Spring is in full bloom, and it’s time to get back outside and do some exercise. And while you are getting over the hurdles of your workout, you might want to think about the hurdles you must overcome with content synchronization.
- Enterprise sync is not consumer sync.The drivers may be the same, but the considerations for implementing them are far more complex. There are unique challenges to ECM synchronization. Generally, the need for synchronization is similar (content access and availability.) However, there are various complicating factors, like legal compliance and information governance initiatives. Also, organizations might be looking to synchronize ECM content for external sharing, or, perhaps, archiving company records properly.
- Metadata makes your ECM valuable. If you synchronize between different repositories, you stand to lose valuable metadata. Each file or document is going to come with a set of metadata that further “describes” the document. For example, if you are synchronizing your ECM content into your CRM, there must be a way for the metadata to be mapped and read so that content is synchronized to its correct customer or case. One of the major reasons for having an ECM system is to control who can and cannot see or access content. Synchronization of that content also means maintaining that security, so you need to be certain to find the best synchronization tool to detect and propagate those security rules.
- You need control of the type of synchronization. Unlike consumer synchronization that constantly synchronizes between all devices for all access, sometimes you might need it to be a one-way sync. This can allow you to publish out content to be consumed by someone, or archive content that has been sent to you using another application. Whenever a document leaves a system and enters a new one, metadata must be accounted for and likely those systems handle the metadata in different ways.
- ECM no longer stands alone. Organizations are using best-of-breed solutions for their various use cases. Each one of these systems are also being used to collect and manage content. An example of this is Salesforce. It is used to manage the sales process, while also collecting related documentation or contracts about a prospect or customer. These are valuable assets that should be stored in your ECM. A synchronization solution would allow you to maintain consistency in managing all content.
- How do you keep track of what changed and when do you synchronize that efficiently? ECM systems have a range of how they help users keep track of changes. Some are event driven, and they will send a notification to a user when something changes. Others have their own change logs, where each change is recorded in a database. Others are polled to find out what information goes where. To have a successful synchronization, a solution should consider all three of these.
It’s complicated. We get it. That is why we have spent years developing and improving our synchronization product. Most recently, we have added OneDrive to our list of connectors that works with Echo Content Synchronization. Echo will give users the ability to securely synchronize content back to their repository of record. Echo is robust and flexible to allow users to set up their own synchronization rules. For more information on synchronization read our whitepaper “Navigating the Hurdles of Synchronization” and reach out to our experts at info@seeunity.com!