Right-Size the Governance Model for Your ECM Program
Operationalize and optimize your ECM program through effective governance.
- In the face of exponential growth in the variety and volume of content, organizations everywhere are transforming their information management practices in order to take advantage.
- Investments in enterprise content management (ECM) systems have steadily increased as organizations turn to technology to help manage their digital and physical content.
- The promised benefits of ECM systems are not guaranteed out of the box; information quality, findability, availability, and compliance to regulations and standards require people and process to enact enforcement.
- ECM projects often evolve out of point-in-time need, and afterwards users often revert back to ad hoc and informal behavior patterns that jeopardize the efficacy of an ECM system.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- You cannot not manage content. Every organization, and every unit, is managing content; the question is how well are you doing it?
- Governance prevents the sins of the past. Without people and process to design, police, and enforce standards, ad hoc content management prevails.
- Rome wasn’t built in a day. Start with minimum-viable governance, and optimize the model over time as part of the ECM program's continuous improvement.
Impact and Result
- Understand the need for ECM governance to make your desired ECM program a reality, and coordinate your governance projects by setting a vision and mission aligned to the overall ECM program vision.
- Set the initial project scope by knowing where your ECM governance maturity stands today and where you’re headed tomorrow.
- Support your organizational dynamics by choosing an ECM governance model with the right mix of centrality and formality.
- Define the structures, roles, and functions that will comprise your ECM governance model.
- Ensure quality across the information lifecycle by determining classifications and policies.
- Gauge ECM program success and inform continuous improvement by setting performance metrics.
- Create a roadmap of work initiatives to establish ECM governance and execute an ECM program release.
Right-Size the Governance Model for Your ECM Program
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should right-size your ECM governance program, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Structure the ECM governance project
Determine the major gaps preventing you from attaining your desired ECM governance maturity and craft a vision to coordinate all projects.
2. Determine your ECM governance model
Right-size the structure, roles, functions, and policies included in your ECM governance model.
3. Plan the next release of your ECM governance model
Build a roadmap of work initiatives to establish and evolve your ECM governance model.
4. Supplemental Resources
Refine your ECM governance program by leveraging these additional materials.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority
Guided Implementation
9/10
$2,000
4
Onsite Workshop: Right-Size the Governance Model for Your ECM Program
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Structure the ECM Governance Project
The Purpose
- Determine the major gaps preventing you from attaining your desired ECM governance maturity and craft a vision to coordinate all projects.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Embrace the ten principles of ECM governance into plans.
- Build consensus among stakeholders for ECM governance plans.
Activities
Outputs
Workshop introduction, overview of activities, and educational primer.
- ECM Governance Educational Primer
Complete organizational context assessment to level-set understanding.
- ECM Governance Maturity Assessment
Review and finalize project drivers, objectives, and scope.
- ECM Governance Project Scope
Determine ECM governance vision and mission statements.
- ECM Governance Vision and Mission
Module 2: Determine Your ECM Governance Model
The Purpose
Right-size the structure, roles, functions, and policies included in your ECM governance model.
Key Benefits Achieved
Understand the ECM governance art of the possible and make informed decisions about the model you will adopt.
Activities
Outputs
Review spectrum of ECM governance models and select the high-level aspirational model.
Determine a structure for the ECM governance model.
- ECM Governance Structure
Review and identify necessary roles for the ECM governance model.
- ECM Governance Roles
Identify and define the functions necessary as part of your ECM governance model.
- ECM Governance Functions
Identify policies to support ECM governance.
- Information Governance Policies
Module 3: Plan the Next Release of Your ECM Governance Model
The Purpose
Build a roadmap of work initiatives to establish and evolve your ECM governance model.
Key Benefits Achieved
Robust, well-thought-out ECM governance project plan.
Activities
Outputs
Set ECM program performance metrics.
- ECM Program Performance Metrics
Develop ECM governance work initiatives and roadmap.
- ECM Governance Roadmap (Establish and Optimize)
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Try Our Guided Implementations
Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
Guided Implementation #1 - Structure the ECM governance project
- Call #1 - Review your ECM governance maturity assessment and provide feedback.
- Call #2 - Develop ECM vision and mission, and develop an ECM governance charter to reflect them.
- Call #3 - Assist you in properly scoping the ECM governance project.
Guided Implementation #2 - Determine your ECM governance model
- Call #1 - Verify the roles you have defined and make sure the roles are fit for purpose and work together with related roles in your organization.
- Call #2 - Review the information governance policies and ensure they are aligned with your ECM vision and mission.
Guided Implementation #3 - Plan the next release of your ECM governance model
- Call #1 - Define compelling metrics to measure your ECM success.
- Call #2 - Scope additional work initiatives to continuously improve your ECM governance program.
- Call #3 - Help plan essential communication by defining the right message, audience, and delivering methods.
Contributors
- Shahjehan Rao, ECM Consultant, KhepriSoft
- Ilidia Sa Melo, Records Manager, City of Cambridge
- Brian Kudeba, IT Transformation Leader, Fidelis Care
- Issam Mohamed Ali, EIM Consultant, Do IT Right
- Christopher Wynder, Director of Client Services, Thinkdox
- Brian Iacaponi, Director of Technology Innovation, Best Friends Animal Society
- Eric Raffin, CIO, San Mateo Health Department
- Kathy Harnack, Executive Assistant, San Mateo Health Department
- Andrew Lin, Product Manager and Scrum Master, Tax Analysts
- Hemant Prasad, ECM Consultant, Crest Business Solutions