8 Characteristics of Successful ECM Installations

Executive Summary
Enterprise Content Management is a new field. A number of pioneer companies have tried to place the technology throughout their organizations. Some have succeeded, others have failed. DeepBridge has distilled eight common traits that the successful installations share. They are:

• Clear role for ECM that makes sound business sense

• Ongoing senior political support

• Installations led by business unit champions

• Multi-year timeline

• ROI as a tactical means of obtaining funding, not an overall justification

• Flexible planning

• Many short term projects with limited deliverables

• XML heart to the content

Reports from the Frontier – ECM Successes
For the last few years ECM was more talked about than done. Tight budgets and the enormous scale of the projects led to more action in industry seminars than in server rooms. Yet, while many dreamed, some acted. Not all who set out on the ECM Trail succeeded. No organization we know of has finished their installation. But starting in 2003 DeepBridge began to see notable successes (some we participated in). The question we asked ourselves was “What do the successful implementations have in common?” There was never a single answer. Rather, eight traits were associated with each of the successes.

Before examining the points let’s define success. DeepBridge views an Enterprise Content Management system as successful if it is in active use by several business units within a company. The reason for this rather vague statement is that the greatest challenges to installing ECM are not technology but political/cultural/procedural acceptance by end-users. Seven of the eight success points do not involve technology.

It is possible to have a successful Content Management system without being successful at an Enterprise level. An installation in a single department may be successful but it is a successful departmental installation. Enterprise implies an entire organization or at least big parts of it. If actively used in a few departments and there is a plan to move to others where the technology can be a benefit we’d say it’s a work in process that bears watching.

That stated, let’s move on to the eight points:

1. Precise Mission Statement. We noticed a dichotomy between successful installations and those not so favored. The successful sites can tell you why they decided to install ECM. They can tell you the “good thing” that was supposed to happen once the system is in. They can tell you the scope of the project. And they can do it in a sentence or two with no big words. Let me give you some examples.

This fall I had the opportunity to lead a seminar in which one of the participants was from John Deere, the global agricultural and construction products company. He stated that the reason for his portion of the company’s multi-year commitment to ECM was that competition requires excellent service after a sale. That means providing up-to-date maintenance documents in the customer’s language of choice.

A simple yet compelling mission. There is nothing vague about it. Another example is one of our media clients who have invested heavily in a down market to build out their ECM system. Their mission is to dominate their niches by having both the broadest and deepest coverage for their target markets. Their goal was to enter content once and make it immediately available to edit teams making products in XML. They have rolled out to a majority of their 100 plus periodical titles.

One never likes to point to failed projects but looking through our archives we note that some of the most ambitious projects which failed had no clear goal. For example, missions like “Let us provide the right content to the right person at the right time” seem to fail because there nothing concrete about them. It does not say what to expect once the system is in or what class of business or content the system will apply to.

2. Ongoing senior political support. All successful ECM’s we have seen have senior managers actively supporting the implementers. This means more than approving a funding request. It has meant publicly stating their support for the system. It has meant intervening with subordinates who oppose the system. It means a willingness to take responsibility.

Without senior support the politics of changes are difficult to maneuver. We have yet to see an ECM install succeed without senior management carrying the torch.

3. Champions are from business units, not IT. Successful ECM projects are moved ahead day-to-day by those who will use the technology. Our lists of failures are littered with examples of well-meaning, hard working IT staffers “doing” the technology to a resistant or unaware group of end-users. Success requires people from the business unit take responsibility for designing the application and gaining their peers’ consensus on its value.

IT still plays a valuable role in project management and delivering the technology. But their role is to serve the business unit leaders, not lead the users.

4. Multi-year timeline. While it may consist of many phases we have never seen a significant ECM installation complete in under a year. Including planning, it appears that three years is necessary to cross the “at least halfway done line”. When asking for people and resources for such an extended period it becomes clear why a compelling mission and strong sponsorship is necessary.

5. ROI is a means, not an end. Those who have read other DeepBridge white papers know we think that there is rarely an ROI argument for ECM. ECM should be viewed as a cost of doing business for organizations wishing to grow. Our successful ECM companies have made a similar argument overall (it’s about growth, not savings) but have not hesitated to stress ROI advantages where they could find them.

None of the successful companies we know have argued that cost savings was the sole reason or even primary reason for moving forward. That said, wherever an ROI benefit could be shown it has, mostly as a tactical method of gaining additional short term funding. In all cases management saw that control of content would help them compete more effectively. Larger companies have seen it is a raising the bar in product category to take market share from smaller firms or those with more defensive strategies.

ECM is seen as a tool for increasing revenue that may have incidental cost-savings.

6. Clear long term vision but flexible on the details. While the successful pioneers have a clearly stated mission (see item #1) they are flexible about getting there. Given the length of these projects, early commitment to time tables or to which department gets the technology first can create discontent as business conditions change. The keys are rarely to commit people and resources more than a few months in advance. Successful companies are also careful to set expectations that a champion’s pet project may be re-scheduled if business conditions demand.

7. Many short projects with clear results. The successful ECM projects share a common trait of being composed of many small projects. These phases tend to run between 60 and 120 days. Usually only a limited, discrete number of new functions are delivered. Project leaders are careful to set expectations as to what will be delivered and see to it that that is what is delivered in end-user acceptance testing.

8. XML rules. 100% of the successful ECM projects we are aware store key content in XML format. Our clients like XML’s flexibility. When dealing with uncertain futures freedom from fixed or proprietary format is desirable.

Summary
We all like simple explanations for things. Eight success traits pushes beyond simple but ignore any of them at your peril.

We at DeepBridge are interested in your views and needs. As the premier integrator of complex content projects in North America we have the experienced staff and technologies needed to make your ECM project a success. Please email us at info@deepbridge.com or call 212-809-4050.

DeepBridge Content Solutions is systems integration and consulting firm centered on content technologies. Our regular white papers are intended to start conversations with and among our colleagues Feel free to distribute this document, or click here to comment back to us.