Enterprise Content Management

Defining ECM - challenges and trends
This week we'll start by attempting to define ECM and discuss some of the emerging challenges and trends associated with content management.
Read the paper "Contemporary Issues of Enterprise Content Management" and answer the following questions. Be prepared to discuss some of these questions in class next week: 
  1. What are the components of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) identified in the paper?
es, tools, processes, and skills an organization needs to manage its information assets over their life cycle”, including all digital assets such as documents, data, reports, and web pages (Smith and McKeen 2003a). 
…the technology that provides the means to create/capture, manage/secure, store/retain/destroy, publish/distribute, search, personalize and present/view/ print any digital content (i.e. pictures/images/text, reports, video, audio, transactional data, catalog, code). These systems primarily focus on the capture, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of digital files for enterprise use. (Meta Group, in Weiseth et al. 2002, p. 20).

  1. Identify some of the things that led to the development of the ECM concept.
The field of web content management emerged in the mid-1990s as a response to the challenges of managing corporate web pages, which quickly grew to large-scale and structurally complex information resources (Boiko 2002; Nakano 2002). 
  1. In your own words define the term ECM.
The concept of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) represents integrated enterprise-wide management of the life cycles of all forms of recorded information content and their metadata, organized according to corporate taxonomies, and supported by appropriate technological and administrative infrastructures. 
  1. Summarise Statoil’s e-Collaboration strategy.
 This implies that information from external and internal information suppliers should ideally be managed regardless of what application is used for creating it, and regardless of format. Further, all technical processes in the information life cycle should be automated, from creation to archival, with content delivered to the recipient independent of time, place or media.
  1. List the sub-projects identified in Statoil’s strategy.
  2. The Statoil ECM initiative represents a wide development program for the enterprise, covering tools, services, and organizational development initiatives between 2002-2005 (Weiseth et al. 2002). The program was organized in several sub-projects, addressing topics such as (Weiseth et al. 2002): • basic content management solution • automatic archiving • long-term storage with separate data index • automatic security level of information based on metadata • integration of existing standard office tools • corporate yellow pages • one common portal framework • training services for content management solution • implementation of guidelines for the use of third party solutions (e.g., in projects with partners) • establishing required e-learning modules

  1. What were the main issues identified by Statoil?
Content Life Cycle Ensuring content capture into a shared ECM system from production/receipt Informing about content with references to shared storage instead of copied content Numerous existing heterogeneous content databases Controlled archiving immediately from production Version management, especially of compound content with multiple producers Possibility for standardized workflows Application-independent storage format(s) Routines for controlled archival and retention Integrated accessibility, search, retrieval, and effective reuse across the corporation 
Metadata and Corporate Taxonomy Capturing contextual organizational metadata with content produced/received Easy and maximally automated production of content metadata Awareness of the importance of metadata among content producers Guidelines how to define, maintain, and utilize corporate taxonomy (in general and in connection to selected ECM technologies) 
Technological Infrastructure Technological integration of standardized tools: integrated content production, storage, distribution, and access/retrieval environments Tools to support standard ”application-independent” content formats Technological issues related to information security 
Administrative Infrastructure Meaningful administrative routines related to content life cycle Awareness of relevant routines among content producers Administrative issues related to information security Establishing support/service organization for ECM 
Change Management User motivation for required technological and administrative changes: - General opposition to standardization - Reluctance to new technology adoption Updating user skills (in managing content and utilizing information technology) Facilitation of corporate services related to ECM Organizational resources and competence to carry through ECM development Justification and evaluation of investments in ECM

  1. Explain the term “corporate taxonomy."
  2. Corporate taxonomy is the hierarchical classification of entities of interest of an enterprise, organization or administration, used to classify documents, digital assets and other information. Taxonomies can cover virtually any type of physical or conceptual entities (products, processes, knowledge fields, human groups, etc.) at any level of granularity.

  1. Identify some of the concerns identified relating to change management.
  2. Several user-related issues requiring change management were identified. The first was a general opposition to tool and content standardisation combined with reluctance to adopt new technology. Clearly, fluent user skills in managing content and motivation to utilize the related tools were required. A survey of existing use of collaboration technologies in Statoil identified lack of user training as a major cause for frequent underutilization of the technologies. The way in which the technology was introduced also sometimes created opposition. Several employees had experienced new software or hardware just being "dropped" in their offices without further guidance, so that they were not able to make full use of the tools. Frequent upgrades and shifts also caused some frustration. Some argued that rather than implementing new technologies, improved exploitation of the existing ones should be prioritized.
  3. Briefly describe the relationship between ECM, IRM, EDM and KM.
  4.  information resource management (IRM), electronic document management (EDM), and knowledge management (KM).



  1. Components of ECM
    This week we'll investigate the components of ECM and have a look at some of the standards associated with the different components.
    The people at AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) provide a great place to start our exploration of the world of ECM. This week we'll look at a presentation that introduces ECM (see link below).
    Read Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of the recommended text (which you can do by using the Safari books link at the top of the page) and be ready to answer the following questions by Week 4:
    1. Discuss the effects of the "silo trap" (we did talk about this last week in class)

    Too often, content is created by authors working in isolation from other authors within the organization. Walls are erected among content areas and even within content areas, which leads to content being created, and recreated, and recreated, often with changes or differences at each iteration. We call this The Content Silo Trap™. Content silos can have detrimental effects on organizations, resulting in increased costs, reduced quality, and potentially ineffective materials.

    1. What is meant by the term "unified content"? What are some of the benefits offered by such an approach?

    A unified content strategy can help your organization to avoid the Content Silo Trap, reducing the costs of creating, managing, and distributing content, and ensuring that content effectively supports your organizational and customer needs. A unified content strategy is a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front, creating consistently structured content for reuse, managing that content in a definitive source, and assembling content on demand to meet your customers’ needs.

    A unified content strategy is a coherent content strategy. Organizations can rely on content being the same wherever it appears, providing both internal and external customers with a consistent message, brand, and accuracy. No longer do organizations have to worry about contradicting themselves with differing information; where duplication occurs, it is the same content. Additional benefits include:

    • Faster time to market
      Faster time to market is achieved through shorter content creation and maintenance cycles. Authors spend less time repeatedly authoring content because they reuse existing content wherever possible, supplementing it with new or modified content where appropriate. Reviewers also spend less time reviewing content because they only have to review the content that is new or changed; existing content has already been reviewed and signed off.
    • Better use of resources
      In a unified content strategy, resources are optimized because the repetitive processes of creation and maintenance are reduced. Because they are required to do less repetitive work, everyone involved in the content creation process can do more value-added work or respond to new requirements.
    • Reduced costs
      In a unified content strategy, the costs of creating and managing content are reduced. Less work is required to get a product to market, not only decreasing internal costs, but potentially increasing revenue. Content is modified or corrected once instead of multiple times, reducing maintenance costs. Translation costs are reduced because reusable content is translated only once instead of multiple times; derivatives of that content are eliminated or reduced.
    • Improved quality of content
      A unified content strategy helps to improve the quality of content. Content is clearly modeled for consistent structure; increasing its readability and usability. Most importantly, content is accurate and consistent wherever it appears. Issues of inaccurate content, inconsistent content, or missing content are reduced or eliminated.


    1. Explain the term "metadata" and discuss how a structured approach can benefit an organisation when storing and retrieving documents.
    Metadata means "data about data". Although the "meta" prefix (from the Greek preposition and prefix μετά-) means "after" or "beyond", it is used to mean "about" inepistemology. Metadata is defined as the data providing information about one or more aspects of the data, it is used to summarize basic information about data which can make tracking and working with specific data easier.[5] Some examples include:
    • Means of creation of the data
    • Purpose of the data
    • Time and date of creation
    • Creator or author of the data
    • Location on a computer network where the data was created
    • Standards used
    • File size
    For example, a digital image may include metadata that describe how large the picture is, the color depth, the image resolution, when the image was created, and other data.[6] A text document's metadata may contain information about how long the document is, who the author is, when the document was written, and a short summary of the document. Metadata within web pages can also contain descriptions of page content, as well as key words linked to the content.[7] These links are often called "Metatags", which were used as the primary factor in determining order for a web search until the late 1990s.[7] The reliance of metatags in web searches was decreased in the late 1990s because of what can be referred to as "keyword stuffing".[7] Metatags were being largely misused to trick search engines into thinking some websites had more relevance in the search than they really did.[7]




    Data capture and retrieval

    This week we discuss data capture and retrieval. The discussion forum for Assessment 1 continues this week.

    Data capture is an important component of an ECM system. There are a variety of data capture technologies.  You should start building your own glossary of important ECM terms. Start by explaining the following acronyms associated  with data capture:

    • ICR
    • IPR
    • IDR
    • IHR
    • OCR
    • OMR
    • STR
    • MICR

    In preparation for next week, read the AIIM article "Successful Taxonomy: Nine Keys to success" and summarise the nine keys so that we can discuss them next week.

    ECM processes and systems
    The topic for this week is ECM processes and systems. We will also have a look at how information is organised using taxonomies and how taxonomy design can lead to efficient information retrieval. This week is the second week of the discussion forum for assessment 1.

    Introduction to SharePoint
    This week, we meet SharePoint. You will be introduced to the Enterprise version of the Team Site. https://sharepoint.infotech.ac.nz (you may need to clear your browser's cached images and files first!) 

    Summary of Today's Activities:1. Basic Navigation and Log on2. Filling out Your Profile/Photo3. Creating your Test Team Site4. Changing the Logo, Look&Feel5. Type & Save Word Document    & upload it to SharePoint Site6. Share Your Site with everyone    and share with me => eerturk

    For homework this week you should go and look at the MIKE2 site and start to familiarise yourself with the MIKE2 Framework.


    MIKE2 Framework

    After being distracted by SharePoint in the lab, this week we will look into MIKE2, an open source methodology for  Enterprise Information Management that provides a framework for information development. This is the last week of the discussion forum for Assessment 1, due 28 August 2016. SharePoint Apps we played with this week: Contacts, Calendar, Tasks ... Also experimented with the blog template, making some sample posts. 
    MIKE2.0 (Method for an Integrated Knowledge Environment) is an open source delivery methodology forEnterprise information management. MIKE2.0 was released to the public in December, 2006, byBearingPoint, a management and technology consulting company, under the Creative Commons Attribution License. The project is now run by the MIKE2.0 Governance Association ,[1] a non-profit organisation based in Switzerland, with BearingPoint and Deloitte as the founding members. In March 2013 the book "Information Development Using MIKE2.0" [2] was published as a companion guide to the online community.
    The methodology provides a comprehensive framework for Information Management, including:

    In summary, MIKE2.0 is a framework for information management best practices – linked into common business issues and technology-specific solutions. Its scope covers the complete information supply chain within an organisation: from how it is created, accessed, presented and used in decision-making to how it is kept secure, stored and destroyed.


     Integration issues
    'Integration issues for ECM' is the topic of choice this week. We will have a look at some of the standards associated with ECM and meet OASIS and OSCL.
    In your spare time investigate what is meant by the term "workflow automation" and explain how it impacts on ECM.

    SharePoint Skills continued
    Familiarise yourselves more with the SharePoint Team Site...
    The basic URL: https://sharepoint.infotech.ac.nz
    You may need to clear your browser's cached images and files!    We also attempted / used the SharePoint Org Chart and Alerts. 

    SharePoint skills continued
    Time for a look at how SharePoint manages document management.
    Read Chapter 10 (Managing Documents) Shadravan, D.,Coventry, P., Resing. T.,  & Wheeler. C. (2013). Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Inside Out  Microsoft Press.
    Available at Safari Books Online

    A reminder that Assessment 2 is due on the 25th September.

    SharePoint and Metadata Management
    Today we are going to look at how SharePoint allows us to implement and use taxonomies. We are also going to discover how we can use templates to build sub sites that inherit the properties of the main site. Having done that we should be in a position to attempt Assessment 3.
    Sharepoint and ECM case study

    Back from the holidays and time to commence working with Sharepoint and the ECM case study. This week Rebecca Tostevin will be visiting our class, and talking about EIT's use of SharePoint. Among other things, she will discuss the taxonomy and term stores. Make sure that you come armed with questions. 

    SharePoint and ECM case study

    SharePoint and your ECM case study, in C-316. 

    Industry Guest: Bruce Harrison from Unison


    SharePoint and ECM case study

    Our class will be on Tuesday at 10 AM in Room C315. You should also be working on SharePoint and your final ECM assignment in your own time. 


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