All of us who have been around a little while saw the fits and starts of office productivity suites before they were really productive, right? But no matter how far they have come and how slick the template wizards are - they don’t write your sales proposal, create your pivot table, or tell you what to say to your customer in that big meeting - do they?

In a word - nope.

So why would it come as a shock to you that your electronic document management system would solve all of your business process issues with a few simple clicks of next, next, and finish? Such a system, can’t folks.

An electronic document management system is just like a hammer or drill. It is designed with a specific purpose. For instance, I can decide to use a hammer to drive a screw into a piece of wood, but at what cost? Will I damage the wood, break the head off of the screw, and blacken my thumb in the process?

Take a step back to your line of business applications. Your ERP system runs your business and CRM/SFA application drives your sales, right? Hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions traverse the complex interactions between user interfaces and database, enforcing your business rules and enhancing your business processes (when/if things are done correctly). When used correctly, any software tool will enhance your business processes, but without overlaying solid business process as the foundation to your solution it will crumble and fall like a proverbial house on the sand. Electronic document management is no different.

Before you start asking why you aren’t getting the return on your investment and rush off to drop your fist on the big red easy button - get up, walk to the bathroom and take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.

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The big question is whether your company has a SharePoint strategy?

The game is changing:

InformationWeek detailed Microsoft’s plan to discontinue it’s PerformancePoint Server, including high-end Business Intelligence (BI) tools, instead moving to bundle a subset of the suite’s features into the SharePoint collaboration platform.

According to IW, Microsoft isn’t canning the package due to poor sales. Revenues reportedly grew by 15% to $533 million in 2007 (IDC), ranking fourth in BI revenues. According to Kristina Kerr (lead Microsoft BI product manager), Microsoft’s vision is “BI for the masses.”

Why does this affect me?

If you haven’t already figured it out, Microsoft continued to bundle more “free” offerings into an already dominant platform. From the back-office to the front-office, Microsoft has a compelling case for seamless (well as seamless as Microsoft gets) integration from your Microsoft Office suite all the way through to your ERP reporting.

This will increasingly position SharePoint as the platform to link all business applications and documents together whereas many EDM applications simply attempt to either be an electronic filing cabinet or, at best, image-enable your ERP solution and enable more advanced workflow routing.

Take away the ability for SharePoint to steal your business…

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, SharePoint is something many companies will hear about one way or another. Maybe it will come bundled as part of an offering from another service provider, and maybe their CEO will see it at a local Chamber meeting and decide that’s a very cost effective intranet solution for his or her company.

Either way, it’s no longer coming… It’s here. Are you ready?

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To connect with Ken, you may visit him at DandyID.

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Not every customer is good for you though.

I’ve been through many different phases in a business: from my father’s startup (which grew from 3 to 9 people in 1 year), joining the military, hiring onto a publicly traded, global company, opting to work for a privately held organization, and living through an acquisition; I’ve seen my share of culture in my few short years in business.

In a small company, you had to have your customer because you needed to eat. There were very few jobs you could walk away from. Sucking it up was sometimes gutsy and sometimes just plain ignorant. Ask my dad how many stubbed toes we had!

In the military, it was all about the mission, and oddly enough there wasn’t much difference in working for a foodservice manufacturer. It was very odd being so far-removed from the customer. In fact, I often wondered if, like the military, my customer was on my kill list.

Coming of Age:

There comes a time, however, when a company reaches a point where it understands who it is and what it offers. It realizes it cannot be everything to everyone or it will simply become the next watered-down knockoff.

Look at the struggles that K-Mart has had. No one can argue with Wal-Mart’s success, and Target, well, targeted a much different audience. Target, for instance, would not sell firearms, and does not. This is neither good nor bad, it simply is a decision made by their management team. K-Mart seemed to try and emulate both and ended up not being able to compete with either.

However, those companies that understand who and what they are, can make crisp decisions that quickly move the company from one point to another desired stop in the trip to their final destination.

Fire a Customer?

A recent acquaintance of mine, Doug Johnson of Red Sage Consulting, mentioned that he felt a company had reach a new level of maturation when it could “fire customers”. What an interesting idea… The most successful people I have met have said this very thing to me.

Do what?

When customers don’t line up with who and what your company stands for, people often scramble and try to mold their companies into what the customer thinks they want (notice I did not say “wants”, but “thinks they want”). In this case, it is not wrong to inform a customer that there is not a good fit.

To be in business, you need to be an expert or the best at what you do. Why else would someone buy from you? Because you are the cheapest? Sure, Wal-Mart runs that game, and does an excellent job at giving their shoppers the lowest price around; they are the best at it!

You, what are you good at?

If you are so good, then why would you compromise what you do for someone who doesn’t understand what you offer?

Grab the pitchforks!

But before you stoke the fires and get out the pitchforks, you have to understand who and what you are as a company. You can’t risk a mistake in this area. Be sure you are grounded and true to what made you the best, and be passionate about that.

If you show that you are passionate about what you do, are laser-focused on who you are, and act with an attitude of service to your clients… then you will see that the “customer” is NOT always right – and not always right for you!

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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Each of us make decisions in our lives, many times throughout our day. We have to make judgment calls on which way to turn, how fast to walk, when to use the restroom, and when to leave work. All of this takes evaluating many distinct data points for each and every decision.

It is the very application of the information gathered and evaluated which sets the wise apart from just being stronger or smarter.

Survival of the fittest is correct,” he said. “But we need to change the definition of “fitness” from what it meant when Darwin used it. In the modern world, “fitness” no longer refers to physical strength. From now on, it means wisdom. – Dr. Jonas Salk (cited in How to Analyze Information, 2007)

Herbert E. Meyer stated:

… two people, facing the same decision and armed with precisely the same information, will make different choices.

Is it a complex algorithm of mathematical equations, electric signals pulsing in hippocampus region of your brain, or simply that “gut feeling” you just can’t shake?

Each and everyone one of us overlay the knowledge we have acquired to our value system, varied emotional responses, and, yes, instincts about a situation. It is the precise recipe we choose that sets us apart and makes us unique.

The Strong, and the Smart, and the Wise:

Let’s say you are walking down the street and make your way to a bus stop. There you are with two other individuals. You strike up a conversation and find that one is a tri-athlete who has successfully finished the Ironman Triathlon in the top 10 for the past 5 years. The other happens to be a recent Nobel Laureate for his discovery in particle physics and the importance of broken symmetry.

As men do, bravado between the two strangers escalates, and a wager is struck. While reminding them they are both to be hailed as the strongest and smartest, respectively, you ask if their egos might be getting the better of them. Loudly, each protests that he will be the one that gets the bus to stop first.

Bold and brash, the tri-athlete brags he is strong enough to stand in the street, directly in the path of the on-coming bus, and it will stop. Not to be outdone, the Nobel Laureate determines it to be foolish to stand in the road. Rather by standing just to the left of the tri-athlete on the curb, the bus driver’s visual trajectory will allow him to be seen first, thus increasing his chances for stopping the on-coming bus while keeping him safe from harm.

As the bus approached, the bus driver is enjoying his morning cup of coffee – black with 2 sugars. Due to poorly maintained city streets, a pot hole jars the coffee from his hand – spilling hot coffee in his lap. He widely swerves hitting both men and killing them instantly – but leaving you in one piece over by the park bench where you stood.

For all of the tri-athlete’s brawn and all of the laureate’s brains, both of their egos blinded them to the harsh reality that getting the bus to stop really wasn’t that important since it would stop at is designated place – where you stood.

While endurance aids in survival, it is not how strong the body alone may be which enables us to survive. Likewise, the mind alone cannot conquer adversity. It is often those who comprehend the nuances of the situation, and can foresee possible outcomes that will survive where others succumb to extinction.

Being able to apply the information which you have gathered is extremely important in achieving forward momentum – in achieving information traction.

Read the entire series here: Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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IBM coined a phrase – consumability. Consumability refers to the ability to consume and digest complex and voluminous amounts of information by reducing the outward-facing complexity to those consuming the information.

Shifting Paradigms:

For instance, the mechanical operation of a car has changed very little over the past 50 years. Generally speaking, you still open the door, sit in the driver’s seat, and start the car.

What has changed, however, is the reliability and features available in the automobile of today. With increased safety requirements, more complex owner requirements, and longer commute times, the thought behind a trip in a car has become both science and art.

We as consumers simply want the car to work. We  hop in and expect to be able to go where we want - when we want. Most of us don’t care about how the car does what it does as long as it performs as expected.

The example of the car does not illustrate a major shift in paradigms; The manufacturers did not wish to break consumer confidence by introducing radical new ways in which to move from one place to another. They simply wanted to make commuting safer and more enjoyable by reducing complexity and decreasing barriers to consuming their product.

The Least Common Denominator:

Herbert E. Meyer succinctly stated,

And the most important thing we’ve learned is that information is like water. It’s vital to our lives; we cannot survive without it. But if too much pours over  us – we drown.

In his paper titled, How to Analyze Information, Meyer goes on to outline seven crucial steps to analyze, or consume and digest, information:

1. Figure out where you are
2. Be sure You’re Seeing Clearly
3. Decide what you need to decide
4. Determine what you need to know
5. Collect your information
6. Turn the information into knowledge
7. Make your judgment

Each of us make decisions in our lives, many times throughout our day. We have to make judgment calls on which way to turn, how fast to walk, when to use the restroom, and when to leave work. All of this takes evaluating many distinct data points for each and every decision.

What separates the wheat from the chaff is the ability to convert information into knowledge – and go on to apply it. Simply because you are armed with the same information as another does not dictate how you might interpret it into knowledge, nor will it determine how you choose to act with this knowledge.

Everyone can make a decision, but not everyone’s results speak highly of their analysis of the data at hand. Like water, we consume information. However, we must then digest it for it to be of use to us. By distilling the information to its basest form we are able more easily recognize patterns, identify the relationships, and filter out irrelevant information as waste. After the digestion has been completed, we now have, at our disposal, a usable energy source to fill our intellectual fuel tanks.

Up next, we conclude our series on information traction, and review why you don’t have to be the strongest or smartest to survive - and thrive.

Read the entire series here: Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It

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1. The explosion of information – especially at the end-user level, and
2. the dawning realization that folder structures are no longer an adequate way to file massive amounts of data.

We continue our series about information traction.  In part one of this series, Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It (Part 1 of 4), we reviewed information traction – a term I have been using to describe a life cycle of how to find, consume, digest, and apply information directly the need at hand. In this article we will look a little more closely at the ability to find information, and its part in information traction a little more closely.

Finding It

Information is useless when filed unless we can, at will, retrieve the information. Electronic document management (EDM) solutions seek to speed the retrieval and accuracy of retrieved information.

Findability has become one of a few very popular buzzwords in the EDM space of late. Peter Morville is credited as coining the phrase, findability, which refers to:

…the quality of being locatable or navigable. At the item level, we can evaluate to what degree a particular object is easy to discover or locate. At the system level, we can analyze how well a physical or digital environment supports navigation and retrieval. (Wikipedia, 2008).

The Google Effect:

Google has revolutionized the way people perceive search, and to its credit, has seemingly made finding information easier than ever. However, there is a key difference between tagging unstructured data for later queries, such as web pages and in-the-wild documents (with Google Desktop), and those documents being structured in more tradition EDM solutions.

Let’s look at an example to help make this a little easier to wrap your head around:

Let’s say you are using an unstructured filing method, whereby you are able to throw your documents anywhere on your desktop computer and later retrieve them utilizing Google Desktop – a client-based software equivalent to Google’s web search engine. In doing so, you are able to open a browser window and type in various search terms and return results that seem to correspond to your need.

However, what happens when you now need to find all documents for a particular client because they want to review their contractual obligations? Can you run a query that will definitively return all needed documents? What if you need them constrained by last activity date or matching a criteria of “approved by John Smith”?

You see, while tagging search tools are effective in certain applications, they have yet to meet the needs of mature businesses looking to ensure findability; these are often best effort, and can not generally be considered comprehensive in scope – which is why more traditional EDM solutions are typically applied in business situations.

Structuring For Success:

The tools for making findability a reality are only a small part of the equation, however. What is most important is the processes and controls we place upon how our information flows throughout our organization.

Software tools by themselves can only make a messy filing room messier – in a digital format. It takes thought and planning to ensure information can be found, digested and applied.

At my company, we have reached a critical point I did not think we would see in a medium-sized business; we have created a position of Information Assurance whose charter responsibility is to ensure indexing information across the company are kept consistent. In other words, this position is responsible for things like ensuring our customer name is consistent between our accounting systems, EDM solution, and SFA/CRM applications.

As I indicated previously, processes and controls are some of the most important things to ensuring information can once again be found once filed. Otherwise you might as well have thrown the document in the trash to begin with – it would’ve been cheaper!

What are some of your successes or failures in findability?

Continuing with our series, our next article will discuss the ability to consume and digest the mountains of data we are finding.

Read the entire series here: Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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What is perhaps most interesting is that companies large and small have had access to this information since the dawn of commerce. Even the simplest customer interaction yields mountains of data-points on the psychology of the consumer. But how do we interpret it, compare it to other samples, and ultimately apply it to help market our products better, faster, cheaper?

Ultimately, how do we increase value to our customers while decreasing cost to outcome for our company?

If you will pay attention to the subtext, you will notice information is no longer about simply having access to mountains of data – rather it is about how to find it, consume it, digest it, and apply it to the need at hand – in other words, gaining information traction.

Information traction is simply how much momentum we can gain given a certain piece of information and whether that information is better in pieces and parts or in a conglomeration of subsidiaries.

Without application, information is really useless, isn’t it?

After all, how can you sell something if you don’t know who your customer is? What use is a doctor’s knowledge if he or she cannot apply it to save a life or ease suffering? How indeed?

Most seem to be very focused on the ability of finding information these days. Peter Morville is credited as coining the phrase, findability, which refers to:

…the quality of being locatable or navigable. At the item level, we can evaluate to what degree a particular object is easy to discover or locate. At the system level, we can analyze how well a physical or digital environment supports navigation and retrieval. (Wikipedia, 2008).

Others, such as IBM focus on what they term as consumability, or the ability to digest large amounts of information. But does this not suggest the information is simply being taken in with no thought of where the new found resources are to be distributed? In other words, what helps the body transfer those raw materials to usable energy so the body may achieve its goals during that day?

I would suggest there to be another phase in information assimilation, that of application - or what I like to call traction.

Many think of tires when first hearing the word traction. This is an apt metaphor. After all, the tire’s sole purpose is to transfer energy from the engine to the road surface, thus enabling movement. Without friction, the vehicle could not move.

In this four-part series we will look more closely at the concepts of information traction: findability, consumablity, and application (traction). Each article will discuss the relative topic as it pertains to an SMB environment, and intends to shed some light upon how one company deals with the sliding landscape of information management and assurance.

How do you handle finding and digesting all of your business information to empower you to arm your business with the best intelligence possible?

Read the entire series here: Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It

 Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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OCR, itself, can mean various things. Wikipedia offers this definition:

… the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text (usually captured by a scanner) into machine-editable text (2008).

While many estimate the accuracy levels for OCR engines can reach 98 or 99 percent, it has been my experience this is very difficult to achieve in most commercially-available software suites for the small-to-medium businesses (SMB’s). Many variables can affect the accuracy levels of output, ranging from document condition to readability.

With so many variables in scanning paper based documents it is often not possible to gain high accuracy ratings on a small budget. Thus OCR can often be a challenge to implement in many SMB’s.

When the rubber meets the road:

Typical applications of OCR revolve around digitizing documents and transforming them into an image along with usable metadata of the information contained on the physical page itself. In essence, the computer reads the document and creates a library of searchable information.

This type of application allows an EDM solution the opportunity to build a database of text, contextually tied back to the original images as a layer of the document, or image, itself. Searching for usable information within and across documents is much easier. In other words, it gets you in the right neighborhood.

Extremely high accuracy rates are often not at issue in these applications, because the indexes can be combined with this database of textual information dramatically increasing the findability of information.

Where are the brakes on this thing?

Where problems can begin to occur is when OCR is not applied to the text contained within the scanned document, but used to lift index values themselves (e.g. customer name, number, etc.). Why is this so dangerous?

Combined with other technology and processes, OCR itself if a wonderful aid in seeking efficiency within the business. However, with no quality assurance or stop-loss measures in place, It is highly likely a document will be misplaced due to a character being off here or there… In essence, you now have a needle in a haystack.

The advice I would offer is quite simple:

1. Document preparation is key to ensuring efficient use of personnel time as well as achieving high accuracy levels.
2. Quality assurance on key information is requisite if high levels of accuracy are required – especially in audit or regulatory scenarios.
3. Know your threshold of pain and what you can accept; Know your goals. (Do you need 100% accuracy?).
4. The key to findability of information contained within documents is to enforce process.
5. Create an accountability structure based around solving issues rather than blaming others. In high demand environments, appointing a “scanning czar” is critical.

Did I miss something? Do you have another opinion or experience you would like to share? Comments, suggestions and respectful disagreements are always welcome.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

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I was struggling with how to break down what seemed to be an extremely complex business process for our sales and contracts teams in order to overlay this into our eDMS and workflow solution.

Luckily, the team leaders within the departments had fairly well fine-tuned their process (as much as they could given leasing company regulations), but it was the different entry points a sale could manifest that was really throwing me for a loop.

I was sitting at my desk, scribbling on a notepad, when a colleague (and friend) walked in. He inquired what I was doing, and I went on to inform him I was trying to figure out how to eat an elephant. He quipped off a pithy remark.

Don’t start in the rear, that’s for sure!

After seeing me laugh, he sat down and listened a little while to my evident frustration with the process. He sat there in silence for a little bit, and then asked, “Why don’t you treat each entry point into the process as it’s own process?

“From there,” he suggested, “simply overlay all of the process and compare and contrast them.”

I think chagrin is the correct work to describe what I felt. It was such a simple answer. Why didn’t I think of that?

For whatever reasons, I couldn’t see the trees because for the forest (yes, reversed). In other words, I got where we were going, but I couldn’t see my way clear of the obstacles. He set me straight with that simple comment.

Ask for Directions (or have a GPS handy):

First and foremost, you must know what the objective(s) is(are). Once you have a clear understanding of what is to be delivered you can begin to operationalize the details.

The List:

I’m not a list-kind-of-person.

I’m not into too many details, but have slight tendencies towards OCD. In other words, while I prefer thinking about things like vision and direction, I can make myself focus on the details. However, I often get sidetracked on a specific detail that I just can’t get past – I just can’t move on until I’m sure it ‘feels right’. All of that makes for a very interest personality.

So to say, “I’m not into lists” is probably an understatement. I mean, you are talking to a guy who tried reading Getting Things Done – twice – and haven’t finished it all the way through once.

Needless to say, lists help me maintain discipline. One of the first things I do in the morning is create a list of things I have to get done, followed by a list of things I would like to get done.

Once you know where you want to go, backing into how to get there is one of the most important disciplines I have learned. David Allen, in his book Getting Things Done, understood the importance of keeping projects small. Allen points out that if we were to simply write down the very next action item required of us to complete a project, life would be infinitely less complex, and our to-do list would always be checked off.

So remember 2 simple rules:

1) Don’t place yourself on the wrong end of a problem.

2) Maintain an actionable list of to-do’s.

image courtesy of nickandmel2006

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Of course you think it’s going well. It’s on auto-pilot, right? You built it into the business workflow and things are getting scanned in? That’s the picture of success right?

Sadly, there is not a finish line to success. Sure basic project management training will tell us to set and achieve milestones of success, but success is a journey and not a destination. We often fall victim in the trap of justifying success based upon levels of acceptance and adoption far too low - simply to appease our own egos, ease our conscience, or simply justify our job.

Document management can be extremely complex unless you have:

1. A very firm grasp on your business process,
2. how to apply technology in order to automate processes, and
3. a keen perception of your company’s culture.

My company has been working with DMS for a number of years now, and even in a small company like ours, I am constantly amazed at how easily an initiative can be derailed without an executive level sponsor who both drives the initiative and lobbies for success.

You as the project leader, or business unit leader, must be a strong champion of the solution and constantly beat the drum of applying the solution to solve business challenges. Don’t force a square peg into a round hole, but look for innovative ways to apply the technology and get the true bang for your buck!

Furthermore, you as the champion cannot drive the offering into each nook and cranny in your business. You must rely on departmental leadership to come to your call. This is where it is essential to have buy-in from all unit leaders, and this - perhaps - can be one of the most challenging portions of just about any project rollout, especially one like document management that hasn’t quite crossed into the realm of infrastructure like e-mail and line of business applications.

Without understanding and acting upon these key functions of your document management project, your solution will never take root in your organization, and ultimately will fail.

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