ECM Briefs

Social Media Records Retention and eDiscovery

2009-06-30T15:18:38Z

There is a good article in Information Week outlining how the US Federal Government is struggling with Social Media Records Retention Policies. My first thought was, can eDiscovery issues be far behind? It is interesting that the article goes on to say "one keynote speaker asked the crowd of several hundred how many of the archivists in attendance were sold on the use of social media. Only a smattering raised their hands." This is an interesting contrast to the current Obama administration that has clearly embraced social media both in the run up to the White House and now while in the White House. For anybody struggling with the implications of the adoption of new media technologies, the United States National Archives' Implications of Recent Web Technologies for NARA Web Guidance is a good starting point. It outlines some of the basic records management implications associated to new media types such as wikis, blogs, and microblogs. Open Text, along with Loeb & Loeb, recently produced a webinar called eDiscovery, Information and Records Management in a Web 2.0 World, where we explore more of the issues and legal precedent surrounding discovery of content that is outside the bounds of what the legal community has traditionally thought of as documents. I think that if I were to try and take two things away from the webinar, it might be:

It is the content, not the media the media that drives content classification, retention, and disposition. The best practices and policies that are slowly being adopted in Enterprises around email can be used to evaluate the use of new social media applications as well.
Don't wait for a problem to arise. Get out in front of the adoption of social media applications within your enterprise to develop policies for acceptable use, retention and disposition and eDiscovery. Developing the policies will provide the ability to evaluate new Social Media applications to understand if they are right for your organization.

New Video: Cheryl McKinnon on Enterprise 2.0

2009-06-25T19:19:23Z

Ron Miller from FierceContentManagement interviewed Cheryl McKinnon yesterday at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference in Boston, MA. on how Enterprise 2.0 tools can help users discover knowledge locked in social interactions and find experts. Watch the video below.

Lessons from one of the Masters - Enterprise 2.0 and Resourcing Considerations

2009-06-24T18:02:38Z

Previously posted by Cheryl McKinnon on GTEC Blog. This week my team and I are at the premier Enterprise 2.0 Conference, in Boston as part of the launch of our new Open Text Social Media product. One of the ½ day workshops was led by Mr. Dion Hinchcliffe, noted Enterprise 2.0 consultant/analyst/blogger and author of some of the most well known E 2.0 Frameworks such as SLATES and FLATNESSES (see links for more information on these very useful constructs). One of the key topics he addressed today was how to fund and plan for a 2.0 deployment inside an enterprise - public or private sector. Where should an organization expect to spend its resources - both financial and human costs? In Hinchcliffe's experience, the breakdown often follows this pattern: * Tools = 15% This includes the cost of acquiring, and often customizing the tools to suit particular organizational needs. Cost of course can vary widely, depending on the tool selected, whether existing licenses can be used, or net new product introduced. But bottom line, this is often the smallest single outlay to consider * Customization and Integration = 25% The degree to which a tool must be customized to meet specific user experience needs, or perhaps tie into other key business applications to meet upfront requirements often will exceed the initial software license cost. Again, highly variable depending on complexity, number of integrations, and suitability of the initial software tool to meet the bulk of the requirements * Community Management = 25% This is the key ongoing cost consideration - once the software acquisition and required integrations are completed, ongoing community facilitation, moderation, internal awareness education, coaching and mentorship is essential to be successful and meet user engagement targets. Don't neglect investing in people to make this successful. Communities and 2.0 adoption are not short term campaigns - they require commitment and promotion to succeed. * IT Support = 15% Ensure the system functions smoothly, has appropriately resourced infrastructure to meet expected load and up-time commitments * Project and Change Management = 20% Next generation collaboration and communication tools will be embraced easily by some people, not by others. Invest in creating clear objectives, coaching, measure success and correct things that don't work. Ensure senior management is supportive of the objectives and have them lead by example. Cultural and behavioural change - as with any project that changes work habits and computing tools are bound to encounter roadblocks and challenges ; human nature is to resist change. Bottom line? Don't starve the change management, education, internal marketing and ongoing community support requirements. Success with 2.0 is much more than software deployment. It's about engagement, better knowledge sharing, better support for the increasingly virtual work teams and extended networks we need to do our jobs.

Working the Social Media Crowd at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston

2009-06-23T15:40:54Z

This week, we're in Boston at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference where we're showcasing some cool stuff in the realm of social media. We made a new product announcement today for social media software that offers enterprise employees a new way of working with each other through the web and mobile devices, while also meeting security and compliance demands by integrating with a company's wider ECM system. If you're at the conference this week head on over to booth #615 for a demo of the social media software. If you aren't in Beantown, you can watch this video we've put together. We also launched a podcast this week featuring Lee Bryant, Founder of Headshift and our own Cheryl McKinnon where they talk about how organizations can bloom with the right Enterprise 2.0 technologies, while helping to meet top-line revenue and customer retention targets to contain bottom-line costs; and ensuring appropriate risk mitigation measures are met. Lee and Cheryl also discuss the cultural shifts that need to happen within companies and the industry in order to move forward. Still want more? You can get more information on what we're doing at the conference by following us on Twitter this week (you can also follow: @CherylMcKinnon, @craighepburn, @davechalmers1 and @deb_lavoy). You'll also be able to follow blogging updates from our new Open Text Conversations page that we launched this week. Other Resources: • Visit our Enterprise 2.0 page • Read Cheryl's whitepapers on the topic of Social Workplace & Social Marketplace.

Join Our Conversation

2009-06-22T14:00:37Z

For a while now, our Content Experts have been providing you with their thoughts and insights on the ECM space through our ECM Briefs blog. ECM Briefs has served us well, and will continue to offer reports from events, news about customers, partners and new products, ECM industry trends, and other topics. With all the talk about 2.0 and 3.0 going on around here, however, we wanted to give our readers something more. During our research, we found that many of our Content Experts had blogs that were chock full of great information and knowledge, and that they had been sharing with their own communities for some time. We wanted to leverage that knowledge and share it with you. Thus, Open Text Conversations was born. Open Text Conversations engages our Content Experts as they share the latest industry developments and provide information about how to create value from content in a changing world. You'll have access to each Expert through their blog, where you'll be able to participate in the ECM conversation. In the bottom right hand corner of the site, our podcasts are available for your listening pleasure, and soon we'll have a wiki, with articles, customer case studies, and information we've gathered over the years, along with our online video content. So why wait? Join our conversation now and let us know what you think!

Open Text at Henry Stewart DAM Symposium in NYC

2009-06-12T17:34:36Z

Omri Duek spoke to Open Text's Damian Saccocio at the Henry Stewart DAM Symposium (NYC) 2009. In the interview, Damian talks about Open Text's digital asset management offering, Vizible, Open Text's Endeca partnership and the next big thing for digital asset management.

Fraud Prevention in the Accounts Payable Process

2009-06-12T14:12:04Z

Previously posted on AP Optimization Blog. The following statement is taken from the 2008 ACFE Report to the Nation..."According to research conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), U.S. organizations lose an estimated 7 percent of annual revenues to fraud. Based on the projected U.S. Gross Domestic Product for 2008, this percentage indicates a staggering estimate of losses around $994 billion among organizations, despite increased emphasis on anti-fraud controls and recent legislation to combat fraud." The study states that approximately 23% of the fraud cases they reviewed were related to invoices with a medium loss of $100,000 per case. Billing (invoice) was the most common type of fraud. It is interesting that in their findings; the most common way of detecting fraud was receiving a "tip" (46%) where as internal control only accounted for 23%. One could conclude that as economic times become more difficult, fraud might increase. Even it this were not true the current trend in fraud, cries out for increases in internal controls, especially related to invoicing. It is not enough to assume the Accounts Payable Analyst just know that it is ok to pay an invoice. Automated business rules must provide the continual detection mechanism and automated workflow must ensure the proper personnel are involved in resolution. For invoices without a purchase order with internal control ensures that the proper personnel are involved in approval and their spend limits are automatically verified. Removal of human touch points removes both the temptation for fraud as well as removing the unknowing participation such as approval of an invoice without having the benefit of the invoice image to review. One would only need to ask the prior employees of corporations driven to bankruptcy through fraud if it is better to have process control that prevents fraud as compared to having someone finally tipping off the authorities after the fraud has occurred. See SAP EcoHub for More on AP Optimization.

Perspectives from the USA - Government 2.0 and the 3 Cs of Collaboration

2009-06-11T14:08:55Z

Previously posted on GTEC Blog. This week I'd like to open up discussion about what we see south of the border. Open Text as a Canadian headquartered, but globally-focused provider of Enterprise Content Management applications gets to hear and see firsthand what public sector around the world is doing with 2.0 and the collaborative culture this phenomenon brings. One of my colleagues, Debra Lavoy, inspires and engages me. She's an active participant in the Government 2.0 community inside the beltway in Washington DC. She's become a popular contributor to transparency workshops and is an active and thought-provoking blogger on issues that resonate well here in Canada too. Is everyone familiar with a site called SlideShare.com? If not, it's worth some exploration. Think of it as PowerPoint heaven. People and organizations can share their key slides, with notes and talking points that they want to broadcast. Two of Debra's decks I want to highlight here are posted on Slideshare. The first is "Social Workplace for Government 2.0": http://www.slideshare.net/dllavoy/social-workplace-for-govt-20 . Three key points? · Social Media tools make connections that drive collaboration and knowledge management · Culture is more important that technology · New technologies are pleasant to use, so people use them All of these key points highlight the new world of opportunity that Web 2.0 brings to the immense information management challenges public sector professionals face. Simpler tools can foster better connections, leading to a more cooperative and efficient working culture. Next key point Lavoy makes - Collaboration is not one size fits all. She argues there are three main types of collaboration that have different motivations and offer different types of success. These three types are: · Creative · Connective · Compounding The second slide deck does a deeper dive into the concepts of these 3 'C's: in "Social Media at Work" , specific scenarios and examples are explored. Creative Collaboration · Means Innovation. Finding new solutions when and learning how to meet new challenges. Incorporate new insights and brainstorming across a team to develop, vet and test ideas. Connective Collaboration · Means awareness and agility: spreading critical information quickly in even in complex and dynamic situations Compounding Collaboration · Means finding the right person at the right time. Grassroots knowledge management and expert locator to get to the right information and ensure that critical gut instinct we call tacit knowledge can be shared. Take a look at the slides I've linked to and let me know what you think. Maybe I can get Debra to come up for GTEC in October, and we can continue the conversation further.

Better Together

2009-06-10T19:04:19Z

Originally posted on Content Management for Life Sciences. Traditionally, ECM only touched a relatively small user community, and applications in this world were highly specific to a critical business process. But Microsoft has changed the ECM world by offering core content management capability to all users in an organization through their desktop environment. This dramatically increases the amount of content under management and replaces file systems over time. It is clear that through the Microsoft infrastructure a much more systematic approach to managing all unstructured content in an organization becomes possible. Microsoft SharePoint adoption is an increasing trend in most industries and Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology is no exception. What was a very early-adopter trend two years ago with large pharmaceuticals like Pfizer and Eli Lilly is now becoming mainstream. Most organizations have, or plan to have some element of SharePoint within their overall ECM infrastructure. A common question for most companies is "How will SharePoint and my EDMS work together?" Today's mainstream ECM vendors provide customers with both infrastructure enhancements to the Microsoft stack as well as business solutions that run on top of the infrastructure. Organizations will continue to look to SharePoint as a user friendly end user interface that can help to rollout the ECM infrastructure and applications to other parts of the organization.

The Future of Digital Media

2009-06-03T13:17:35Z

A couple weeks ago, the Canada 3.0 team posted this video of Open Text Chief Strategy Officer, Tom Jenkins, talking about The Future of Digital Media. See it for yourself below: Tom will be speaking more on where digital media is headed in Canada (along with more than 60 speakers) at the upcoming Canada 3.0 forum taking place in Stratford next week on June 8 & 9. If you're not familiar with this event, it's the hot ticket forum for anyone interested in shaping Canada's digital future and determining this country's place in the global digital economy. For more information and to register visit: http://canada30.uwaterloo.ca/

AP Multitasking

2009-06-01T15:29:08Z

Previously posted on AP Optimization Blog One significant advantage of SAP Invoice Management by Open Text automation is that it reduces or eliminates calls from vendors inquiring about when invoices will be paid. In a manual process, the AP Analyst often receives several calls per day while they are entering and posting invoices. In reading a recent article on multitasking I was reminded that being interrupted during a routine task such as entering and posting invoices results in significant time loss and leads to errors. The article point out that workplace studies found it can take up to 15 minutes to return to a deep state of concentration after a distraction. It also mentioned that when our working memory is presented with a new problem, within 15 seconds it will become difficult to recall the prior issue. This is not unlike the stories we hear about how using a cell phone is a major distraction from driving our cars. If you apply this logic to the world of an Accounts Payable Analyst, you can quickly see how receiving one "where is my money" phone call from a vendor can have a dramatic impact on the number of invoices normally processed around the time of the call. By ensuring the vendors are paid timely and accurately, the distracting phone calls are reduced if not eliminated. Fewer distractions results in more efficient processing of invoices See SAP EcoHub for more on AP Optimization

Do More With Less: Three Sure-Fire Strategies for Manufacturers

2009-05-07T19:19:14Z

Previously posted on my blog: Hugh on Energy and Manufacturing Yesterday I told you that I was working on a project that will help manufacturers "do more with less". I wrote about this in a whitepaper and more recently an article (to be featured soon) but I thought I'd give you a taste of both of these over the next few posts. You can also listen to a podcast I recorded recently where I delve into the topic a bit more. The gist is that many industries are feeling the effects of our current economic situation, but few as strongly as manufacturing. With market uncertainty, heightened global competition, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and customer demand for higher quality products at a lower cost, manufacturers are facing a daunting challenge when it comes to maintaining margins and profitability. Although business models, methods of operation, and products produced by process and discrete manufacturing companies vary, there are several common challenges for organizations of all sizes and locations:

Manufacturers are highly dependent on fixed assets to produce their products.
Organizations are heavily impacted by fluctuations in raw material costs.
All companies are under significant pressure to lower costs wherever possible, especially with a downturn in the market.

Finding opportunities for savings--where fixed assets and raw material costs are a constant--is difficult. To survive, it is critical for manufacturers to understand how to do more with less while remaining both effective and efficient. The manufacturing sector's senior management uses many levers to control and direct company goals, both short and long term. Management will guide the strategic path of the organization by focusing on initiatives that improve cycle times; increase organizational agility; innovate in process or product; enhance quality; control costs; examine potential effectiveness of planned projects; or implement and enforce compliance to standards. On the path to achieving these short and long term goals, there are some core business fundamentals that must not be overlooked. The task of guiding an organization's future will become significantly more complicated with the economic stresses we are presently experiencing. Companies that manage day-to-day operations in a reactionary way, without concern for undermining efficiency, will be at a serious disadvantage. And companies that are continuously "putting out fires," as a cultural norm, are unready for the serious challenges that this competitive landscape yields. All in all, companies will no longer be able to abuse speed and resources to operate in a reactionary manner. On the other hand, companies that build strategies that focus on leveraging operational efficiency and effectiveness will move to the forefront where they will be better positioned to compete globally. But where is the untapped opportunity for efficiency and effectiveness? There are three specific areas where I believe organizations can direct their attention to realize cost savings and improved operating margins:

Fixed Assets, with emphasis on asset knowledge and the complete asset lifecycle.
Administrative Framework, an often overlooked and undernourished aspect of the manufacturing business. The Administrative Framework underpins almost every function within the business, and it is around the Administrative Framework that the value chain of an organization carries out day-to-day decision making.
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and how it impels information visibility across the enterprise.

These three areas of focus form the backbone of an organization's ability to make day-to-day business decisions that directly impact the variable costs and overhead of an enterprise. I'll dive into fixed assets tomorrow.

Social Media Means What?

2009-04-30T13:00:29Z

Previously published on The Evolution of Communication Blog Social Media Means What? There is a multitude of conversations taking place around how to define the term Social Media and as with most buzz words; different people will attach different meanings and value to social media. This is the "not so popular" definition in Wikipedia, "Social media is information content created by people using highly accessible and scalable publishing technologies. At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content. It's a fusion of sociology and technology, transforming monologue (one to many) into dialog (many to many) and is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into publishers. Social media has become extremely popular because it allows people to connect in the online world to form relationships for personal and business. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM)." In my opinion 'Media' is content. Content can be text, audio, visual, drawings etc; and these forms of content can come to us either through, TV, radio, newspapers or it can also come to us from tools like Facebook, Twitter, You-Tube, wikis and blogs. These may each equate to different forms of media, such as newspaper is print media, web content is digital media. But at the end of the day these all fall under the umbrella of "Media". Media is the vehicle we use to send out information to interested users. When we attach the term social to media it introduces the personal aspect of interaction to that content. In my mind, content is really just data. Until we apply rich context around that content, either via relationships with people or things, then can the content become more meaningful and equate to knowledge as opposed to just data. When I speak with people about what it means to make use of social media, particularly in the enterprise space, I like to describe this as having the ability to "socialize" your content. To me that is the value of bringing social media to the work place. As a friend of mine Brian MacLeod says, "Social media has the ability to turn tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge." I think it makes sense to define social media as a tool set that provides individuals the ability to personalize content creation, the ability to "socialize" content. Something that we need to keep in mind is that social media is more than just another form of media; it also speaks to something more fundamental in nature, having the ability to socialize our content demonstrates a culture shift in how we interact with other, particularly in the Enterprise. Social media and this organic growth of new media formats that are growing from the ground up also represents a shift in how we do business. It speaks to the "power of we", and the "wisdom of the crowds". It represents a change in how people are discovering, collaborating and sharing content.

GTEC 2009 - Collaboration and the Social Workplace: What Does it Mean for Public Sector? (Part 2)

2009-04-29T16:58:27Z

Previously posted on Blogging GTEC 2009 Last week we discussed the concept of a "social" workplace and the value of collaboration among public sector information workers. But where is the real return? What specific areas can benefit most from an investment in collaborative technologies and encouragement of better communication of information? Managing Human Capital Recruitment, attraction and cultivation of a skilled public sector workforce remain an expensive challenge, even when economic conditions expand the pool of candidates. A flexible and committed workforce who can fill critical gaps during periods of staff turnover and use collected intelligence to prioritize tasks can only exist when information is simple to find, and experts are ready to share. Skills and learning management, expert finders, employee on boarding and mentorship, alumni networks, succession planning, and career development: these are the key functions that often determine an organization's ability to attract, maintain, and cultivate a talented employee base. Collaborative tools deliver in-house networks that weave the strong social fabric of trust, connection, and shared goals among colleagues. Self-Service and Peer-to-Peer Empowerment Time spent on repetitive tasks, struggling with email inbox overload, trying to track down the right person to answer a question - sound familiar? As departments downsize, right-size, reorganize, merge, spin-off, or decentralize, complexities compound, and productivity and a sense of accomplishment suffers. Disengagement sets in. Organizations that build a Social Workplace can make effective use of simple and intuitive content creation tools. Measurable productivity gains, reduced search times, efficient reuse of shared content are demonstrated with web-based authoring tools for FAQs, project knowledge bases, best practices, or meeting notes. Employees who are encouraged to share their educational background, previous work history, and expose hobbies and interests very often are called to share these formerly hidden skills on new projects. Easy location of in-house experts, regardless of level or role, becomes a natural part of internal knowledge discovery. Transparency and Corporate Governance Poor decisions that contribute to negative business results are often made without the benefit of internal expert consultation. One-to-one communication tools - including email - are not conducive to open, vetted discussions on risks, precedent and implications. Organizations with narrow definitions of compliance that focus only on retention rules miss the opportunity to proactively root out and shed light on risky behaviors or patterns. 2.0 technology and culture also delivers a compliance educational opportunity beyond mere publication of statements or policies. It allows rich media, peer to peer discussion, and online interaction to deliver a compelling vision of enterprise goals and expectations. Audio, video and rich graphic content forms transcend language, geography and generations to communicate acceptable practices and instill understanding. The Virtual Enterprise Providing an equivalent online Social Workplace experience for employees who work away from the physical office is an important aspect of employee engagement and productivity. Geographical separation can lead to a disconnection from team or organizational shared goals. Adoption of a Social Workplace allows distributed organizations to offer the same virtual water cooler networking experience to remote staff as the more traditional office employees. Opening awareness to hidden skills and undervalued experience, finding common interests, and building personal trust and networks is the value of the human connection we find among our colleagues. The Social Workplace now brings this to the virtual enterprise. Enable the Front Line Service representatives, program managers, help desk staff, inspectors, and emergency responders are mobile professionals who require accurate timely data at their fingertips and they move quickly to execute on opportunities. Often the most accurate intelligence on field conditions, public concerns, hazards, or safety issues will come from peers--this is the buzz, the scoop, the first-hand observational knowledge. The pressure to be in tune with issues can be impossible when individuals are left to fend for themselves. Organizations that get better at capturing and disseminating the intrinsic knowledge in the field will find competitive advantage with the Social Workplace. Quick and easy web or mobile capture of data, images, or text notes shared with a broader team leads to timely awareness of trends and conditions on the road. This field intelligence needs to become part of mainstream corporate memory. Seeking input directly from front line services deepens collected wisdom and shows responsiveness to changing conditions.

Canada 3.0 - Reinforcing the Creative Triangle

2009-04-28T17:30:13Z

Here at Open Text, we're excited for the upcoming Canada 3.0 Conference in June, so from time-to-time we thought we'd bring you some of the great blog posts they're writing as part of the event. This one comes from Ken Coates, Dean of Arts at the Unversity of Waterloo.

The rapid development of the digital media sector has startled observers for the last few decades. Time and time again, a new twist emerges which transforms the commercial potential of the digital economy. It was only in the mid-1990s that the Internet emerged as a viable electronic platform. The emergence of e-commerce sparked the dot.com boom (and subsequent bust), just as the expansion of mobile telecommunication sent the digital industry off in new directions. The transformations continue, with social networking, file-sharing, mass digitization, and eventually ubiquitous computing spreading the impact and enhancing the possibilities of the digital sector. This makes it, of course, extremely difficult to anticipate future directions in the digital economy, although one main trends seems quite clear. For the past twenty years, tool makers have held the upper hand, particularly in North America. The fascination with technological fundamentals has focused attention on the development of Internet backbones and new devices. The result has been impressive, with faster speeds, new devices, and improved delivery systems. Perhaps, however, the greatest change has been the emergence of content -- the creative element -- as the fast-growing sector of the digital universe. At the level of the delivery systems, the Internet and devices--desktops, mobile devices, and the like, there remains an enormous amount of under-utilized capacity. While technological innovation must and will continue, the fastest changes will likely occur on the content/creative side. At present, companies like Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn have emerged as dominant players (although one hopes that there proves to be a limit to digital narcissism). The future, it seems, will be strongly influenced by increased development on the content side. Content-rich sites like hulu.com have the potential to transform the television sector. Clearly, news and information sites have undercut the viability of traditional newspapers. With governments, universities, special interest groups, google books, digital publishers, and others rushing to place content on line, content has become king. In general, the digital torch is being past from the tool makers to tool users Telematic theatre - using the Internet to enhance the theatrical experience -- has real potential. User generated content, like YouTube, continues to grow, albeit without viable business models. The development of professional content, combined with micro-charging systems, will likely emerge as a centre-piece of the 21st digital economy. To date, few companies, regions or countries have capitalized on the potential of the "creative triangle," the intersection of technology, international business and the creative sector. The unique cultures of these three areas -- each with different concepts of innovation, radically different approaches to the cultivation of talents, and very different business models -- it is not surprising that natural unions have not emerged. There is, however, a virtuous connection possible in the digital content sector. The technology firms need content to capitalize on the investment in infrastructure, creative organizations and people need markets and income from their work (particularly as traditional audiences continue experience pressure), and businesses need new products and services to capitalize on global opportunities. Bringing these sectors together and search for the sweet spot that draws on the unique contributions from each is one of the core challenges of the new economy.