Using your current enterprise content management (ECM) system more efficiently is a critical factor in improving productivity in 2014. Inspired by an article in SearchContentManagement.techtarget.com by Lauren Horwitz, who summarized five key elements of 2014 IT trends, I’ve created four ways to get the most out of your ECM system.
- Using apps to automate workflow: There are two ways to approach this trend. First, open up that user guide to your ECM and look up the word “workflow.” I’d bet that there are several ways to present information in the stages of your process. Second, the marketplace has mini applications focused on workflow that can connect to your system and quickly provide value without customizations.
- ECM integration with applications: Learning from the enterprise social networking (ESN) and cloud service success, organizations will be looking how to integrate ECM directly into workers’ daily lives. Imagine selling a product to the health industry and finding the latest marketing materials listed on the same page. Key to success include making sure authentication is seamless and taking advantage of the best-in-class software you already use. But take the technology out of the experience and allow the user to move seamlessly from system to system.
- Focus on mobility: The core ECM functionality is there, now how do your users get to it? Stop relying on email to work with contractors and other third parties outside your network. Take a look at the built-in mobile options for your current users and ways to extend your ECM to make it accessible to anyone on any device at any time.
- Information design: An information policy that was once focused on how documents turned into records is expanding to include conversations within instant messaging, newsfeeds/micro-blogs and alternative methods to record intellectual property. What attributes/metadata do you apply to your ECM? How can you turn those into hashtags and other categorization solutions? Take the opportunity in 2014 to categorize your content, use analytics to identify the most used content and apply new levels of information architecture to your current system.
The overriding theme seen in these trends, and what I see for the year of 2014, is to use what you have. Many companies already have ECM systems in place with a lot of great tools, but they’re not being used to their full potential. This year is the perfect time to turn that around.
Source: SearchContentManagement.techtarget.com, January 2014
