With the Summer Olympics wrapping up in Rio this week, we felt inspired to write about becoming a champion of enterprise content management.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stand atop an Olympic podium for being the best at enterprise content management? For the purpose of this piece, imagine you can. However, what would it take? Would it take 32 hours a week training in a gym? Would it take a lifetime of love and dedication to a sport? Would it take blood, sweat, and tears? Probably not (well, maybe some tears.)
So what does it take to become an enterprise content management champion? We came up with the top five traits of successful ECMs. These are the keys to the gold medal if you will:
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Document Security
What’s more to businesses, like law firms, or legal departments than document security and information governance? Not a whole lot. This is a key trait of successful enterprise content management because it is the core of what ECM is trying to achieve. Law firms and legal departments alike have many rules to follow when it comes to security. Recently, data breaches have added an emphasis on this component of enterprise content management. A successful ECM will be able to follow those rules, securely store data, and make it possible for data to be shared securely as well. This event would be judged similarly to gymnastics the ECM would be assigned a starting difficulty for the degree of security it provided (does it have to be onsite, can it be extended to the cloud, how well does it lock down documents based on permissions) and deducted based on any mistakes it makes. Just like in gymnastics where one slip on the beam can cost you a medal, one security mistake can comprise a company.
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In-depth Metadata
Another very important characteristic of a champion ECM system is how in-depth the metadata can get. Metadata is the heart and soul of content management. It not only provides a traceable audit trail for documents, it also helps to customize content to fit within a business’s set processes. Metadata can be used to define which users, in which locations will gain access to the content. Without it, storing, archiving, and even searching for your data would be near impossible. Think of metadata as the qualifying rounds for any of the events at the Olympics, without a strong performance there, you won’t be moving on.
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User-friendly Interfaces
How many times have you purchased a software, and hated the interface? You know that feeling when you can’t find what you want to do, or there are too many unreasonable steps to get where you want to go. Super frustrating. Champion ECM systems don’t have that problem. Champion enterprise content management systems also have user interfaces that can be configured to match the role of the user and aim to simply put the right documents at the users’ fingertips. We want a user interface to be similar to the way Usain Bolt performs the 100-meter dash; well thought out, tried and tested, entertaining, and to the point.
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Configurability
An ECM system is only useful if the company that purchases can use it how they want. Therefore, ECM systems need to be highly configurable. Whether that’s providing businesses options for how data is stored whether that’s onsite or in the cloud. Customizing interfaces and configurations for their primary users based or enabling companies to scale the system as their content grows. An ECM system should be highly adaptable like a Decathlete, prepared to adapt to many sports in changing conditions across the entire event.
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Extended Content Sharing
Champion ECM systems allow for client collaboration and sharing. Collaboration is another key trait of enterprise content management, and it only makes sense that successful ECMs give users the ability to share content with clients, and still maintain their security and governance. A document isn’t often much use without sharing and sharing a document often improves it and brings out its true purpose. Think of content sharing like the all-important relay races in the Olympics. If the changeover between the swimmers or runners is messy, sloppy, or non-existent the race can’t be and the competitors charge ahead.
So enterprise content management is definitely not as exciting as watching Katie Ledecky, Michael Phelps, or Simone Biles become Olympic champions, but you too can be a champion! With these five ECM characteristics, anyone can be an enterprise content management champion!
