Cultural Transformation Is Required to Survive

Since 2000, 52% of Fortune 500 companies have disappeared from the market (Capgemini, 2015). Surviving the Digital Revolution requires organizations to go beyond localized process automation to enable a culture of innovation at every level and in every facet. Highly consumerized next-gen software- and platform-as-a-service (SaaS and PaaS) offerings will put process automation (and even application development capabilities) directly in the hands of users, and the traditional role of IT will be increasingly a shared organizational responsibility.

IT departments can no longer just lead digital innovation, they must actively enable it at every level of the organization

IT departments play a critical role in shepherding organizations through their transformation and in empowering organizations to thrive in the long term.

Democratizing innovation requires rethinking the traditional departmental role of IT.

Companies that are best positioned to weather, survive, and thrive in the Digital Revolution are those that understand the potential crowdsourcing has for innovation discovery and that proactively enable an “IT mindset” for as many end users as possible. Info-Tech identifies three functions IT departments can adopt to democratize innovation in their organizations.

Managing content effectively is a prerequisite of a successful enterprise information management operation

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an important building block in establishing potent enterprise information management (EIM), and strong EIM is a steppingstone to unlocking higher-order information capabilities that power innovation.

Info-Tech’s Hierarchy of Organizational Information Capabilities

Info-Tech Insight

This blueprint provides a methodology to build out your ECM capability. For guidance on other information management capabilities, including enterprise data management, please see Info-Tech’s EIM resources:

• Information Lifecycle Management
• Master Data Management
• Data Governance
• Data Architecture
• Data Quality
• Data Integration
• Artificial Intelligence

An effective ECM capability enables content quality, findability, delivery, and risk management across the information lifecycle

As a concept, ECM is the strategies, methods, and technology used to manage electronic and physical documents and files to support organizational processes.

Info-Tech’s ECM Information Lifecycle Model:

Info-Tech Insight

As organizations shift from analog to digital, content operations must transform from paper to paperless. Very few organizations have actually adopted the paperless workplace. While remote work has decreased printing and scanning significantly, 56% of workers are still printing and 50% are still scanning even while working from home (O’Reilly, 2021) As your organization shifts to paperless processes, behaviors will fundamentally change (e.g. manual to automatic, carbon-based to silicon-based), affecting decisions and actions at every stage of the information lifecycle.

Effective ECM capabilities are built on and supported by well-informed ECM system architecture

ECM technology is mature, blending together many functions across the information lifecycle.
ECM system offerings include:

• Version control
• Document & records management
• Automated workflows
• Access controls
• Metadata management
• Mobile
• Search
• Capture channels
• File conversion
• eDiscovery audit trail
• Co-authoring

Info-Tech Insight

Refer to Info-Tech’s SoftwareReviews categories for ECM software and document management systems for the latest vendor scorecards based on user experience.

From an organization’s perspective, there are two broad categories of ECM use cases that must be addressed

Effective ECM capabilities are built on a strong understanding of the organizational use cases they support.

(1) Depending on organizational needs, preservation ECM may be viewed as a third ECM use case.

Info-Tech Insight

Harnessing your content has never been more vital. Exponential data growth isn’t expected to plateau anytime soon; yearly data creation reached 64.2 zettabytes in 2020 (IDC, 2021). Remaining still in the face of this growth is a recipe for disaster, and in the Digital Revolution, taking a casual approach to ECM is ill-advised. Organizations must truly understand their specific ECM use cases to develop optimal ECM information architecture, flexible information governance, and informed system definition and selection.

Effectively address your ECM use cases with an integrated, programmatic ECM capability

Master the six subdisciplines of ECM to unlock true content management excellence in support of mission-critical and operational use cases.

Info-Tech’s ECM Capability Conceptual Framework:

Info-Tech defines an organization’s ECM capability as six interrelated concepts working together to enable superior content access and delivery for an organization:

• Information architecture, which enables content findability within ECM operations.
• Information governance, which enables content management quality assurance, security, and risk management.
• Process management, which enables content to move through processes and workflows.
• System architecture, which enables automation of content management.
• Change management, which introduces new ECM capabilities to users.
• Capability governance, which sustains and provides continuous improvement to the entire ECM operation.

Info-Tech Insight

Get with the program – start building out an effective ECM capability as soon as possible. Focus on your current business needs and prioritization, such as digitizing legacy content or focusing on incoming content first. In an AIIM survey, 43% of respondents said they were figuring out what to do with the content they already had and 57% were figuring out what to do with new content coming into the organization (AIIM, 2020).

ECM success can be measured by process efficiency, resource efficiency, and risk mitigation

In its own right, ECM plays an important role in running an intelligent, efficient, and lean organization.

What you can achieve with an ECM strategy largely depends on your current maturity

The transformational journey to unlock ECM excellence is a very hard one. Set realistic executive expectations with a roadmap aimed at achieving “innovator” status through gradual advances in your ECM capability maturity.

Info-Tech’s ECM Capability Maturity Model

You need a systematic approach to connect ECM roadmap work initiatives to your organization’s objectives

Info-Tech’s three-phase ECM strategy development methodology enables a systematic and comprehensive model to assess ECM operations and identify, evaluate, and prioritize roadmap work initiatives in accordance with organizational need

Info-Tech Insight

Ensure your organization is among the six in ten whose ECM projects succeed. Roughly 35 to 40% of ECM projects fail (Moore, 2021), which is explained by failure to involve stakeholders and lack of a strategic plan. Ensure you are on the winning side of history; take a systematic approach to building out your ECM capability, leveraging Info-Tech’s ECM strategy development methodology and tools.

Develop a highly detailed roadmap to coordinate the work to build and maintain your ECM capability with Info-Tech

Info-Tech’s ECM Roadmap Creation Tool provides three levels of project planning insight, enabling easy creation, communication, and coordination of tasks that will bring your ECM vision to life.

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
ECM Project Phases	ECM Work Initiatives	ECM Action Plans
Displays timing for major project phases.	Displays ordering and timing for specific work initiatives.	Displays work initiative activities, stakeholder resourcing, inputs, outputs, risks, mitigations, success factors, and related Info-Tech resources.

Developing the roadmap is only half the battle; motivate and mobilize project stakeholders with a roadmap execution toolkit

Don’t let your ECM project plan sit on the shelf. Minimize the friction and effort required and secure executive buy-in by providing well-designed templates and tools to help execute each ECM roadmap work initiative.

Refer to Info-Tech’s ECM terminology and acronyms table for additional clarification

The following terminology and acronyms are commonly used throughout this document; refer to this slide as needed as you work through each step in developing your ECM strategy and roadmap.

Insight summary

Overarching insight

The modern enterprise content management environment is a business solution, driven by and overseen by the business. Where once ECM communities were highly contained and were administered primarily by IT, they are now designed to be integrated with and responsive to business operations. This is a cultural shift requiring a new way of interacting with technology, with information, and with each other.

Insight 1

To survive and thrive in this tumultuous time, organizations everywhere are moving toward more intelligent ways of unearthing, communicating, and acting upon insights in the formats desired by the people in their organization. At the foundation of strong information management is an effective ECM capability on which process and system automation can be built.

Insight 2

ECM is a huge concept; be realistic and do not bite off more than you can chew.

Consider your organization’s ECM capability maturity, in addition to ECM objectives and resource constraints, to create a realistic vision for what you can achieve with this current iteration and what will have to wait for future releases.

Insight 3

An ECM capability is a living, breathing thing; plan to upgrade it over time with new releases.

The ideal ECM capability is the result of mastering all the capabilities of ECM, such as governance and information architecture. However, mastering all of these simultaneously is extremely difficult for most organizations.

Tactical insight

Tailor your ECM program to meet your organization’s needs, beginning with cataloging content as critical, valuable, regulatory, and other. This will help manage the work and the sense of overwhelm, and it will help apply the right weight of governance to where it’s needed. We can’t and shouldn’t try to govern everything to the same degree. Focus on what really matters for the business and for compliance.

When it comes to rolling out an ECM program, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Don’t try to buy a ready-made information architecture off the shelf. It takes time and expertise up-front and must engage users in the solution –
but the result is transformative.

Blueprint Deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Key deliverable:

ECM Strategy Roadmap

Business Capability Map

ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool

Use the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool to identify focus areas and work initiatives and drill down to a detailed plan with timelines and assigned responsibilities.

ECM Use Case Framework Template

This template takes you through a business needs-gathering activity to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organization’s information-related problems and opportunities.

ECM Strategy Development Project Charter

Use this template to document the scope and key roles and responsibilities of the ECM strategy development project.

ECM Information Flow and System Architecture Template

Use this template to understand your information landscape with users and build a future state.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Develop an ECM Strategy and Roadmap: Project overview

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

Workshop Overview

Phase 1

Understand Business Context and Drivers for the ECM Project

• 1.1 Understand and Align to Business Drivers
• 1.2 Build High-Value Use Cases
• 1.3 Define the Scope and Vision of Your ECM Strategy Project

Develop an Enterprise Content Management Strategy and Roadmap

“When business users are invited to participate in the conversation around data with data users and IT, it adds a fundamental dimension — business context. Without a real understanding of how data ties back to the business, the value of analysis and insights can get lost.”– Jason Lim, Alation

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Identify your business drivers and business capabilities
• Align content management capabilities with business goals
• Define scope of the ECM strategy

This phase involves the following participants:

• Content management lead/information management lead, CDO, data lead
• Senior business leaders
• Business subject matter experts (SMEs)
• Content owners, records managers, regulatory subject matter experts (e.g. Legal Counsel, Security)

Introducing Info-Tech’s ECM strategy framework

You need to know the context of your ECM operation before you can understand, assess, and develop plans to improve it.

The framework helps your organization:

• Align your ECM objectives to organizational and IT objectives.
• Identify the relevant forces at play in your organization’s ECM operations.
• Define the scope of your current ECM strategy development initiative.
• Identify the right stakeholder group perspectives to include in the detailed ECM operational assessment.

Some assembly required

• Set up and configure your ECM strategy roadmap development project by:
• Considering organizational and IT strategic objectives.
• Identifying your ECM operating model and determining the current focus of the ECM strategy.
• Coordinating the relevant stakeholders for information gathering, analysis, and ECM strategy development.

Results: A clear scope and project plan for your ECM strategy development

ECM Operating Model

ECM Strategy Development Project Charter (Project Objectives, Scope, Stakeholders, and Project Plan)

ECM strategies come in all shapes and sizes

ECM is a broad concept that is supported by mature technology solutions. ECM capabilities can be developed around any number of organizational or IT goals. Consider your organizational and IT strategies to determine the objectives of your ECM strategy.

Understand the ECM forces that define your ECM operating model

Reveal the logical scope and structure of your ECM strategy roadmap development project by defining your organization’s ECM operating model and prioritizing the various pieces in alignment to ECM objectives.

Info-Tech’s ECM Operating Model

Info-Tech Insight

ECM can mean many different things depending on the organizational context. Projects may be impacted by any number of the four forces, and the specific areas to consider within each force will vary widely depending on industry and number of stakeholder perspectives involved. Even more, within each stakeholder group, the operations may look drastically different. For example, banks, manufacturing firms, CPG firms, governments, and professional services firms will all have different project scopes and departmental makeups, characterized by different technologies, processes, external stakeholders, and regulatory environments.

Determine the high-level ECM use cases present in your ECM operation

ECM can be a confusing topic. Vendor ECM platforms have consolidated to cover a very broad range of intake, management, creation, and publishing functions, and new features and vendors emerge all the time

Use this to: Determine relevant ECM-centric activities, technology, and content types for inclusion in your ECM strategy roadmap development project.

Info-Tech’s Thought Model for ECM Use-Case Identification

Info-Tech Insight

Does your current strategic focus cover all organizational content assets? Your organization’s ECM operation may contain elements of one, some, or all of the ECM use-case types. Your ECM strategy – and the ECM capability you build to support it – may or may not. Prioritize those types most aligned to your organizational mission.

Determine the key processes and functions supported by your ECM operation

Is your content management strategy truly enterprise-wide? Or are you targeting improvements for a smaller piece of the larger ECM operation?

Use this to: Determine relevant processes and functions for inclusion in your ECM strategy roadmap development project.

Info-Tech’s Thought Model for Process and Function Identification

Info-Tech Insight

Focus on content-centric processes and functions. Many organizational activities depend upon access to information at the right time and in the right format, and many more can be improved through similar information access. Understanding key processes and functions helps build an information architecture that optimizes findability.

Determine the third-party perspectives that hold influence over your ECM operation

Executives and employees may not be the only perspectives you need to consider in your strategy. Your ECM operation can also be advantageous to your wider ecosystem of suppliers, affiliates, partners, and customers.

Use this to: Determine relevant third-party perspectives for inclusion in your ECM strategy roadmap development project.

Info-Tech’s Thought Model for ECM Third-Party Perspective Identification

Info-Tech Insight

Effective third-party communications are critical in today’s information age – but do they have a place in your current ECM strategy? Depending on the maturity of your organization’s ECM capability (as well as organizational objectives), third-party considerations may be outside your comfort zone for now. Organizations with higher levels of ECM capability maturity are better positioned to capitalize on external-party considerations.

Identify the regulatory, legal, and internal compliance framework for your ECM operation

No ECM operation is an island; there are rules to follow and risks to avoid that originate from outside, as well as inside, your organization’s walls.

Use this to: Determine relevant regulatory, legal, and internal compliance considerations for inclusion in your ECM strategy roadmap development project.

Info-Tech’s Thought Model for ECM Compliance and Risk Identification

Info-Tech Insight

There is bad and good news about compliance and risk. The risks and rules impacting your ECM operation are unavoidable; however, they provide an excellent opportunity to galvanize organizational support for other ECM improvement initiatives. For example, data breaches (or fear of data breaches) can have silver linings for ECM initiative funding. Incidents of this nature in your organization or in the industry mobilize executive support.

Step 1.1

Understand and Align to Business Drivers

Activities

• 1.1.1 Identify Your Business Capabilities
• 1.1.2 Categorize Your Organization’s Key Capabilities
• 1.1.3 Map ECM Capabilities to Business Capabilities

Build Business and User Context

Info-Tech Insight

Gaining a sound understanding of your business architecture (value streams and business capabilities) is a critical foundation for establishing and sustaining an ECM program that delivers measurable business value.

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Leverage your organization’s existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map, guided by info-Tech’s approach
• Determine which business capabilities your organization considers high priority
• Map your organization’s strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realized with the support of content

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for ECM initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

1.1.1 Identify your business capabilities

Confirm your organization's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

• If you have an existing business capability map, meet with the relevant business owners/stakeholders to confirm that the content is accurate and up to date. Confirm the value streams (how your organization creates and captures value) and their business capabilities are reflective of the organization’s current business environment.
• If you do not have an existing business capability map, follow this activity to initiate the formulation of a map (value streams and related business capabilities):
  1. Define the organization’s value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organization creates and captures value.
  2. Define the relevant business capabilities. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define the business capabilities.

Note: A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities are business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.” They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome.

Input

• List of confirmed value streams and their related business capabilities

Output

• Business capability map with value streams for your organization

Materials

• Your existing business capability map or Info-Tech’s business capability map template

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Content owners
• Content managers/information managers
• Records managers

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Define or validate the organization’s value streams

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities. These value realization activities, in turn, depend on data.

• If the organization does not have a business architecture function to conduct and guide Activity 1.1.1, you can leverage the following approach:
• Meet with key stakeholders regarding this topic, then discuss and document your findings.
• When trying to identify the right stakeholders, consider: Who are the decision makers and key influencers? Who will impact this piece of business architecture–related work? Who has the relevant skills, competencies, experience, and knowledge about the organization?
• Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organization creates value.
• Consider:
  • Who are your main stakeholders? This will depend on the industry in which you operate. For example, customers, residents, citizens, constituents, students, patients.
  • What are your stakeholders looking to accomplish?
  • How do your organization’s products and/or services help them accomplish that?
  • What are the benefits your organization delivers to them and how does your organization deliver those benefits?
  • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

Align ECM to the organization’s value realization activities.

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

Info-Tech Insight

Your organization’s value streams and the associated business capabilities require effectively managed information. Without this, you face the possibilities of elevated operational costs, missed opportunities, eroded stakeholder satisfaction, negative impact to reputation and brand, and increased exposure to business risk.

Example of value streams – Retail Banking

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

Example of value streams – Higher Education

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

Example of value streams – Local Government

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

Example of value streams – Manufacturing

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

Example of value streams – Retail

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities.

Example value stream descriptions for: Retail

Value streams enable the organization to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

For this value stream, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

Define the organization’s business capabilities in a business capability map

A business capability defines what a business does to enable value creation. Business capabilities represent stable business functions and typically will have a defined business outcome.

Business capabilities can be thought of as business terms defined using descriptive nouns such as “Marketing” or “Research and Development.”

If your organization doesn’t already have a business capability map, you can leverage the following approach to build one. This initiative requires a good understanding of the business. By working with the right stakeholders, you can develop a business capability map that speaks a common language and accurately depicts your business.

Working with the stakeholders as described in the previous slide, “Define or validate the organization’s value streams”:

• Analyze the value streams to identify and describe the organization’s capabilities that support them.
• Consider: What is the objective of your value stream? (This can highlight which capabilities support which value stream.)
• As you initiate your engagement with your stakeholders, don’t start with a blank page. Leverage the examples on the next slides as a starting point for your business capability map.
• When using these examples, consider: What are the activities that make up your particular business? Keep the ones that apply to your organization, remove the ones that don’t, and add any needed.

Align ECM to the organization’s value realization activities.

Info-Tech Insight

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Example business capability map – Retail Banking

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of content management in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the ECM program.

Example business capability map for: Retail Banking

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail Banking.

Example business capability map – Higher Education

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of content management in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the ECM program.

Example business capability map for: Higher Education

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Higher Education.

Example business capability map – Local Government

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of content management in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the ECM program.

Example business capability map for: Local Government

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Local Government.

Example business capability map – Manufacturing

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of content management in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the ECM program.

Example business capability map for: Manufacturing

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Manufacturing.

Example business capability map – Retail

A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organization’s business capabilities and hence represents a view of what your ECM program must support.

Validate your business capability map with the right stakeholders, including your executive team, business unit leaders, and/or other key stakeholders.

Info-Tech Tip

Leverage your business capability map verification session with these key stakeholders as a prime opportunity to share and explain the role of content management in supporting the very value realization capabilities under discussion. This will help to build awareness and visibility of the ECM program.

Example business capability map for: Retail

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

1.1.2 Categorize your organization’s key capabilities

Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organization.

1. Categorize or heatmap the organization’s key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorize and prioritize the business’ capabilities. This will aid in ensuring your ECM future state planning is aligned with the mandate of the business. One approach to prioritizing capabilities with business stakeholders is to examine them through the lens of cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, and/or by high value/high risk.
2. Identify cost advantage creators. Focus on capabilities that drive a cost advantage for your organization. Highlight these capabilities and prioritize programs that support them.
3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organization an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

This categorization/prioritization exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritization, and the overall optimization of enterprise content management.

Input

• Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organization

Output

• Business capabilities categorized and prioritized (e.g. cost advantage creators, competitive advantage differentiators, high value/high risk)
• See next slide for an example

Materials

• Your existing business capability map or the business capability map derived in the previous activity (1.1.1)

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Content owners
• Content managers/information managers
• Records managers

For more information, refer to Info-Tech’s Document Your Business Architecture.

Example of business capabilities categorization or heatmapping – Retail

This exercise is useful in ensuring the ECM program is focused and aligned to support the priorities and direction of the business.

• Depending on the mandate from the business, priority may be on developing cost advantage. Hence the capabilities that deliver efficiency gains are the ones considered to be cost advantage creators.
• The business’ priority may be on maintaining or gaining a competitive advantage over its industry counterparts. Differentiation might be achieved in delivering unique or enhanced products, services, and/or experiences, and the focus will tend to be on the capabilities that are more end-stakeholder-facing (e.g. customer-, student-, patient-, and/or constituent-facing). These are the organization’s competitive advantage creators.

Example: Retail

For this business capability map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

1.1.3 Map ECM capabilities to business capabilities

Identify the strategic objectives for the business. Knowing the key strategic objectives will drive alignment with the ECM practice. It’s important to make sure the right strategic objectives of the organization have been identified and are well understood.

Meet with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders to help identify and document the key strategic objectives for the business.

Leverage their knowledge of the organization’s business strategy and strategic priorities to visually represent how these map to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to information needs and initiatives. Tip: Your map is one way to visually communicate and link the business strategy to other levels of the organization.

Confirm the strategy mapping with other relevant stakeholders.

Create your map: Starting with strategic objectives, map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the information to initiatives that support those capabilities. This is one approach to help you prioritize the ECM initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

Input

• Strategic objectives as outlined by the organization’s business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

Output

• A strategy map that maps your organizational strategic objectives to value streams, business capabilities, and, ultimately, to ECM programs

• Materials

• Your existing business capability map or the one created in the previous step (1.1.2).
• Business strategy (see next slide for an example)

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Content owners
• Content managers
• Project team
• Content custodians (IT)

Example of a strategy map tied to ECM

• Strategic objectives are the outcomes that the organization is looking to achieve.
• Value streams enable an organization to create and capture value in the market through interconnected activities that support strategic objectives.
• Business capabilities define what a business does to enable value creation in value streams.
• ECM capabilities and initiatives are descriptions of action items on the ECM roadmap and will enable one or multiple business capabilities in its desired target state.

Info-Tech Tip

Start with the strategic objectives, then map the value streams that will ultimately drive them. Next, link the key capabilities that enable each value stream. Then map the ECM initiatives that support those capabilities. This process will help you prioritize the initiatives that deliver the most value to the organization.

For this strategy map, download Info-Tech’s Industry Reference Architecture for Retail.

Step 1.2

Build High-Value Use Cases for ECM

Activities

• 1.2.1 Elicit Conduct ECM Operational Assessment
• 1.2.2 Build High-Value Use Cases

Build High-Value Use Cases

Info-Tech Tip

One of the most important aspects when building use cases is to ensure you include key performance indicators (KPIs) or measures of success. You have to be able to demonstrate how the use case ties back to the organizational priorities or delivers measurable business value. Leverage the KPIs and success factors of the business capabilities tied to each use case.

This step will guide you through the following activities:

Leverage your categorized business capability map to conduct deep-dive sessions with key business stakeholders for creating high-value uses cases

Discuss current challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with the use of information across the lines of business

Explore which other business capabilities, stakeholder groups, and business units will be impacted

Outcomes of this step

Relevant use cases that articulate the content-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization

Elicit user feedback

The most important way to get user and stakeholder buy-in and adoption is to listen to how they are impacted by ECM and what their pain points are and to use the strategy to demonstrate commitment to taking steps to ease their pain points.

This initial business experience-gathering activity will highlight real user problems or opportunities to start identifying themes and focus areas for further analysis via use cases.

• Info-Tech has designed an ECM Strategy Operational Assessment Elicitation Guide to ensure the necessary questions are asked in the information-gathering process.
• Refer to the interview guide prior to each information-gathering session. Remember, not all questions will be relevant for all stakeholders.
• The elicitation guide will help determine the following information about your footprint and lifecycle:
  • Individual and stakeholder group ECM use cases.
  • ECM operational complexity.
  • ECM operational improvement opportunities:
    • ECM pain points and issues.
    • ECM desires for the future (i.e. organizational needs).

1.2.1 Conduct ECM operational assessment

1. Determine the information-gathering method (i.e. focus groups, surveys, or interviews) and adapt the ECM Strategy Operational Assessment Elicitation Guide to suit the chosen method.
2. Communicate plans and schedule stakeholder information-gathering sessions.
3. Conduct information gathering-sessions for your ECM operational footprint assessment and ECM lifecycle assessment using the information gathering method selected.

Sample Stakeholder Group Information-Gathering Output

In this sample, Info-Tech worked with a US bank to develop requirements for its ECM strategy and technical solution. The focus group method was selected, and a template created to standardize information collected from 17 different stakeholder groups over a one-week period. The elicitation guide was used as a starting point, and modifications were made based on the scope of the ECM strategy (i.e. not all questions were included because some related to areas that were deemed out of scope).

Input

• Stakeholders and stakeholder groups

Output

• Stakeholder group ECM footprints
• Initial improvement opportunities list

Materials

• ECM Operational Assessment Elicitation Guide
• Focus group templates, survey, interview guide

Participants

• Project manager(s)
• Project team
• Stakeholder groups
• Content owners
• Content managers

1.2.2 Build high-value use cases

This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around content-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

1. Bring together key business stakeholders (content owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well the relevant information custodians to build cases for their units. Leverage the business capability map you created for facilitating this act.
2. Leverage Info-Tech’s framework for information requirements and methodology for creating use cases, as outlined in the ECM Use Case Framework Template and seen on the next slide.
3. Have the stakeholders move through each breakout session outlined in the Use Case Worksheet. Use flip charts or a whiteboard to brainstorm and document their thoughts.
4. Debrief and document results in the ECM Use Case Framework Template.
5. Repeat this exercise with as many lines of the business as possible, leveraging your business capability map to guide your progress and align with business value.

Tip: Don’t conclude these use case discussions without substantiating what measures of success will be used to demonstrate the business value of the effort to produce the desired future state, as relevant to each particular use case.

Input

• Value streams and business capabilities as defined by business leaders
• Business stakeholders’ subject area expertise
• Information ownership roles, content flow and types

Output

• Use cases that articulate content-related challenges, needs, or opportunities that are tied to defined business capabilities and, if addressed, will deliver measurable value to the organization.

Materials

• Your business capability map from step 1
• Info-Tech’s ECM Use Case Framework Template
• Whiteboard or flip charts (or shared screen if working remotely)
• Markers/pens

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Content owners, stewards
• Business SMEs
• Special advisory, e.g. Legal, Records, Security

Download Info-Tech’s ECM Use Case Framework Template

Info-Tech’s Framework for Building Use Cases

Objective: This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around information-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organization’s key business capabilities.

Consider:

• Is the business capability a cost advantage creator or an industry differentiator?
• Is the business capability currently underserved by information?
• Does this need to be addressed? If so, is this risk- or value-driven?

Info-Tech’s Data Requirements and Mapping Methodology for Creating Use Cases

1. What business capability (or capabilities) is this use case tied to for your business area(s)?
2. What are your information-related challenges in performing this today?
3. What are the steps in this process/activity today?
4. What are the applications/systems used at each step today?
5. What information domains are involved, created, used, and/or transformed at each step today?
6. What does an ideal or improved state look like?
7. What other business units, business capabilities, activities, and/or processes will be impacted or improved if this issue was solved?
8. Who are the stakeholders impacted by these changes? Who needs to be consulted?
9. What are the risks to the organization (business capability, revenue, reputation, customer loyalty, etc.) if this is not addressed?
10. What compliance, regulatory, and/or policy concerns do we need to consider in any solution?
11. What measures of success or change should we use to prove the value of the effort (such as KPIs, ROI)? What is the measurable business value of doing this?

The resulting use cases are to be prioritized and leveraged for informing the business case and the information capabilities optimization plan.

Taken from Info-Tech’s Use Case Framework Template.

Info-Tech’s Framework for Building Use Cases

Objective: This business needs-gathering activity will highlight and create relevant use cases around information-related problems or opportunities that are clear and contained and, if addressed, will deliver value to the organization.

Current state

• How are you currently managing your content?
• How does your current situation compare to your needs?
• What steps have you taken to resolve challenges you’ve encountered?

What is going well?

• What do you like about how things are going currently?
• What shouldn’t change (what should we stay away from)?
• What are some examples of positive outcomes that you have seen?

Challenges

• What’s not going well?
• What should be improved upon?
• What are the sources of the challenges you’ve identified?
• What do we need to know about your current state?

What would you like to see going forward?

• What sort of recommendations do you have for us?
• What does the new solution need to have?
• How should we govern it?
• What could go wrong that we should watch out for?

Use the stakeholder analysis and use cases to scope the ECM strategy

In this hypothetical example, a bank identifies a narrow focus for the scope of its ECM strategy. The bank has introduced a new low-rate mortgage product, complete with a go-to-market strategy, which includes a customer portal featuring eForms to help the mortgage team process application packages for members as well as communications to generate client demand for the new product.

Example of Scoping the ECM Strategy

Step 1.3

Define the Scope and Vision of Your ECM Strategy Development Project

Activities

• 1.3.1 Build Your ECM Vision
• 1.3.2 Build Your ECM Charter

Define and Document the Vision

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Creating a vision and mission for your ECM strategy
• Documenting and communicating ECM strategy project scope and roles

Outcomes of this step

• ECM strategy development strategy vision and project charter

1.3.1 Build your ECM vision

Complete the vision statement to set the direction, the “why,” for the changes you’re making. The vision is a reference point that should galvanize everyone in the organization and set guardrails for technical and process decisions to follow.

1. Bring together key business stakeholders (content owners, SMEs, and the relevant IT custodians) to craft an ECM vision statement.
2. Start with brainstorming keywords, such as customer-focused, empower the business, service excellence, findable and manageable, protected, accessible, paperless.
3. Highlight the keywords that resonate most with the group. Refer to sample vision statements for ideas.

Input

• Organizational vision and mission statements
• Stakeholder survey results and elicitation findings
• Use cases
• Business and ECM capability map

Output

• Vision and mission statements

Materials

• Markers and pens
• Whiteboard
• Online whiteboard
• Vision samples and templates

Participants

• Key business stakeholders
• Content managers
• Content owners
• Business leads and SMEs
• Project team
• Project sponsor

Create a common ECM vision that is consistently communicated to the organization

An ECM program should be an enterprise-wide initiative.

The vision is part of the information management framework, used to organize all the guidelines and artifacts of content and information management.

To create a strong vision for content management, the business and IT must participate. A common vision will articulate the state the organization wishes to achieve and how it will reach that state. Creating a vision helps to develop long-term goals and direction.

Once the vision is established, it must be effectively communicated to everyone, especially those who are involved in creating, managing, disposing, or archiving data.

The ECM program should be periodically refined. This will ensure the organization continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organization grows and data needs evolve.

Info-Tech Tips

• Use information from the stakeholder interviews to derive business goals and objectives.
• Work to integrate different opinions and perspectives into the overall vision for enterprise content management.
• Brainstorm guiding principles for content and understand the overall value to the organization.

Information management framework

The information management framework is a way to organize all the ECM program’s guidelines and artifacts.

The vision is a statement about the organization’s goals and provides a basis to guide decisions and rally employees toward a shared goal.

The principles or themes communicate the organization’s priorities for its information management program.

Policies are a set of guidelines that determine a course of action and that have been agreed to officially by an organization, e.g. the company is committed to safety for its employees.

Procedures are a set of actions for doing something, e.g. company employees will wear protective gear while on the production floor.

Craft your vision

Use the insights you gathered from users and stakeholders to develop a vision statement

The beginning of an ECM strategy is a clear set of goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). A good set of goals takes time and input from senior leadership and stakeholders.

• The ECM program lead is selling a compelling vision of what is possible.
• The vision also helps set the scope and expectations about what the ECM program lead is and is not doing.
• Be realistic about what you can do and how long it will take to see a difference.

Example vision statements:

The organization is dedicated to creating an enabling structure that helps the organization get the right information to the right people at the right time.

The organization is dedicated to creating a program that recognizes data as an asset, establishing a data-centric culture, and ensuring data quality and accessibility to achieve service excellence.

The vision should be short, memorable, and inspirational, and it should draw a clear picture of what that future-state ECM experience looks like.

Is it modern and high end, with digital and self-service?

Is it a trusted and transparent steward of customer assets?

Vision: Sample

Vision

• Paperless environment where all documents can be found
• Convenience and transparency, easily accessible
• Complies with federal regulations
• Retention and disposition
• Accountability for better service
• Minimizing application sprawl

Mission

• Establish a business strategy for document management and control
• Build a platform for future success – aligns with strategic priorities
• Streamline processes
• Modernize enabling technologies
• Ensure training and communication of how the processes work
• Improve everyone's understanding of digital content management and innovation

1.3.2 Build the ECM charter

Complete the ECM Strategy Development Project Charter to define the scope of your ECM strategy development project and select the appropriate stakeholders to accomplish in-scope activities.

1. To draft the ECM charter, bring together a core group of key project team members, including the project sponsor, project team, stakeholders, and IT.
2. Use Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Development Project Charter Template and other charter samples to review and document scope and roles and responsibilities.
3. At a mid-point in the charter draft preparation, arrange one-on-one reviews of the draft with the senior executive and any people who may occupy or be impacted by the roles described in the charter to get their feedback and provide a progress update.

It can set the project work back if decisions about roles and changes are made behind the scenes and then unveiled to an executive group for the first time without preapproval check-ins. When presenting to the formal senior leadership team for validation, there should be no surprises.

Input

• ECM vision statement
• Key use cases
• Stakeholder interview findings

Output

• ECM Strategy Development Project Charter with scope and roles and responsibilities

Materials

• ECM Strategy Development Project Charter Template and sample
• Other organization charters for reference and consistency

Participants

• Project team
• Project sponsor

Download Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Development Project Charter Template

Document and communicate ECM project scope and roles

The charter and terms of reference documents are important tools in reaching formal agreement on role definitions and the scope of the work.

This charter template will assist you in discussing and agreeing to project roles with the key stakeholders and in defining what is in and out of scope for the project work.

The charter and terms of reference documents are important tools in committing to change and also communicating to the organization what work is planned and who is involved.

These documents are some of the first things that a project or new committee should create to establish their purpose and makeup.

Identify the right stakeholders to include in your ECM assessment

The scope of your ECM strategy indicates the roles you need to include in information gathering sessions.
Ensure the perspectives you consider are aligned to the priorities identified in your ECM operating model.

Using Info-Tech’s ECM strategy scoping framework for stakeholder selection...

Define stakeholder roles for your ECM strategy development project

Stakeholders will be required for more than just information gathering. Teams need to be assembled to carry out analysis and planning and to eventually execute the strategy. Executives will need to be consulted and informed to provide approval and drive support in relevant areas of the organization.

Info-Tech Insight

Does your ECM strategy development project use a RACI chart? Clarify stakeholder roles by adopting the RACI standard for defining responsibilities, accountabilities, perspectives to consult, and individuals to inform across the project plan. See the RACI model on the following slide for more details.

Increase accountability and project quality: the RACI approach to stakeholder role definition

Once an ECM project team is assembled, structure a RACI chart with the relevant categories and roles for the overall project.

Responsible → Conducts work to achieve the task.

Accountable → Is answerable for completeness of task.

Consulted → Provides input for the task.

Informed → Receives updates on the task.

Benefits of assigning RACI roles early:

• Improve project quality by assigning the right people to the right tasks.
• Increase likelihood of project task completion by assigning clear accountabilities.
• Ensure continual project sponsorship by informing stakeholders of project progress, risks, and successes.

Phase 2

Assess Your Current ECM Operations

• 2.1 Profile ECM Operations and Opportunities
• 2.2 Identify Root Causes
• 2.3 Document Future State

Develop an Enterprise Content Management Strategy and Roadmap

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Understand the key components of enterprise content management
• Gauge your organization’s current ECM capabilities

This phase involves the following participants:

• Project management
• Content owners
• Records management officers
• Content management practice
• IT/Application services
• Information security
• Internal audit/quality assurance

About the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool

Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool allows users to create a three-level ECM roadmap by moving through an end-to-end process:

• Summarize and consolidate ECM improvement opportunities and map to stakeholder groups.
• Map improvement opportunities to ECM roadmap areas (i.e. root-cause analysis).
• Select work initiatives to realize ECM future-state visions.
• Scope work initiatives to coordinate stakeholders and timing of executable activities.
• Visualize roadmaps for stakeholder presentation and work activity coordination.

Introducing Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework

Diagnosing your ECM symptoms and prescribing your ECM resolutions is easier than you think.

The framework helps your organization:

• Determine the root causes (roadmap areas) underlying improvement opportunities.
• Define and visualize future-state visions for your ECM capability.
• Pinpoint the work initiatives required to resolve pain points and satisfy desires for the future, bringing your ECM visions to life.
• Prescribe activities (including inputs and outputs, risks and mitigations, and KPIs) for each work initiative.

Some assembly required

• Customize your organization’s ECM roadmap by:
  • Inputting your specific improvement opportunities.
  • Selecting the roadmap areas and work initiatives that are in scope for your current ECM initiative.
  • Defining timing for work initiatives.
  • Defining stakeholder responsibilities for activities.

Results: Detailed work plans that coordinate organizational activity in pursuit of your ECM capability

Future-State ECM Visions

ECM Roadmap

Work Initiative Action Plans

Case Study

INDUSTRY - Banking

SOURCE - Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech’s ECM Operational Assessment helps US credit union define strategy and system requirements

Challenge

State Department Federal Credit Union (SDFCU), a credit union located in the eastern United States, had a legacy check imaging system that needed to be replaced. Working together with IT, its deposit and check operations team brought in a new ECM system to help replace and improve the check imaging process. Given the gains experienced by users of the new system, SDFCU decided to embark on an initiative to migrate all content operations to a new system.

SDFCU needed expertise in the most current concepts of ECM. IT needed a systematic yet user-friendly approach to determine requirements for an ECM system and capability to support it.

Solution

SDFCU engaged Info-Tech Research Group to facilitate a week-long workshop with stakeholder groups with the goals of educating users on the concept of ECM, collecting their system requirements, and identifying process and capability governance improvements that would act to ensure future system investments.

Info-Tech met with each of SDFCU’s 17 departments to conduct the ECM footprint and information lifecycle assessments following Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Operational Assessment Elicitation Guide. Sessions were between two to three hours each and included representation from all staff levels.

Results

Working with IT, Info-Tech consolidated and summarized current operations in graphic form and in an improvement opportunity register. ECM improvement opportunities were translated into recommendations for process and governance improvements, as well as an RFP to clearly articulate technology requirements to the vendor audience.

Empowered by a framework for understanding ECM and detailed requirements, SDFCU was able to enter into vendor negotiation confidently, while IT had clear next steps to work on from a process and governance standpoint.

Step 2.1

Profile ECM Operations and Opportunities

Activities

• 2.1.1 Summarize ECM Operations
• 2.1.2 List Improvement Opportunities

Profile ECM Operations

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Summarize ECM operations
• Use ECM frameworks to organize findings and ideas about ECM operations: capabilities framework, lifecycle model, systems architecture
• Identify ECM improvement opportunities

Outcomes of this step

• Data-driven detailed assessment by stakeholders of current ECM capabilities required to achieve business goals and ECM vision

Select the elicitation method that will optimize responses from each stakeholder

Focus Group

• Sessions held between a small group (typically ten individuals or less).
• Requires an experienced facilitator to lead the conversation in a productive direction.

Considerations

• Highly effective for initial requirements brainstorming.
• Groupthink could spoil the reliability of respondents’ responses.
• Provides third-party expert opinions on ECM operations.

Recommendations

• Ideal for situations where groups of individuals encounter similar use cases, pain points, and desires for the future.

Survey/Questionnaire

• Surveys can either be closed ended or open ended.
• Closed ended: Fixed responses for each answer.
• Open ended: Respondents are free to answer questions in their own words.

Considerations

• In a close-ended survey, a Likert scale can be used to have respondents prioritize possible requirements.
• Easy for users to complete and doesn’t require a high investment of time.

Recommendations

• Ideal for collecting a large representation of perspectives from end users.

One-on-One Interview

• Interviews can either be structured or unstructured.
• In a structured interview, create a list of questions to ask the stakeholder and follow up where necessary.
• In an unstructured interview, allow for a “free-form” flow to the conversation.

Considerations

• Unstructured one-on-one interviews are effective for initial brainstorming.
• Structured interviews provide the opportunity to focus on areas of concern that were identified in earlier sessions.

Recommendations

• Ideal for stakeholders that may impact the opinions of others in a focus group.

There are no silver bullet solutions in ECM; issues are effectively resolved by an integrated approach

The journey to unlock ECM excellence can be a very hard one. It involves many disciplines coming together to form a new organizational capability – your ECM capability.

ECM Capability Conceptual Framework

Info-Tech defines an organization’s ECM capability as six interrelated concepts working together to enable superior content access and delivery for an organization. To unlock or improve your ECM capability, you need a clear roadmap. The goals of an ECM strategy roadmap development project include:

• Map improvement opportunities to ECM roadmap areas (i.e. root-cause analysis).
• Determine future-state visions for ECM information flow, system architecture, and governance.
• Select work initiatives to realize ECM future-state visions.
• Scope work initiatives to coordinate stakeholders and timing of executable activities.

Info-Tech Insight

Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. When building a roadmap, focus not only on what your organization needs, but also what it is ready for. The core of an effective ECM capability is effective information architecture and information governance. Unlocking ECM excellence requires going beyond the core to include system architecture, process management, and change management; maintaining it requires ongoing governance of the entire capability.

Take stock of the improvement opportunities that exist across the information lifecycle for ECM

Understand what “amazing” looks like for your ECM operation by reviewing use cases and determining the challenges, risks, and resolutions present and available at each stage of the information lifecycle.

Info-Tech’s ECM Information Lifecycle Model:

Info-Tech’s ECM information lifecycle model is a market-tested, best-of-breed framework

Info-Tech’s ECM information lifecycle identifies eleven potential states that content assets will occupy across four broader lifecycle stages. This model was developed in alignment to AIIM’s best practices for information management and has been refined over time in accordance with lessons learned during Info-Tech member engagements.

Reveal your ECM complexity by assessing the eight components of an ECM operation

Your ECM operation is a dynamic system of people, process, policies, and technologies working together to manage content assets over their lifecycle. You need a structured approach to understand it.

Info-Tech’s ECM Operational Footprint Model

Info-Tech Insight

The devil is in the details. ECM operations can be as complex and nuanced as the individuals and stakeholder groups they serve. Getting the entire enterprise-wide picture requires a systematic review of individual stakeholder groups’ ECM operations. Leave no stone unturned in your quest to understand the footprint of your ECM operation; the level of detail collected in this phase directly impacts the ease and completeness of ECM roadmap development later.

System architecture

Redundancies in content types, processes, and system functionality are easier to spot when taking a step back and looking at the big picture.

ECM Information Flow

In this sample, Info-Tech worked with a US bank to develop requirements for its ECM strategy and technical solution. The process involved input and validation from 17 different stakeholder groups, and graphics were used to ensure a common understanding throughout the process.

ECM System Architecture

In this sample, Info-Tech worked with a Canadian municipal government to develop an ECM strategy roadmap. The system architecture was summarized to clearly articulate duplicate functionality in departmentally deployed point solutions.

Refer to Info-Tech’s ECM Information Flow and System Architecture Template

2.1.1 Summarize ECM operations

1. Determine method for visually summarizing organizational ECM operations (e.g. whiteboard).
2. Review outputs from stakeholder group use cases and surveys and note similarities and differences among content types, processes, systems, and touchpoints for each group.
3. Create graphic depictions of the content types moving through processes into ECM systems and to touchpoints. Organize systems, processes, and touchpoints across stages of the information lifecycle (i.e. create, capture, access and utilize, manage and retire).
4. Create graphic depictions of the system environment featuring the various connection points for ECM systems, including content intake, management, delivery, and storage technologies.
5. Review organizational summaries and highlight any improvement opportunities, including redundancies and inefficiencies with content types, system functionality, and processes.

See next slide for sample improvement opportunities identified through macro analysis.

Input

• Use cases
• Surveys, interviews
• ECM Operational Footprint Model
• ECM frameworks: Lifecycle, Capabilities Framework, Systems Architecture

Output

• Organizational ECM operational summaries
• ECM improvement opportunities

Materials

• Paper and pen
• Whiteboard and markers
• Computer (including Visio, Archi, PowerPoint, or etc.)

Participants

• Project manager(s)
• Project team
• Stakeholder groups

2.1.1 Summarize ECM operations, cont’d

Sample improvement opportunities identified through macro analysis:

Macro Issues With ECM Operations

• Departmental issues cascade upwards, resulting in suboptimal ECM operations at the organizational level:
• Lack of organizational apparatus for centralized control of ECM operations organizationally.
• Departments and process teams operate largely within their own silo, fragmenting the ECM environment into multiple fiefdoms that each have their own conventions and techniques.
• Multiple content repositories are present, even within the same department or process team (typically this is a mix of App-Xtender, network drives, and LOB applications, but it also includes third-party or cloud storage solutions).
• This fragmented storage environment makes content retrieval processes overly manual and cumbersome, negatively impacting service delivery.
• Lack of integration (system- and process-based) with external partners creates additional lags in service delivery and manual efforts with workflows.
• Duplicate processes exist across departments that highlight opportunity for reorganization of the division of labor (e.g. content imaging, content indexing, physical records management).

Input

• Use cases
• Surveys, interviews
• ECM Operational Footprint Model
• ECM frameworks: Lifecycle, Capabilities Framework, Systems Architecture

Output

• Organizational ECM operational summaries
• ECM improvement opportunities

Materials

• Paper and pen
• Whiteboard and markers
• Computer (including Visio, Archi, PowerPoint, or etc.)

Participants

• Project manager(s)
• Project team
• Stakeholder groups

Consolidate and summarize your ECM improvement opportunities in a register

Improvement opportunities will come from a variety of sources. Create a register to consolidate and summarize unique improvement opportunities and gauge the number of stakeholder groups impacted.

In this sample, Info-Tech worked with a US bank to develop requirements for its ECM strategy and technical solution. The results from 17 focus groups held with stakeholder groups, as well as additional summary and analysis at the organizational level, yielded a large list of improvement opportunities. A master list was created to consolidate duplicate improvement opportunities and to clearly indicate which stakeholder groups were impacted.

Impact is important

Once your initial improvement opportunities register is created, allow stakeholder groups to review and make any modifications. Understanding the number of people impacted by any given improvement opportunity is critical for prioritizing ECM roadmap work initiatives at later stages in your ECM strategy development project. The more accurately your register represents your organization, the better positioned you are to select the tasks that will provide the most value.

2.1.2 List improvement opportunities

1. Review outputs from stakeholder information-gathering sessions (e.g. focus group notes, survey export, interview notes) and other improvement opportunities noted while visually summarizing the ECM operation at the organizational level.
2. Open tab 2. IO Register in the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool and document all unique improvement opportunities identified throughout the ECM operational assessment in column C.
3. For each improvement opportunity listed, indicate any stakeholder groups in which this improvement opportunity was communicated and/or observed by selecting “yes” from the drop-down menus provided in columns E to BB.

Screenshot of Tab 2. IO Register:

Please Note: While improvement opportunities may overlap between stakeholder groups, they are inherently personal to individuals’ experiences working in the ECM operation. For best results in the ECM strategy, include as many different perspectives as possible in information gathering. The Excel tool uses the number of stakeholder groups impacted to calculate importance for various work initiatives, so any esoteric or low-value improvement opportunities will “come out in the wash” and not have a disproportionately large impact on your overall ECM strategy and roadmap.

Input

• Use cases
• Surveys, interviews
• ECM Operational Footprint Model
• ECM frameworks: Lifecycle, Capabilities Framework, Systems Architecture

Output

• ECM improvement opportunities register

Materials

• ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool (tab 2. IO Register)

Participants

• Project managers
• Project team
• Content managers/owners

Step 2.2

Identify Root Causes

Activities

• 2.1.1 Document Root Causes

Identify Root Causes

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Diagnose causes underlying the problems that surfaced during Phase 1 discovery
• Identify important work initiatives for the ECM plan

Outcomes of this step

• Focus areas for the ECM roadmap and work initiatives

Begin roadmap development by identifying the root causes of your ECM improvement opportunities

ECM root causes relate directly to the areas of Info-Tech’s ECM capability conceptual framework, allowing for simple diagnosis of your ECM pains and desires.

Info-Tech’s ECM Root-Cause Diagnosis Thought Model

2.2.1 Document root causes

1. In the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool, open tab 3. Root-Cause Analysis to review the improvement opportunities you have identified in the ECM operational assessment.
2. Review Info-Tech’s ECM root-cause diagnosis thought model to familiarize yourself with how each improvement opportunity relates to one of six ECM-related root causes.
3. Determine which root cause underlies each of your improvement opportunities and document in tab 3. Root-Cause Analysis by selecting the appropriate root cause from the drop-down menus provided in column D.

This tool is powered by Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework, located in the Appendix.

Screenshot of Tab 3. Root-Cause Analysis:

Input

• Improvement opportunity register

Output

• ECM root-cause analysis
• Menu for ECM roadmap work initiative selection

Materials

• ECM root-cause analysis thought model
• ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool (tab 3. Root-Cause Analysis)

Participants

• Project managers
• Project team
• Content Managers

Step 2.3

Document the Future State

Activities

• 2.3.1 Document the Future State

Document the Future State

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Visualize and document the future ECM state

Outcomes of this step

• Future ECM state landscape

Align the organization around your ECM vision by developing future-state summary graphics

A picture is worth a thousand words. Providing a clear visual of what your ECM capability will achieve shows strong leadership and minimizes stakeholder confusion as you work through the steps of your roadmap.

ECM Information Flow

ECM System Architecture

ECM Governance

Info-Tech Insight

Graphics are extremely helpful, but not always worth it. The more use cases, stakeholders, and systems involved in your ECM project, the more beneficial graphics will be to mobilize a coordinated approach. However, the time and effort necessary to create these graphics may not hold as much value for ECM projects with a narrower scope. Balance the need for future-state graphics with the complexity of your ECM project.

2.3.1 Document the future state

1. Determine the method for visually summarizing ECM future-state visions (e.g. whiteboard, PowerPoint, Visio).
2. Gather the project team and review improvement opportunities identified through stakeholder group and organizational operational assessments within the project team.
3. Leveraging organizational ECM operational summaries as needed, brainstorm what the ideal future state will look like for ECM information flow, ECM system architecture, and ECM governance:
   • ECM Information Flow: Create graphic depictions of the content types moving through processes into ECM systems and to touchpoints; organize systems, processes, and touchpoints across stages of the information lifecycle (i.e. create, capture, access and utilize, manage and retire).
   • ECM System Architecture: Create a graphic depiction of the system environment that features the various connection points for ECM systems, including content intake, management, delivery, and storage technologies.
   • ECM Governance: Create a graphic depiction of the organizational body (including roles and responsibilities) that will monitor and enforce any rules and carry out continuous improvement activities.

Input

• Organizational ECM operational summaries
• Improvement opportunity register

Output

• Future-state ECM capability vision

Materials

• Paper and pen
• Whiteboard and markers
• Drawing tool (e.g. Visio, PowerPoint)

Participants

• Project managers
• Project team
• Content managers
• IT/content custodians

Info-Tech Insight

Remember your ECM objectives and maturity. Are you looking at building out core capabilities, unlocking ECM excellence, and/or maintaining continuous improvements? More advanced pieces of your ECM capability may be out of scope for now. Focus only on creating visuals for the roadmap areas that you can reasonably achieve in the next two to three years.

Phase 3

Build a Target-State Roadmap and Plan

• 3.1 Evaluate ECM Work Initiatives
• 3.2 Socialize and Validate ECM Roadmap
• 3.3 Execute Your ECM Strategy Roadmap

Develop an Enterprise Content Management Strategy and Roadmap

“Achieving data success is a journey, not a sprint. Companies that set a clear course, with reasonable expectations and phased results over a period of time, get to the destination faster.”
– Randy Bean, 2020

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

• Build your ECM strategy roadmap
• Develop a target-state plan comprising prioritized initiatives

This phase involves the following participants:

• Project team
• Content owners
• Content managers
• IT custodians

Step 3.1

Evaluate ECM Work Initiatives

Activities

Evaluate ECM Work Initiatives

• This step will guide you through the following activities:

Build your ECM roadmap

• Develop a target state plan comprising prioritized initiatives

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for ECM initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

Understand the six areas of an ECM capability and the work that is needed to bring them to life

Info-Tech’s ECM Roadmap Development Framework Summary

Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework explains how each area contributes to an idealized ECM capability, allowing you to select and scope out the roadmap work initiatives you need to execute to realize your future-state visions.

See the full ECM roadmap development framework in the Appendix.

• Select work initiatives by reviewing descriptions and considering the inclusion criteria.
• Scope work initiatives by reviewing the activities, inputs, and outputs required for each.

ECM information architecture is a puzzle that pieces together to enable content findability

The ability for users to find content through search and browse is dependent on the degree to which the site design, taxonomy, folksonomy, and metadata serve the natural patterns of users.

ECM Information Architecture Conceptual Model

Info-Tech Insight

Understand the impact of poor information architecture. On average, users report that the time they spend per day filing and maintaining existing information or searching for new information averages out at around 37 minutes, e.g. 8% of the working day. “Search fatigue” is also considered a significant long-term problem (AIIM, 2011).

ECM information governance ensures quality standard adherence across the information lifecycle

Maintaining standards for content asset management at each stage of the information lifecycle starts with careful policy planning and is enforced through governance functions.

Info-Tech’s ECM Information Lifecycle Governance Model

Bringing Your Information Governance Policies to Life

In ECM, governance can expand beyond information to include an entire program of capability-enabling functions (i.e. ECM capability governance). At a bare minimum, an organization needs to define, police, and enforce the rules of the road for its information architecture and at each stage of the information lifecycle.

1. Elicit and prioritize rules and standards to be formalized in information governance policies.
2. Determine objectives and scope for each policy.
3. Staff policies with roles, responsibilities, and enforcement powers.
4. Determine monitoring and auditing schedule

ECM process management optimizes information access across organizational processes

ECM can extend beyond content organization to improve access to content across organizational processes, including service delivery, through the prioritization, mapping, analysis, and re-engineering of content-centric processes.

Info-Tech’s Model for Process Improvement

1. Prioritize content-centric processes for inclusion.
2. Map the current state of each process.
3. Analyze the information access improvement opportunities for each process.
4. Re-engineer each process to align with improvement opportunities.

Prioritizing Content-Centric Processes

Processes and functions are characterized by ECM use cases. Your objectives may focus on operational ECM (i.e. back-office, day-to-day), mission-critical ECM (i.e. front-office, customer-facing), or some or all of both cases – and each has its own benefits for your ECM capability depending on the process or function type. Ensure the processes prioritized align to your organizational, IT, and ECM objectives.

ECM system architecture optimizes content operations and organizational processes via tech

The ability of ECM software to improve operations and processes is dependent on an organization’s ability to understand business requirements, distill them into functional and nonfunctional system requirements, and manage vendor selection.

Info-Tech’s ECM Vendor Technology Model

Distilling the Right ECM Solution

ECM technology is a big topic; ensure your system architecture correctly aligns to the objectives and scope of your ECM strategy development project. Each area of ECM comprises several technology types that further subdivide into specific modules and functionality. These all play different roles across the information lifecycle. Gather requirements only for those that support your use cases.

ECM change management sets users up to adopt the new organizational ECM capability

Introducing new ECM information architecture, information governance, processes, and/or system functionality requires careful planning and coordination of communications and training for all perspectives across the enterprise.

Info-Tech’s Model for ECM Change Management

Info-Tech Insight

Bringing about sustained change is hard work. Technology projects fail at an alarming rate at great cost to the companies who sponsor them. “90% fail to deliver measurable ROI” (Forbes, 2021). Ensure you are comprehensive in addressing all the changes your ECM capability will bring, and rely on ECM objectives to prioritize.

ECM capability governance ensures ongoing excellence of the organizational ECM capability

The rate of adoption and the longevity of organization’s ECM capability is greatly improved with a governance committee to organize people and processes to oversee ECM operations. Develop and deliver functions to ensure ongoing compliance and continuous improvement.

Info-Tech’s Model for ECM Governance Committee Functions

The requirements to define governance committee functions will originate from the output from the other areas of your ECM strategy roadmap.

Developing ECM Governance

Every facet of your ECM capability can be vastly improved by creating specific functions to plan, execute, monitor, and enforce the work within them. Think of it as self-sufficient insurance for your ECM investments of effort, time, and money.

ECM governance committee development process:

1. Identify and define governance committee functions.
2. Staff governance committee functions with roles, responsibilities, and enforcement powers.
3. Determine monitoring and auditing schedule.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t be afraid to give up power! Sustaining your ECM capability is about empowering new people and processes. Without a willingness to decentralize and adopt governance controls and excellence functions across your ECM operation, the execution of your strategy will be left to those few people who retain power, remain an ad hoc initiative, or – worst of all – be nothing more than words on a page.

Holistically determine the value of each ECM work initiative to your ECM capability

Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool automatically calculates an average importance score based on the number of stakeholder groups impacted, but other quantitative and qualitative metrics must be considered for a complete evaluation.

Quantitative Metrics

• Number of internal stakeholders impacted by each improvement opportunity and related work initiatives.
• Number of external parties impacted by each improvement opportunity and related work initiatives.
• Cost to execute each work initiative (factoring in people, materials, and technology costs).
• Time to execute each work initiative.
• Expected savings in costs achieved upon building out the ECM capability area related to each work initiative.
• Expected savings in time achieved upon building out the ECM capability area related to each work initiative.

Qualitative Metrics

• Improvements in user experience (i.e. job satisfaction) as a result of the ECM capability area related to each work initiative.
• Improvements in customer experience and satisfaction as a result of the ECM capability area related to each work initiative.
• Assurance gained from improved information quality standards.
• Innovations gained from improved access to information and knowledge.
• Assurances gained from heightened information security as a result of the ECM capability area related to each work initiative.
• Innovations gained from achieving process excellence (e.g. building institutional knowledge into organizational processes).

Select work initiatives with Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework

Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework provides inclusion criteria to help you critically assess whether or not each work initiative should be a part of your roadmap.

Work Initiative Inclusion Criteria

See the Appendix for the complete set of ECM roadmap work initiative inclusion criteria.

Selecting ECM Roadmap Work Initiatives

Focus on the ECM work initiatives that most critically address your improvement opportunities and realize your ECM vision.

Inclusion criteria are listed for each work initiative in the Appendix. They are phrased as yes/no questions.

Review the inclusion criteria for each candidate work initiative, and strongly consider including the work initiatives where you answer yes.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t forget about the work you’ve already done. There are no greenfield ECM projects, and chances are some of the work initiatives in Info-Tech’s framework will overlap with some of what’s already been done. When making a final decision on including any information-gathering work (e.g. content audit, process mapping), consider what you already know. When making a decision on including any development or execution work, consider any plans that have already been created and use them as part of your roadmap.

3.1.1 Evaluate and select work initiatives

1. In the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool, open tab 4. WI Selection to review all your potential ECM roadmap work initiatives and descriptions (columns D and E), along with the calculated importance (column F) for each.
2. Holistically evaluate the overall value of work initiatives by considering qualitative and quantitative metrics for each. Document the value of each work initiative to your organization by selecting the appropriate value statement from the drop-down menus provided in column G.
3. Review inclusion criteria for each work initiative in Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework and determine whether each will be in scope, out of scope, or a long-term goal for your organization. Document the decision by selecting the appropriate option from the drop-down menus in column H (for in-scope work initiatives, indicate the status of each, reflecting any work completed to date).

Screenshot of Tab 4. WI Selection:

Input

• Menu for ECM roadmap work initiative selection
• Future-state ECM capability visions

Output

• In-scope work initiatives

Materials

• ECM roadmap development framework
• ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool

Participants

• Project managers
• Project team

Scope work initiatives with Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework

Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework prescribes detailed action plans for each work initiative, allowing you to quickly determine the ordering and timing of, as well as the resources to involve at, each step of your ECM roadmap.

Work Initiative Action Plans

See the Appendix for the complete set of ECM roadmap work initiative action plans.

Scoping ECM Roadmap Work Initiatives

Detailed action plans are provided for each ECM work initiative in the Appendix. Action plans include the inputs needed to initiate the work, activities necessary to carry out the work, and the outputs delivered by the work.

Review action plans for your selected work initiatives to determine:

• What order the work initiatives need to occur in.
• How much time is needed to complete each initiative.
• Who will be involved throughout.

Info-Tech Insight

Use Info-Tech’s framework as a starting point. No two ECM capabilities will be identical, due to varying contexts, objectives, scopes, and individual stakeholders involved. Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework is comprehensive and general in its design – be sure to modify it to suit your specific needs.

3.1.2 Determine scope of ECM work initiatives

1. In the ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool, open tab 5. WI Scoping to review in-scope ECM roadmap work initiatives (column D).
2. Review the inputs, activities, and outputs required to complete each work initiative in Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework and determine who in your organization will be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed at each step. Document stakeholders for each role by typing names, groups, teams, departments, etc., in columns H to K.
3. Consider interdependencies of work initiatives and determine the order of execution for your roadmap. Document roadmap ordering by typing in proposed start dates for each work initiative in column L.
4. Consider the time and effort required to execute the activities of each work initiative in the context of both ECM project scope complexity and resource availability. Document roadmap timing by typing in proposed end dates for each work initiative in column M.

Screenshot of Tab 5. WI Scoping:

Input

• In-scope work initiatives
• Organizational chart

Output

• ECM roadmap timing
• ECM roadmap resource RACIs

Materials

• ECM roadmap development framework
• ECM Strategy Roadmap Creation Tool

Participants

• Project managers
• Project team

Info-Tech Insight

Remember your ECM objectives and maturity. Are you looking at building out core capabilities, unlocking ECM excellence, and/or maintaining continuous improvements? More advanced pieces of your ECM capability may be out of scope for now. Focus only on creating visuals for the roadmap areas that you can reasonably achieve in the next two to three years.

Step 3.2

Socialize and Validate the ECM Roadmap

Activities

• 3.2.1 Socialize and Validate the ECM Roadmap

Socialize and Validate the ECM Roadmap

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Build your ECM roadmap
• Develop a target-state plan comprising prioritized initiatives

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for ECM initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

Review your ECM roadmap project phases, work initiatives, and action plans

Info-Tech’s ECM Roadmap Creation Tool provides three levels of project planning insight, enabling easy communication and coordination of tasks that will bring your ECM vision to life.

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3
ECM Project Phases	ECM Work Initiatives	ECM Action Plans
Displays timing for major project phases.	Displays ordering and timing for specific work initiatives.	Displays work initiative activities, stakeholder resourcing, inputs, outputs, risks, mitigations, success factors, and related Info-Tech resources.

Review, revise, and validate plans using Info-Tech’s ECM Strategy Stakeholder Presentation template

Before you can execute your ECM roadmap, you must gain the necessary organizational buy-in from senior management and other key stakeholders.

Presentation Considerations	Info-Tech Deliverable
Know your audience Who are you presenting to? What is your audience’s level of technical expertise? Speak their language How can technical content be translated into measures of cost benefits? Time benefits? Quality benefits? What is relevant to the big picture? Prepare your presentation What content will you include? What high-level decisions can you highlight? What tone will you use?
If these considerations are ignored, the result could be disengagement and resistance from critical stakeholders. Ensure you are correctly communicating initiatives to the people that matter.	Populate the relevant sections of your stakeholder presentation as you complete activities 1.1.1 to 3.1.2.

3.2.1 Socialize and validate the ECM roadmap

1. Tailor the ECM Strategy Stakeholder Presentation to your organization.
2. Schedule a one-hour meeting with relevant management and other stakeholders.
3. Conduct the presentation, recording feedback received throughout.
4. Revise your strategy according to feedback received and seek final sign-off prior to beginning task execution.
5. Email links for the ECM strategy stakeholder presentation deck to audience members for reference.

Screenshots of the ECM Strategy Stakeholder Presentation template:

Input

• Activities 1.1.1 to 3.1.2

Output

• ECM strategy stakeholder presentation
• ECM strategy project approval and stakeholder buy-in

Materials

• ECM Strategy Stakeholder Presentation template
• Meeting room with projecting capabilities
• Online meeting software

Participants

• Project managers
• Project sponsor
• Stakeholder groups

Case Study

INDUSTRY - Banking
SOURCE - Info-Tech Research Group

International bank gets a major ECM transformation back on track with Info-Tech

Challenge

A major bank based in the West Indies was experiencing increased competition from smaller regional players and credit unions. In response, the executive board had developed a five-year organizational transformation strategy with an emphasis on automating customer-facing services and improving organizational decision making through technology.

The bank’s first objective was selecting and implementing an ECM system with robust process management functionality. However, after completing requirements gathering internally and issuing an RFP, the project team felt they lacked a coordinated plan to select and implement a system that would align to the bank’s strategy.

Solution

The bank engaged Info-Tech Research Group to develop a roadmap for the ECM piece of its transformation strategy.

Faced with executive pressure to make a vendor selection decision as soon as possible, Info-Tech customized its standard strategy development approach to address the bank’s needs with a two-phase approach. The first phase involved vendor selection, including RFP response scoring and vendor demonstrations and scoring. The second phase included stakeholder interviews to identify and develop a roadmap to close any gaps in the bank’s current plan.

Results

After successfully facilitating the selection of an ECM vendor and completing stakeholder interviews, Info-Tech worked with the bank’s ECM project team to coordinate work initiatives needed to address strategic gaps.

Info-Tech guided the ECM project team through a workshop that included training on the six subdisciplines of an ECM capability, as well as the ECM roadmap development framework, followed by selecting and scoping necessary work initiatives based on insights gained in stakeholder interviews. With a comprehensive roadmap and a toolkit to execute it, the confidence of the project team, and senior managers, was renewed.

Step 3.3

Execute the ECM Roadmap

Activities

• 3.3.1 Execute the ECM Strategy

Execute the ECM Roadmap

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Build your ECM roadmap
• Develop a target-state plan comprising of prioritized initiatives

Outcomes of this step

• A foundation for ECM initiative planning that’s aligned with the organization’s business architecture: value streams, business capability map, and strategy map

Introducing Info-Tech’s ECM strategy roadmap execution toolkit

Use the right tools for the hard job of building and maintaining your new organizational ECM capability.

The toolkit helps your organization:

Carry out the activities prescribed in the work initiatives of your ECM roadmap, including:

• Information architecture (content audit, taxonomy, metadata, and folksonomy)
• Information governance (policies and enforcement)
• Process management (mapping, assessment, and re-engineering)
• System architecture (readiness, design, build, integration, and operation)
• Governance capability (committee functions, roles, and responsibilities)

Some assembly required

• Usher in your new organizational ECM capability by:
  • Introducing new roles and processes.
  • Coordinating the work needed to get this done.
  • Providing the means by which all of this (roles, processes, and activities) can be managed.

Results: Unlocking and sustaining benefits across your organizational ECM capability.

Use Info-Tech’s ECM Content Audit Tool to understand, and then transform, your content

Gain detailed visibility into and assess the value of the content in your backlog ahead of other information architecture work initiatives.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Content Audit Tool when executing:

Content Audit, Indexing Plan, Content Migration, Content Archiving, Content Purge

Sections of the Tool:

Working with the ECM Content Audit Tool

Defining Content Types

Be MECE – mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive – when defining content types. For example:

• Marketing and HR both produce monthly reports, but they communicate different things and are thus defined as two separate content types.
• Employees of different departments fill out the same expense report, so it is categorized as one content type.

Defining Metadata Fields

Take a holistic approach; consider how the three different metadata types apply to your content assets:

• Administrative – describes content’s technical characteristics and access rights.
• Descriptive – aids in discovery and identification of content.
• Structural – describes the way the content relates to business processes.

Classifying Content for Transformation

Think critically about your content backlog and reduce your work:

• Purge any content that fits the ROT model (redundant content, outdated content, and trivial content).
• Archive any content that holds sentimental, strategic, or historic value outside of mandated retention periods.
• Migrate any content within retention periods or that otherwise holds strategic organizational value.

Use Info-Tech’s ECM Taxonomy Designer Tool to organize content locations and access rights

Help users find information faster with a folder structure that houses content (whether electronic or physical) in accordance with stakeholder informational access behavior and needs.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Taxonomy Designer Tool when executing:

Taxonomy Design, Security and Access Policies

Sections of the Tool:

Working with the ECM Taxonomy Designer Tool

Designing Taxonomies

• Apply taxonomy design guidelines for best results and ease of implementation:
• Keep sites, drives, folders, and subfolders MECE (mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive). Each area of the taxonomy should be distinct from the others to allow for logical browsing and identification of storage locations.
• Keep the number of top-level sites and drives to within two more or less than of the number of unique stakeholder groups (departments, divisions, business lines, etc.)
• Keep top-down imposed taxonomy designs shallow. Do not try to impose any more than three levels of taxonomy.
• Let the “folksonomy” work for you. Allow users to have their own creative freedom beyond level three. Periodically review users’ storage patterns in the folksonomy to identify best practices that can be worked into the formal taxonomy design.

Defining Access Rights

Balance the need for flexibility with the need for security:

• Segment content types by security clearance levels to identify the most at-risk content types. Apply access rights only to the content assets that have the highest risk.

Use Info-Tech’s Information Governance Policy Templates to set up and enforce your ECM rules

Usher in and maintain peace, order, and good governance across your ECM operations with a comprehensive and logical set of content management rules.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Information Governance Policy Templates when executing policies for:

Site Design, Taxonomy & Naming, Metadata, Folksonomy, Content Asset Design, Digitization, Content Asset Access, Retention, Archiving, Destruction & Disposition, Monitoring & Auditing

Building a Policy

1. Elicit and prioritize rules and standards to be formalized in information governance policies.
2. Determine objectives and scope for each policy.
3. Staff policies with roles, responsibilities, and enforcement powers.
4. Determine monitoring and auditing schedule.

Working With the Policy Templates

Match Rigidity of Rules With Maturity of Content Operation

Consider your organizational structure and complexity of business processes to right-size your information governance policies.

• Large volumes and high complexity of content will require stricter governance to ensure your ECM operation is sustainable.
• Specialized content asset types and content management processes require specialized policies; for example, to govern the digitization of analog content or compliance with standards relating to retention or privacy of information.

Balance Flexibility and Security

The tendency to heavily police your ECM operation for the sake of security may affect the user experience and consequentially decrease user adoption. Balance the need for user flexibility with the need for security.

• It is necessary to govern your taxonomy; beyond a certain point, provide best practices and guiding principles to manage how users develop their folksonomy and metadata.
• Centralize the responsibility for granting security clearance levels and access privileges to ensure only the appropriate individuals have the right to view sensitive content.

Distribute the Responsibility for Information Governance

Policies are only useful if they are adhered to.

• It is impossible for one person to police and enforce policies across the entire organization; distribute enforcement powers across stakeholder groups.
• Have certain stakeholders act as content stewards to ensure policies relating to information architecture, retention and archiving, and design standards are complied with.

Use Info-Tech’s Information Governance Policy Templates to set up and enforce your ECM rules

Usher in and maintain peace, order, and good governance across your ECM operations with a comprehensive and logical set of content management rules.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Information Governance Policy Templates when executing policies for:

Site Design, Taxonomy & Naming, Metadata, Folksonomy, Content Asset Design, Digitization, Content Asset Access, Retention, Archiving, Destruction & Disposition, Monitoring & Auditing

Building a Policy

1. Elicit and prioritize rules and standards to be formalized in information governance policies.
2. Determine objectives and scope for each policy.
3. Staff policies with roles, responsibilities, and enforcement powers.
4. Determine monitoring and auditing schedule.

Working With the Policy Templates

Match Rigidity of Rules With Maturity of Content Operation

Consider your organizational structure and complexity of business processes to right-size your information governance policies.

• Large volumes and high complexity of content will require stricter governance to ensure your ECM operation is sustainable.
• Specialized content asset types and content management processes require specialized policies; for example, to govern the digitization of analog content or compliance with standards relating to retention or privacy of information.

Balance Flexibility and Security

The tendency to heavily police your ECM operation for the sake of security may affect the user experience and consequentially decrease user adoption. Balance the need for user flexibility with the need for security.

• It is necessary to govern your taxonomy; beyond a certain point, provide best practices and guiding principles to manage how users develop their folksonomy and metadata.
• Centralize the responsibility for granting security clearance levels and access privileges to ensure only the appropriate individuals have the right to view sensitive content.

Distribute the Responsibility for Information Governance

Policies are only useful if they are adhered to.

• It is impossible for one person to police and enforce policies across the entire organization; distribute enforcement powers across stakeholder groups.
• Have certain stakeholders act as content stewards to ensure policies relating to information architecture, retention and archiving, and design standards are complied with.

Use Info-Tech’s ECM Change Register to inventory the changes your ECM vision will bring

Comprehensively understand the wide array of changes your new ECM capability will bring to your organization so you can prioritize and develop a strong plan of attack.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Change Register when executing:

Change Management Scope Planning

Sections of the Template:

1. Audit ECM roadmap areas for change.
2. Document change initiatives.
3. Prioritize change initiatives.
4. Identify high-level approach to address change.

Working With the ECM Change Register

Diverge First, Converge Second

Brainstorm as many changes as possible in each ECM capability area before you prioritize those that matter most:

• It is better to have a laundry list of changes that are not be formally addressed than it is to miss a critical change and isolate a user.
• Be as detailed as possible when describing the changes. A single change may have many important nuances that require their own communication and/or training resolution.

Match Change Management Approaches to Cultural Realities

Effective change management is the result of effective training and communication, but doing both of these may not be appropriate for your organization:

• Consider if communicating the change is enough, or if training is also required.
• Consider the number and skill sets of resources available to execute change programs.
• Consider past projects that were of a similar scope/complexity. What worked/didn’t work with change management here?

Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

Leverage training resources available to you:

• Vendor-provided materials (e.g. Microsoft SharePoint TechNet resources)
• Independently sourced materials (e.g. YouTube)
• Industry-provided materials (e.g. AIIM training, Shared Services Canada training)

Use Info-Tech’s ECM Capability Governance Charter Template to sustain your ECM capability

Take a deeper dive into the information architecture subject by reviewing the other materials in Info-Tech’s ECM information architecture library.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Use the ECM Capability Governance Charter Template when executing:

Capability Governance Function Planning, Capability Governance Action Planning, Assemble Capability Governance Charter

Sections of the Template:

1. Purpose and mandate
2. Scope
3. Agenda
4. Meeting cycle
5. Project team and RACI
6. Approval

Working With the Charter Template

Take the Path of Least Resistance

Align your governance programming to existing organizational structures:

• You may not need to create a wholly new organizational body to manage your ECM capability on an ongoing basis. Consider leveraging existing steering committees, project teams, etc.

Match Formality of Governance Programming With Cultural Realities

Effective governance must be aligned to the culture of your organization:

• Does the complexity of your new ECM capability necessitate a robust capability governance program or is this something that can be handled through less formal means?
• Are people used to being policed or would this introduce a new dynamic?

Include Capability Governance as Part of Your Change Program

The act of formalizing a governance program to support your ECM capability has high potential to effect change in your organization:

• Consider how staff responsibilities will change in the new world.
• Consider any new roles that will be created as part of the new world.
• Consider how meeting cycles, roles, and responsibilities impact the day-to-day organizational processes.

3.3.1 Execute your ECM strategy roadmap

1. Review your ECM strategy roadmap as completed in activity 3.1 and represented in your ECM strategy stakeholder presentation in activity 3.1.3. Modify the RACIs, inputs, outputs, and KPIs of your work initiative (WI) profiles based on stakeholder feedback.
2. Coordinate stakeholders across each WI, according to WI RACIs.
3. Identify resources necessary to execute each WI, and provide the appropriate stakeholders with those resources. Be sure to consider resources from Info-Tech’s roadmap execution toolkit.
4. Execute each WI.
5. Monitor and review progress along the way and modify WIs and roadmap as necessary.

Input

• Completed ECM roadmap

Output

• Modified ECM strategy roadmap
• Stakeholder and resource coordination and allocation
• Strategy execution

Materials

• ECM strategy roadmap execution toolkit

Participants

• Project managers
• Project sponsor
• Stakeholder groups
• Project team

Additional Support

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech Workshop

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

To accelerate this project, engage your team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.

Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

Build Your Business and User Context	Formulate a Plan to Get to Your Target State
Work with your core team of stakeholders to build out your ECM strategy map, aligning ECM initiatives with business capabilities, value streams, and, ultimately, your strategic priorities.	Develop an ECM future-state roadmap and plan based on an understanding of your current ECM capabilities, your operating environment, and the driving needs of your business.

Related Info-Tech Research

Right-Size the Governance Model for Your ECM Program
Operationalize and optimize your ECM program through effective governance.

Embrace Information Lifecycle Management in Your ECM Program
Assure the quality of your information assets from cradle to grave (and every stage in between) with an effective information classification scheme, policies, and governance.

Effectively Use SharePoint as Your ECM Solution
Structure your content for a successful user experience.

Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata
Properly store your digital assets today so you can find them fast tomorrow.

Research Contributors

Bibliography

Andriole, Steve. “3 Main Reasons Why Big Technology Projects Fail -- & Why Many Companies Should Just Never Do Them.” Forbes, 25 March 2021. Web.

“Avoiding Records Management Risks.” Iron Mountain, n.d. Web.

Barker, Deane. "What Content Management Is (and Isn’t)." Web Content Management. O’Reilly, 2021.

Bean, Randy. “Why Culture Is the Greatest Barrier to Data Success.” MIT Sloan Management Review, 30 Sept. 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Bricker, Dave. Story Sailing: A Guide to Storytelling for Speakers, Trainers, and Coaches. Essential Absurdities Press, 2019.

Carruthers, Caroline, and Peter Jackson. The Chief Data Officer’s Playbook, 2nd ed. IBM Institute for Business Value, 2020.

“Data Creation and Replication Will Grow at a Faster Rate than Installed Storage Capacity, According to the IDC Global DataSphere and StorageSphere Forecasts.” IDC, 24 March 2021.

“Enterprise Content Management Market by Solution (Enterprise Document Management, Enterprise Web Content Management, Records Management, eDiscovery, and others), Deployment Type, User Type, Vertical and Region - Global Forecasts and Analysis to 2020.” Market and Markets. Aug. 2015. Accessed 24 April 2016.

Gartside, David, et al. “Trends Reshaping the Future of HR.” Accenture, 2013. Accessed 5 Nov. 2013.

“Guide to the Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA-DMBOK) 2009 Functional Framework v.3.” DAMA-DMBOK Functional Framework. DAMA International, n.d. Web.

“The History of the ECM Market: From Inception to Today.” Parashift, 1 Feb. 2015. Web.

Lim, Jason. “Alation 2020.3: Getting Business Users in the Game.” Alation, 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

Mancini, John. “From Microfilm to Big Data: Can One Brain Handle This Much Chaos Without Exploding?” The AIIM Conference 2015, AIIM, 2015. Web.

McGauley, Sean. “The State of Content Management in 2020 [Expert Tips & Research].” AIIM, 30 June 2020. Web.

Mendoza, N.F. “More than 50% of office pros spend more time searching for files than on work.” TechRepublic, 18 May 2021. Web.

“Nearly Half of Businesses are or could go Paperless in 2015.” Margolis, 10 July 2015. Web.

Miles, Doug. “EMC Decisions - strategic options for managing, accessing and preserving content.” AIIM Industry Watch, AIIM, 2015. Web.

Moore, Connie. “Content Management Systems: You Definitely Want to be in This 40%.” Digital Clarity Group, 2021. Web.

O’Reilly, Gina. “Why there has never been a better time to go paperless.” KMWorld, Aug. 31, 2021.

Probstein, Sid. “Reality Check: Still Spending More Time Gathering Instead of Analyzing, Forbes, 17 Dec. 2019.

"Records." ARMA Glossary of Records and Information Management Terms, 5th ed. ARMA, 2021.

Severson, Lane. “The 'Why' of ECM Failure and the 'How' of ECM Success.” CMS Wire, 16 July 2014. Web.

"What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?" Intelligent Information Management Glossary, AIIM, 2021. Web.

Appendix

Detailed Work Initiatives

Use Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework to select and scope work initiatives

Info-Tech’s ECM roadmap development framework is a comprehensive model that aligns to our ECM capability conceptual model. It defines the work initiatives necessary for building out your information architecture, information governance, process management, system architecture, change management, and capability governance plans as part of your ECM capability.

Selecting Roadmap Work Initiatives

Focus on the ECM work initiatives that most critically address your improvement opportunities and realize your ECM vision.

Inclusion criteria are listed for each work initiative within the framework. They are phrased as yes/no questions.

Review the inclusion criteria for each candidate work initiative, and strongly consider including the work initiatives where you answer “yes.”

Scoping Roadmap Work Initiatives

Detailed action plans are provided for each ECM work initiative within the framework. Action plans include the inputs needed to initiate the work, activities necessary to carry out the work, and the outputs delivered by the work.

Review action plans for your selected work initiatives to determine:

• In what order the work initiatives need to occur.
• How much time is needed to complete each.
• Who will be involved throughout each.

Info-Tech Insight

There is no such thing as greenfield ECM. Whether this is your first time embarking on a formal ECM strategy or you are looking to refine your existing capability, it is likely that you have at least a starting point for much of the work initiatives on your ECM roadmap. Augment the standard ECM work initiatives to reference work completed to date.

Select information architecture work initiatives

ECM Capability Areas: Information Architecture

Select information governance work initiatives

ECM Capability Areas: Information Governance

Select process management work initiatives

Select system architecture work initiatives

Select change management work initiatives

ECM Capability Areas - Change Management

Select capability governance work initiatives

ECM Capability Areas - Capability Governance