ECM Blog (Enterprise Content Management)

Functional Group Level Information Modeling

2008-03-25T00:37:00.000-07:00

Shown in the above are some of the example top-level functional group folders. As you dive into the functional group level folders, you will start to identify the following three types of sub-folders:

Cross Functional
Sub-Groups
Group Level Specific

Cross Functional folders or containers are for capturing the information assets that are produced as the result of collaborative efforts and processes that happen within the functional group. Sub-Groups folders can be created to capture the contents of the child-level groups of that functional group. For example, IT group may further be divided into sub-groups such as desktop application team, infrastructure team, process management team, etc. Group Level Specific folders can be created to capture any information assets that are specific to that group. (e.g. Quarterly Goals, ECM Business Guideline Document, etc.)

For the upcoming blog post, I am planning on producing a video blog that features the 3-D view of Information Model. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

Enterprise Level Information Modeling

2007-05-16T23:36:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk about Enterprise Level Information Modeling. By ‘Enterprise Level’, we mean the very top level of ECM Information Hierarchy. How should we organize the corporate information so that it makes sense to the general users? As opposed to adopting the Departmental Approach right away, it is always a good idea to think about whether we need to balance the Departmental Approach with Cross-functional Approach.

Normally, Departmental Approach leads to a model where corporate information is sliced into departmental folders which can be further sliced into sub-group folders. Cross-functional Approach is driven by the view that the business operation is always conducted in some format of collaboration, process, or projects. Through experience, we have learned that using the combination of both approaches works very well for various types of businesses.

For Pharmaceutical Industry, it is becoming an industry best practice to develop the template folder structure for Product (Drug) Folder. When you look into the Drug Development Life Cycle for a pharmaceutical company, you will realize that various functional groups collaborate with one another as the drug goes through different development stages. The Product Folder becomes the central document repository that captures any drug specific documents.

For Companies in Consulting Business, you will realize that the business life cycle is driven by Customers. Creating Customer Folder and capturing all the customer, project related documents is what has worked well for a lot of companies in consulting business.

After evaluating the need for having such cross-functional repository, you can start forming functional group folders. As you dive into each functional group, you may also identify the need for having cross-functional area in that level.

Having a great understanding of the business model and creating functional group diagrams will definitely help as you flesh out your information model.

Information Architecture – How to Organize Corporate Information

2007-03-29T23:46:00.000-07:00

In the upcoming blogs, we will dive into the interesting subject: “How do we organize Corporate Information?” Shown below are example topics that we will cover during the next series of blogs:

Enterprise Level Information Modeling
Functional Group Level Information Modeling
Departmental Approach? Cross-functional Approach?
Folder Structure Driven? Metadata Driven?
Document Naming Convention
Folder Nesting & Naming Convention
Information Modeling Best Practices for [Put Your Industry Here]

If you have questions or topics you would like to see in my blogs, feel free to use ‘Comments’.

Business Model - Business Goals, Problems, and ECM Vision Statement

2006-11-24T11:55:00.000-08:00

Most of the times, Business Problems and Need for ECM system are well identified prior to making the decision of investing in ECM system. Once the software and services are acquired, it is easy for the ECM team to get onto fast track mode. Before you get your hands on the detailed aspects of ECM implementation, it is always a good idea to define:

Business Goals
Business Problems
ECM Vision Statement

Well run businesses normally have well-stated Business Goals in place. Take some time to see how your ECM implementation can align well to your Business Goals. Develop a list of Business Problems that can be addressed with ECM implementation. Here are some examples of Business Goals and Business Problems.

1. Business Goals

'Move Forward' vision and goals will help ensure that our company is solidly positioned in the next decade to continue its mission of developing, manufacturing, and commercializing products for customers. We have the following business goals:

Bring at least 3 major new products onto the market
Become the number one U.S. company in sales
Achieve revenue of $100 billion

2. Business Problems

Need Repository for Key Documents. Today, we don't have a central document repository where people can find or search for key business documents. We are not capitalizing on our information assets.
Fill in the Gaps that Current Information Management Systems have. Today, the websites have too many broken links. The contents captured on the websites are not always up-to-date.
Need Standardization in our Business Processes. We need to develop standardized procedures and processes that will enhance the efficiency and productivity of the business operation.

Create a separate document that captures your ECM Vision Statement. Use this Vision Statement to communicate with the management and the ECM team. Many ECM teams sometimes feel overwhelmed by the broad spectrum of ECM (Document Management, Web Content Management, Document Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Application Integration, Portals, Collaboration Systems such as Messaging, Web Meetings, and Rich Media). Having clear ECM Vision Statement will allow you to develop a high-level ECM Roadmap that captures the priority of various ECM deployment aspects. The management and ECM team will be able to make decisions on where to invest the resources next with the understanding of where they are in the roadmap. Following is an example of ECM Vision Statement.

ECM Vision Statement

Provide 21 CFR Part 11 Compliant ECM Platform that allows for Higher Efficiency and Greater Productivity.

Our vision is to build an ECM Platform that will provide or support the following:

Regulatory Compliance
Streamlined Business Process
Document Management Platform
Collaboration Platform

Business Model - Business Item Diagram

2006-08-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Business Item Diagram captures the relationships and correlations among various business items. Here, business items can be products, manufacturing equipments, real estate properties, and anything that is related to daily business operation of a company. Well-run businesses normally have good definitions of these business items and people from various functional groups use the common terminology when they communicate to one another.

How does this business model analysis help in terms of ECM Modeling? Business events and processes are strongly tied to the dynamics of these business items. Business events, business processes, and business items all spring the need for documentation. Most of the times, taking one-step back and capturing these business item diagrams allow us to develop a convention with which we can build a desirable taxonomy (folder structure) for business documents.

Business Model – Functional Group Diagram

2006-08-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

Shown in the above is an example of a functional group diagram. This diagram captures the make-up of business functional groups and high-level flow of business operation. To be able to put this type of diagram together, you will first have to talk to various functional groups within the organization and ask what the roles and responsibilities are for those groups. It is also important to understand what the company does as a whole and what their core competencies are (How they generate profit).

Business Modeling

2006-08-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

When conducting Modeling activities for ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solution, it is critical that we understand the Business Model. A Business Model is the design or plan for operations that will offer a product or service of value to a defined set of customers in a way that is beneficial for customers, suppliers, investors, shareholders, and other parties involved. It is the totality of:

How it will select, acquire, and manage its customers
How it defines its products and other business items
How it goes to the market
How it organizes its workforce
How it defines the roles and responsibilities of workforce
How it defines processes and procedures
How it captures profit

With that said, how can we capture the Business Model? Capturing the Business Model requires certain level of abstraction and simplification with a focus on certain aspects of the business. The artifacts you can generate as a result of Business Modeling would include the following:

Functional Group Diagram
Product / Business Item Diagram
Business Goals / Problems
ECM Vision Statement

In the following blogs, I will walk through these items to explain in detail with some examples.

Unstructured Growth

2006-06-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Many times, I have seen how ECM implementation can go wrong and one of the most common mistakes is not having a designated ECM team in place. For a lot of companies, an ECM application is first deployed with a narrower focus of deploying to one specific department. During this initial phase, the manager of that department will take on the role of project manager and ECM team leader. When the initial implementation is successful, the manager continues on with other business issues within his/her own department and does not have other bandwidth to manage the expansion of ECM onto other departments.

At this point, the company has to realize that there has to be a central ECM team that can develop ECM deployment methodology and manage the roll-out process. A lot of times, it would make sense for the company to bring in ECM consultants who can design information architecture, user group structure, and permission model.

When this exercise is skipped and ECM is just handed over to other departments without proper roll-out strategy, the ECM implementation starts to take on an unpredictable journey. Most of the time, it is much more expensive to retrofit an unstructured ECM system than to invest early on for the proper design efforts.

It all starts from the business

2006-05-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Solution aims to enhance the business productivity by leveraging unstructured data to effective business use. By structured data, we mean the data captured in database applications whilst unstructured data is captured in Word, Excel, PDF, and other types of electronic documents.

When large companies start to look into implementing ECM, they should make sure that the ECM team has good mix of technical and business resources as ECM implementation is far from being just a technical application deployment. Successful deployment of ECM requires a team that understands the business model of the company and is able to communicate to the business in the business language.

Along with good modeling of ECM itself, there has to be a complete ECM Program in place that provides the framework for Governance in ECM. The ECM Program would consist of ECM Steering Committee, ECM Governance Council, ECM Implementation Team, Knowledge Manager Organization Structure, and supporting policies and procedures. This ECM Program keeps the ECM system healthy as it grows and adapts to business changes.

For more information on ECM Program, refer to:
ECM Governance Program White Paper.
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