Enterprise Content Management as SaaS

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet.

Two factors are driving the movement to SaaS. One is the significant technical improvements over the last decade. Computer hardware costs like CPUs, storage and network bandwidth have dropped significantly. In the last two years, memory prices have fallen by almost 75% and CPU prices have fallen by 50%, while capabilities like processing speed and capacity have increased significantly.

The second factor is that certain software applications are becoming standardized. Due to these improvements, it is now possible to host a software application for thousands of companies with shared hardware and still provide good performance. Likewise, it is practical to accommodate the business process needs of thousands of companies using a single copy of software without having to re-write the software code for each customer.

As more software is being delivered as a service, business users now have greater control over the destiny of their business process improvement efforts. And while many SaaS projects require little from the IT department, IT is increasingly feeling the need to get involved to ensure that integration, security and compliance requirements are met. IT is now taking a more consultative role and acting as a liaison between business and vendor.

Why SaaS is Ideal for ECM?

An enterprise content management (ECM) solution has many components that need to be assembled even for the simplest of projects. Below is list of common ECM related technologies that frequently have to be integrated:

• Search
• Email management
• eForms
• Workflow
• Records management
• OCR
• Fax management
• Access control
• Reporting
• Electronic signature
• Viewing and mark-up
• Version control

In addition to the above, ECM projects require hardware and software like a database server, web server, application server for integration, writing integration code and a plan to maintain all of this and a plan for regular backup. In addition to the ease of implementation, ECM benefits from the SaaS delivery model because a lot of flexibility can be delivered via configuration instead of customization.

On-premise software gets customized very heavily and typically most of the features are not used. The customization is done by expensive staff that has to write and maintain software code. When any component of the solution is upgraded, the code has to be rewritten, making it very expensive to maintain. By contrast, SaaS configuration works like Lego blocks. Most critical business needs can be accommodated although the system is not "infinitely" customizable.

In the context of ECM, this means having capabilities like configurable search, line-of-business users can decide how much importance should be given to document properties like name, the keywords of the document and the actual content. Configurability of the user interface means that different users can choose which buttons they see. Configurable workflow allows business operation managers to adapt the workflow to their business processes. Configuration is very similar to building your own Google or Yahoo home page by making point-and-click selections instead of writing complex code. Configuration is much easier and more flexible than customizing code.

SaaS-based ECM also provides pre-built configurable applications for common business processes that are document-heavy. Examples of such processes include:

• Accounts payable automation
• Contract management
• Proposal management
• Logistics/POD
• Mortgage processing
• Field support
• Training
• Legal
• Architecture
• Construction
• Insurance processing
• Engagement management

Benefits of SaaS

Software as a service has inherent advantages that make it attractive for the vast majority of content management applications. These are the benefits of the SaaS model:

1. Democratization of turnkey software: companies of all sizes can now afford the basic applications that were historically only within the reach of very large organizations.

2. Extremely fast deployment: with SaaS you can be up and running in days, not weeks or months like on-premises solutions. And users are quick to adopt SaaS applications, so your time-to-value will be much faster with a SaaS solution. Unlike on-premises software, there is nothing to install and SaaS requires no hardware, no software, no additional network infrastructure and no IT expenses to maintain that infrastructure. All you need is a browser and an Internet connection.

3. Complete solutions: Typically, all needed components of a SaaS solution are pre-integrated. There is no need to pay for additional modules or expensive and time-consuming integration services.

4. Low cost: SaaS is delivered as a pay-as-you-go subscription. Combined with the savings in hardware, administration, and professional services, the total cost of a SaaS implementation is typically less than half of on-premises software.

5. Low risk: SaaS is easy to get out of, by simply choosing not to renew the services agreement at the end of the initial term. Usually, this is a one-year period. Often, SaaS providers (like SpringCM) will give you a free trial period, allowing you to configure your solution and try it before making the purchase commitment.

6. Easy to administer: SaaS solutions are usually administered by someone in the business unit, not by IT staff. And since there is nothing to install, no hardware, and no network management, the administration of a SaaS solution usually consists of simple configuration and user access management.

7. Easy to use: SaaS applications are always built with the mindset of getting users productive as soon as possible. For example, the SpringCM solution has an intuitive Web interface, easy configuration steps and a quick tutorial designed to get users familiar with the system in minutes.

8. Easy to integrate: thanks to robust Web services, SaaS solutions fit nicely into other business applications. Often, the document management and workflow features can be invoked from within the other application, so the users do not have to learn a new system to take advantage of the added capabilities.

9. Easy to buy: SaaS applications are easier to buy. If you were considering a $500K on-premises system, you not only have to sell the project internally and get the budget approved but also write up a detailed RFP with help from IT and think of all the ways you might use the system. Instead, when acquiring a SaaS-based application, you can try it and see if it solves your immediate problems. You can go from thinking about a solution to go-live in as little as a few weeks depending on the complexity of your requirements.

10. Faster innovation: Because SaaS solutions are multi-tenant and easier for the vendor to support and upgrade and because a SaaS vendor can very easily find out if new features will conflict with old ones, SaaS companies typically release newer versions every two to three months.

Limitations of SaaS

Although SaaS works for the vast majority of solution areas, there are a few limitations that you should take into consideration.

1. While SaaS works for common business processes, if the business processes are extremely proprietary and very peculiar to the company, then SaaS may not be the right choice.

2. SaaS can handle large volumes of transactions and data, but if your application requires constant transfer of huge volumes of data (terabytes) over the Internet with an expectation of real-time processing, then SaaS may not be the best option.

3. SaaS may not be the right option for your business if your security requirements are such that only your internal IT department can meet them.

4. Although the SaaS model has been in operation for over a decade with millions of users, there are those who prefer the predominant computing model, which is still on-premises software.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

Not all SaaS providers are equal in their ability to satisfy your needs. Not only are there major differences in solution functionality, but there are also differences in each vendor’s ability to deliver and support the type of solution you need. 

Here are a few questions that any qualified SaaS vendor should be able to answer.

1. Are you a true SaaS provider, or simply a "hosted" or "ASP" solution? All genuine SaaS solutions are multi-tenant and this is what brings you many of the benefits of a SaaS solution. A truly multi-tenant SaaS provider can demonstrate that all customers are running the same version of the software using shared hardware.

2. What has been your average outage time over the past 12 months? The answer should be way less than 1%. For example, SpringCM provides availability of 99.7% for its solution.

3. How often is new software released? Because of the flexibility and effectiveness of the SaaS architecture, you should expect new product releases much more frequently than with the typical 12-18 month cycle of on-premises software vendors.

4. Is there lag time between a new release and your applying it? If the answer is yes, this is a sign that you may be dealing with a hosted or ASP provider, not a true SaaS. With SaaS, when a new release is available, everyone has immediate access to the new functionality.

5. How much domain experience do you have as a SaaS provider? This question is very important because, whenever possible, you want to deal with a company that really knows how to deliver SaaS solutions, not one who jumped on the bandwagon to take advantage of the rapid growth in the industry.

6. Did you start as a SaaS company? Many of the so-called SaaS vendors are really on-premises software companies who have re-purposed their software code to fit into an on-demand (hosted) model. Such systems do have advantages, but they also include many of the disadvantages of on-premises solutions.

7. Can I try the software for free? Every SaaS provider worth its salt will give you access to its solution for a trial period. This gives you a feel for how the solution will work for you day-to-day. One important consideration is to make sure that any of the content capture, configuration and workflows will be fully available to you as you transition from a trial to a full account.

8. How much customization is required to make the solution usable? The best answer is "none," since SaaS solutions use the concept of "configuration" instead of customization. As we covered earlier, configuration offers many of the same advantages as customization but does not require the significant time and expense.

9. How does your application scale? Certain applications run fine when there are 10 users or 100 users but cannot accommodate larger user populations. Ask your SaaS provider if their application can scale across thousands of companies, not just thousands of users.

10. How will you keep my content and data safe? There is a natural reluctance to trust the maintenance of valuable content (both documents and data) outside the corporate firewall. Good SaaS companies host in facilities that have sophisticated power backup, earthquake/flood-resistant construction, bio-metric security, SAS 70 Type certification and bulletproof construction. Although your IT department may not be able to afford such a facility, the SaaS vendor can do so because the cost gets spread over hundreds or thousands of customers.

SharePoint Implementations

There are a few main considerations for governance and metrics in SharePoint implementations:

• metrics to gauge maturity, success, adoption, compliance and progress in your program;
• mechanisms for managing content across the full lifecycle including compliance with standards for tagging;
• governance processes and policies to control site and content ownership.

Metrics

Metrics will give you measures of success, adoption, compliance and progress. What is measured can be managed. When no objective ways have been put in place to measure how well a program is functioning, it is not possible to correct or improve it. It is essential to have a way of monitoring how things are going so changes can be made to serve the needs of the program.

Maturity

The first metric to consider is overall maturity and capability. Maturity in the SharePoint space can be considered across multiple dimensions, from the level of intentionality and structure of a process to the formal presence and level of sophistication of governing bodies. 

Consider a maturity model in which each dimension is mapped with a set of capabilities and characteristics that indicate a general level of maturity. Based on the overall characteristics of those processes (reflected in the rating for each dimension), the maturity of the organization’s SharePoint implementation can be measured at the start of a program and throughout its life. As processes are installed, the maturity is increased. That snapshot in time is a good indicator of the state of the program and can be used as a general measure of success.

Because SharePoint success is indicated by the ability to locate information (“findability”) and findability is the result of a combination of factors, it is possible to describe those factors in terms of existing practices and processes as well as benchmark the level of functionality or activity (for example, content quality measures, the presence of a process or the measure of the effectiveness of that process). One governance maturity measure regards whether there are any governing bodies or policies in place. Another might be the participation levels in governance meetings.

Use cases and usability

A second important measure of value includes overall usability based on use cases for specific classes of users. Use cases should be part of every content and information program, and there should be a library to access for testing each use case. Use cases are tasks that are part of day-to-day work processes and support specific business outcomes. At the start of the program, assessing the ability of users to complete their job tasks, which requires the ability to locate content, provides a practical baseline score to compare with later interventions.

User satisfaction is a subjective measure of acceptance. Although subjective, if measured in the same way, before an intervention or redesign and then after the intervention. The results will show a comparative improvement or decrease in perceived usability. The perception can be impacted by more than design. Training and socialization can have a large impact on user satisfaction.

Adoption

One simple metric for adoption is the volume of e-mail containing attachments as compared with those containing links. As users post their files on SharePoint and send links within messages rather than e-mailing attachments, they are clearly demonstrating use of the system. Looking at that metric as a baseline and then periodically on a department-by-department basis as well as company-wide provides a valuable information regarding SharePoint adoption.

Other adoption metrics include the number of collaboration spaces or sites that are set up and actively managed, the numbers of documents uploaded or downloaded, the degree of completeness of metadata, the accuracy of tagging, and the number of documents being reviewed based on defined lifecycles.

It is important to have self-paced tutorials regarding your particular environment and to monitor the number of people who have completed this kind of training. Participation in “lunch-and-learns,” webinars or conference calls on the use of the environment are other engagement metrics that can be tracked.

Socialization includes a narrative of success through sharing stories about the value of knowledge contained in knowledgebases, problems being solved and collaboration that leads to new sales or cost savings. Publicizing new functionality along with examples showing how that functionality can be used in day-to-day work processes will help people see the positive aspects of the program and help to overcome inevitable challenges with any new deployment. Those successes need to be communicated through different mechanisms and by emphasizing themes appropriate to the audience and process. An application for executives may not resonate with line-of-business users.

Alignment with business outcomes

A more challenging but also more powerful approach to metrics is to link the SharePoint functionality to a business process that can be impacted and that can be measured. One example is a proposal process that enables salespeople to sell more when they are able to turn proposals around more quickly, allowing more selling time or reduced cost of highly compensated subject matter experts. Employee self-service knowledgebases can be linked to help desk call volume. Those metrics are more challenging because they require the development of a model that predicts the impact of one action on another or at least an understanding that causality is involved, but they also can be a strong indication of success.

Tagging processes

The amount of content that is correctly tagged provides a useful measure of adoption and compliance. How do you know if content is tagged correctly? Taking a representative sample of content and checking whether tagging is aligned with the intent of the content publishing design will detect inconsistencies or errors in tagging. 

The percentage of content that is tagged at all is an indicator. One organization left a default value that did not apply to any content. The first term in the dropdown was "lark". If users left that value in, they were not paying attention and the quality of tagging was impacted. Measuring the percentage tagged with "lark" allowed for an inverse indicator. When the "lark" index declined, the quality increased. The quality of content can also be measured with crowd-sourced feedback. Up-voting or down-voting content can trigger workflows for review or boosting in ranking.

Change triggers

Metrics tell the organization something: whether something is working or not working. But what action is triggered? A metrics program has to lead to action: a course correction to improve performance. The change cycle can be characterized by conducting interaction analysis to measure the pathway through content and how it is used (such as impressions or reading time). 

If users exit after opening a document, that exit could be because they found their answer or because the content was not relevant. It is only by looking at the next interaction (another search, for example, or a long period of reading the document) can it be determined whether the content was high value or whether it did not provide an answer. Based on this analysis, it is possible to identify a remediation step (create missing content or fix a usability issue, etc.).

Search interactions also provide clues for action. When top searches return no content, the wrong content or too much content, the root cause can be addressed with an appropriate action (improve tagging, create content, tune the ranking algorithm or search experience with best bets, auto-complete, thesaurus entries, etc.).

By reviewing and troubleshooting content interaction metrics, patterns may emerge that point to problems with the publishing process or compliance with tagging guidelines.

Content processes and governance policies

SharePoint governance consists of decision-making bodies and decision-making mechanisms for developing and complying with rules and policies around SharePoint installations. This is the glue that holds SharePoint deployments together. Mechanisms for creating a new team sites and collaboration spaces need to go through a process of review to ensure that redundant sites are not created. Abandoned sites need to be retired or archived. Content needs to be owned and reviewed for relevance. If content is not owned and abandoned sites not actively removed, the installation becomes more and more cluttered.

Without clear guidelines for how and where to post content and ways to apply metadata tags, users will tend to post content haphazardly, and eventually libraries will be cluttered with junk. Over time, people will dump content in SharePoint because they are told they need to post it for sharing but no one will know how to find valuable content. Site administrators must understand the rules of deployment and control how users are utilizing SharePoint to prevent sprawl and keep the system from becoming cluttered with poorly organized content.

Among the chief goals of governance is to prevent SharePoint from becoming a dumping ground by segmenting collaboration spaces from content to be reused and enforcing standards for curation and tagging.

Consider that every element of SharePoint has a lifecycle and that this lifecycle has to be managed. Those elements range from design components that are created based on the needs of users and rigorous use cases (including taxonomies, metadata structures, content models, library design, site structures and navigational models), to the sites themselves that are created according to a policy and process and disposed of at the end of their life, to the content within sites that needs to be vetted, edited and approved for broad consumption. All of those are managed through policies, intentional decision-making and compliance mechanisms developed by a governance group.

SharePoint governance needs to be a part of the overall information governance program of the enterprise. It is part of content and data governance with particular nuances based on how the technology functions. In fact, many tools are designed into the core functionality of SharePoint to help with governance operationalization. The overarching principle is to consider the audience and the breadth of audience the content is designed to reach.

One analogy is that of an office structure. The lobby, which has a wide audience, limits what can be displayed. The lobby environment is visible to all, so it needs to be managed rigorously. But walking into a cubicle in the office building will reveal the personality of its inhabitant: personal photos, papers on the desk, individual and idiosyncratic organizing principles. A messy desk perhaps. A shared work area might be someplace between the orderliness of the lobby and the messiness of the individual workspace.

Those gradations are the local, personal and departmental level spans of control analogously managed in SharePoint. Information that has an enterprise span needs to be carefully managed and controlled. In a collaboration space, things can be a little more chaotic. In fact, the one thing to keep in mind is that content has a different value depending on the context and span and will increase in value as it is edited, vetted, tagged and organized for specific audiences and processes.

Segment the high-value content by promoting it from a collaboration space to a shared location and apply the tags that will tell the organization that it is important. Separate the wheat from the chaff. Manage high-value content and differentiate it from interim deliverables and draft work in process. Throw away the junk or take it out of the search results so they are not cluttered with low-value information.

Many people complain that they can’t find their content in SharePoint and they want search to work like Google. The answer is to put the same work into managing and processing content as search engine optimization departments do for web content, and the search engine will return the results that you are looking for.

SharePoint requires an intentional approach to design, deployment, socialization, maintenance and ongoing decision-making. The rules are simple: there is no magic. They need to be applied consistently and intentionally to get the most from the technology.

SharePoint Beyond the Firewall: Put Your Content to Work

SharePoint is undoubtedly one of the most important and widespread enterprise productivity tools, used by an estimated 67% of medium-to-large organizations, according to research firm AIIM. Many companies are heavily invested in SharePoint, and for good reason: it’s a highly adaptable solution that can be effective for content management and file sharing across a range of use cases. But SharePoint does have its limitations.

Where SharePoint struggles is when content needs to be securely shared outside the firewall, and consumed by remote workers, partners, or suppliers. Extending SharePoint for external needs introduces IT challenges, including content protection and security, user governance and support, and initial and on-going infrastructure and license costs.

This creates a challenge for organizations with sizable SharePoint investments and large populations of users. Rather than replacing SharePoint, it’s more practical to build on existing investments to provide secure, external collaboration and document sharing, without adding unnecessary complexity and cost to IT infrastructure, or putting sensitive or regulated content at risk.

According to AIIM, security and control are the top concerns of SharePoint administrators since it is routinely used to manage highly sensitive and regulated content: 51% of users share financial documents, 48% legal and contractual documents, and 36% board of directors and executive communications.

Leverage Your SharePoint Investment for External Document Sharing

As companies start sharing sensitive documents with collaboration partners, they need to maintain tight access control. SharePoint control over document access is not as well defined as many large enterprises might want. Attributes to consider for secure, seamless content sharing that complements your SharePoint investment include:

• Secure, policy-based document-sharing control.
• Agile response, and easy set-up and adoption.
• Low, up-front investment.
• Ability to leverage existing systems without adding new complexity.
• Provisioning and support for a community of external users.
• Cloud-based solutions are now meeting all of these demands to unburden the in-house IT infrastructure, but still allow internal users to continue using the familiar SharePoint-based platform and applications, with little or no change or added overhead.

Maintaining Control Over the Content Lifecycle

Externalizing SharePoint is one thing. Having control over the content once it’s left the firewall is another. For comprehensive control, you’ll want to consider tools with the following:

• Access rights for external partners. Given the large number of potential collaboration partners and the number of documents to share, you’ll need granular and dynamic document administration.
• Encryption. As soon as SharePoint documents pass beyond a firewall, they need to be encrypted and remain encrypted both as they move over the internet and while they are at rest within the external document sharing application. Seamless encryption means hackers can’t access the data within a document at any stage.
• Virus protection. Avoid picking up file-based viruses that could penetrate your network while content is in motion, and shared and accessed from various geolocations and devices.
• Information Rights Management (IRM). IRM services let IT departments provide secure document access to any device—PC, smartphone, tablet—while dynamically managing content rights even after a document has been distributed. Such systems have the ability to let users view without downloading documents, and prevent printing or screen capture. Ideally, IRM should be plug-in free so that it is frictionless to users. Finally, digital watermarking identifies a document as confidential and also embeds in the document the name of the person doing the download. This helps ensure that the user will be extra careful not to lose or leak the document.
• Monitoring and auditing. Know which people are looking at what documents, for how long, and create audit reports from this information. This verifies compliance with data privacy and other relevant regulations, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

These security, compliance, and information governance capabilities should be accessible without requiring additional SharePoint software customization, or introducing a new user interface.

Galaxy Consulting has over 15 years experience in SharePoint implementations and management. Please contact us for a free consultation.

Electronic Signature and Content Management

 At this time of digital transformation, it is difficult to talk about managing content management without talking about using electronic signatures. E-signatures make it possible to create digital workflows, help to maximize ROI from content management, and enhance productivity, compliance, security, and analytics.

Quite a few content management tools include e-signature implementation such as SharePoint, Box, and other content management systems (CMS).

Electronic signatures, digital business, and content management are interdependent. Without e-signature capability, documents continue to be printed for signing, then photocopied, shipped, corrected, imaged back into the system, archived, and shredded. 90% of the time and cost of labor dedicated to managing paper can be saved by using e-signatures. There are also other benefits of using e-signatures such as faster decision making, shorter sales cycles, and improved customer experience.

In the last few years, financial services, insurance, healthcare, and government have embraced digital transformation. A major driver is compliance and risk. Many organizations are concerned about legal risk or they struggle with the constantly changing regulatory landscape in their industries, in part because manual processing is very prone to errors.

Rather than react to regulatory pressure with additional people, manual controls, and process complexity, organizations that adopt e-signatures have these benefits:

• Leverage workflow rules to execute transactions correctly and consistently.
• Capture a full audit trail and electronic evidence.
• Minimize exposure to risk due to misplaced or lost documents.
• Make the process of e-discovery easier, more reliable, and less expensive.
• Demonstrate compliance and reduce legal risk through the ability to playback the exact process that was used to capture signatures.

Let's look at this example: the VP of compliance is asking for transaction records from 5 years ago. How helpful would it be to quickly produce all signed records, in good order and replay the entire web-based signing process for context.

According to Forrester Research, organizations and customers now recognize that e-signature is an important enabler of digital business.

Today, the business is digital and e-signature is a foundational technology enabling end-to-end digitization. Let's look at this example: a customer filled out an insurance application. When the package is ready to be signed by the customer, traditionally it would revert to paper. Instead, documents are handed off to the electronic signature solution. This solution would manage every aspect of the e-sign process, including notifying and authenticating signers, presenting documents for review, capturing intent, securing documents, collecting evidence, etc.

Once e-signed, the documents can be downloaded in PDF format and stored in any archiving system. The e-signature audit trail and the security travels seamlessly with the document, ensuring the record can be verified independently or the e-signature service.

A document centric approach to embedding e-signatures within signed records allows for greater portability and easier long term storage in an CMS solution. Additional metadata related to the e-sign transaction can be handed off to the CMS as well for analytics purpose.

Adopting electronic signatures is quick and easy and does require IT or programming resources. Companies who are looking for a more integrated automated workflow, e-signature plugins for SharePoint, Salesforce, Box are available.

Organizations can quickly and easily enhance approval workflows with a more robust e-signature solution than a checkbox on an approval routing sheet, while also automating archival.

Change Management and Content Management

Content Management and Change Management are connected. Change Management is needed for successful Content Management. These two subject matters support each other.

Companies can benefit from the positive relationship between these two subject matters and suitable processes about them, starting with content management. 

Improved visibility and management of documents is particularly beneficial for change management. Employees across an organization can use the same, current documents with up-to-date facts and figures, and with an automated document management system, they can do it quickly, boosting the organization’s agility in times of change.

When Content Management Takes the Lead

With a reliable and efficient content management system, individual departments and change management teams can better:

• Integrate siloed information and standardize operating procedures across the organization, thereby allowing everyone to pull from a single source of truth.
• Communicate any changes quickly throughout the entire organization.
• Increase product and process quality by ensuring employees have the right document at the right time.

By-products of these activities include improved decision-making and reduced possibility of errors, miscommunication, and regulatory actions through enforced compliance. In short, Content Management helps keep Change Management in control.

When Change Management Takes the Lead

How does change management helps to keep the content management processes in check? Whether change is driven by FDA, EMEA, or ISO regulations, or by competitive business forces, it is undeniably critical to operations. It doesn’t matter whether the change being addressed in an internal change, or a process change that must be efficiently and accurately documented to ensure adherence going forward. It must be kept in control, and to do so, it commands that other inter-related processes, including content management, be reliable at all times.

To effectively manage change, an organization must be agile. Bottlenecks to operational agility might include an inability to locate data, or outdated SOPs that expose the company to noncompliance or financial, operational, or legal risk. These bottlenecks might rest within the content management processes, rendering them unreliable. Change Management would help to resolve these problems.

An effective change management system will take charge and guide content management by starting document updates during the implementation of an approved change. This action:

• Provides a comprehensive workflow for documenting change from the initial change request through to the approvals and implementation.
• Reduces the risk of losing documents, or storing incomplete or unapproved documents.
• Increases the available transparency of what is being documented.

Content Management and Change Management are Better Together

On their own, these subject matters are strong but together they are extremely agile, and they drive continuous improvement and overall organizational quality. They are also high-achievers in the higher-level view from Quality Management point of view. Working in tandem, Content Management and Change Management benefit Quality operations through:

• Accessibility: Organized, current, and visible documentation provides an easily accessible audit trail to keep the organization on track and to satisfy regulatory requirements at a moment’s notice.
• Collaboration: When electronic change requests integrate with electronic document management, they expedite the document update process and enhance project collaboration among impacted departments and functions.
• Security: Concise storage and accessibility of current documents, particularly SOPs, ensures that the right individuals are receiving the right documents at the right time. When change is in the focus, incomplete documents or those not applicable to certain departments cannot be accessed through a “back door.”

Organizations Should Consider Adoption

Organizations would do well to adopt both quality management processes, whether on their own or as part of an automated enterprise-wide Quality Management System (QMS).

An effective automated system will integrate document and change control procedures. It also will integrate with other solutions, providing access to approved, controlled documents in other areas of the quality system, including audits, CAPAs and employee training. In these cases, an automated system’s search and retrieval capabilities, dashboards, and repositories expedite the processes.

Industry standards and regulatory guidelines recommend quality management processes which are integrated across the entire organization.

Connect Content With People

Despite the promise of new technologies, effective enterprise content management feels more elusive than ever for a lot of companies. Part of the challenge is that there is simply more content produced than there used to be.

While organizations still have huge quantities of documents, employees are embracing new ways to record and share information which is everything from wikis and social media to websites and videos.

These new formats open the door for more dynamic, interactive communication. But they also create content management hurdles, especially since the content tends to be unstructured and trapped in different systems.

But even beyond that, the way people access and consume content is changing to reflect a workforce that is increasingly hurried, mobile and collaborative. No one wants to read long reports or manuals any more. Employees demand just the information they need in the format they want. They assume the enterprise search function will work like Google, regardless of technical constraints, security restrictions, and cultural norms about how different parts of the business share information. And they expect content to be delivered to them seamlessly no matter where they are, what network they are on, or what device they’re using.

Organizations need to anticipate content needs and link people to the best information to support their jobs.

Putting Content in the Flow of Work

The best practice organizations use a range of tools in pursuit of the elusive goal of “findability”. It is everything from advanced search solutions to intricately crafted taxonomies and hand-picked search results for particular keywords.

However, making it easy for employees to retrieve content from repositories is only half the battle. To get the most value out of content, the best practice organizations must put it directly in the path of employees so they can access it in the context of what they are doing at a given moment.

Many best practice organizations build templates, guidelines, best practices and FAQs directly into business processes and applications and all either mandate or strongly encourage employees to use that content in the context of their jobs.

What does it mean to build content directly into business processes and applications? It depends on how an organization is structured and the type of work it does. For companies that operate according to well-defined business processes, it might mean arranging content in line with process documentation so people can drill down into information on specific tasks and activities.

But if a company's work revolves around client projects, it may want to push content directly to project team sites so relevant resources are immediately available to people in the field delivering projects. Still other companies embed how-to information, FAQs, and tips and tricks into software applications where employees do their work.

One of the most direct ways to incorporate content into the flow of work is by inserting it directly into enterprise applications where employees enter data, complete tasks and interact with customers. Companies can integrate procedures, job aids, templates and links to customer folders into the account management system and service portal so client service consultants have relevant information at their fingertips.

Underwriting content is similarly embedded in software for sales quotes and renewals. Content integration is customized by job role so that guidance is based on the specific role and workflow in question. The integration points provide a fast track to relevant resources, ensuring that employees benefit from collective knowledge even if they’re in the middle of a quote or speaking with a customer.

Provide Mobile Access with Mobile Apps

The other key to putting content into the flow of work is to make sure that people can access that content when they are working, even if they are not in a traditional office environment.

All the best practice organizations provide native mobile applications enabling access to enterprise content, regardless of location. Those apps are significantly more effective than mobile browsers, which are how most organizations currently provide access to content.

Content apps offer the same search and filtering capabilities available on desktop computers, which means employees have similar experiences in both contexts. Some apps are read-only, but others let people upload data or comments.

Regardless of the specific functionality provided, the best practice organizations agree that mobile access increases engagement and makes it more likely that employees will access content when they need it.

Mobile Security

Of course, when you start putting enterprise IP and data on smartphones and tablets, security becomes very important. The best practice organizations have thought a lot about protecting content in the mobile environment, and each has its own strategy, such as for example a secure firewall that requires login credentials.

But despite the challenges, mobile access is necessary. Organizations can’t ignore the risks, but they have to move forward. Employees expect to interact with enterprise information from their devices, and employers must deliver mobile access if they want to reap the full benefit of their content.

The best practice organizations do everything they can to ensure that relevant content is delivered directly to employees in the course of their work.

Galaxy Consulting has 17 years experience in connecting content with people and delivering it to employees when they need it to do their jobs.

Better Business Operations with Better Data

Businesses today understand that data is an important enterprise asset, relied on by employees to deliver on their customers' needs, among other uses of data such as making business decisions and many others.

Yet too few organizations realize that addressing data quality is necessary to improve customer satisfaction. A recent Forrester survey shows that fewer than 20% of companies see data management as a factor in improving customer relationships. This is very troubling number.

Not paying attention to data quality can have a big impact both on companies and the customers they serve. Following are just two examples:

Garbage in/garbage out erodes customer satisfaction. Customer service agents need to have the right data about their customers, their purchases, and prior service history presented to them at the right point in the service cycle to deliver answers. When their tool sets pull data from low-quality data sources, decision quality suffers, leading to significant rework and customers frustration.

Lack of trust in data has a negative impact on employees productivity. Employees begin to question the validity of underlying data when data inconsistencies and quality issues are left unchecked. This means employees will often ask a customer to validate product, service, and customer data during an interaction which makes the interaction less personal, increases call times, and instills in the customer a lack of trust in the company.

The bottom line: high-quality customer data is required to support every point in the customer journey and ultimately deliver the best possible customer experience to increase loyalty and revenue. So how can organizations most effectively manage their data quality?

While content management systems (CMS) can play a role in this process, they can't solve the data-quality issue by themselves. A common challenge in organizations in their content management initiatives is the inability to obtain a complete trusted view of the content. To get started on the data-quality journey, consider this five-step process:

1. Don't view poor data quality as a disease. Instead, it is often a symptom of broken processes. Using data-quality solutions to fix data without addressing changes in a CMS will yield limited results. CMS users will find a work-around and create other data-quality issues. Balance new data-quality services with user experience testing to stem any business processes that are causing data-quality issues.

2. Be specific about bad data's impact on business effectiveness. Business stakeholders have enough of data-quality frustrations. Often, they will describe poor data as "missing," "inaccurate," or "duplicate" data. Step beyond these adjectives to find out why these data-quality issues affect business processes and engagement with customers. These stories provide the foundation for business cases, highlight what data to focus on, and show how to prioritize data-quality efforts.

3. Scope the data-quality problem. Many data-quality programs begin with a broad profiling of data conditions. Get ahead of bottom-up approaches that are disconnected from CMS processes. Assess data conditions in the context of business processes to determine the size of the issue in terms of bad data and its impact at each decision point or step in a business process. This links data closely to business-process efficiency and effectiveness, often measured through key performance indicators in operations and at executive levels.

4. Pick the business process to support. For every business process supported by CMS, different data and customer views can be created and used. Use the scoping analysis to educate CMS stakeholders on business processes most affected and the dependencies between processes on commonly used data. Include business executives in the discussion as a way to get commitment and a decision on where to start.

5. Define recognizable success by improving data quality. Data-quality efforts are a key component of data governance that should be treated as a sustainable program, not a technology project. The goal is always to achieve better business outcomes. Identify qualitative and quantitative factors that demonstrate business success and operational success. Take a snapshot of today's CMS and data-quality conditions and continuously monitor and assess them over time. This will validate efforts as effective and create a platform to expand data-quality programs and maintain ongoing support from business stakeholders and executives.

Galaxy Consulting has over 16 years experience helping organizations to make the best use of their data and improve it. Please contact us today for a free consultation!

Personalization in Content Management

Content personalization in content management makes your users' experience more rewarding. Content personalization targets specific content to specific people. One simple example is showing code samples to developers and whitepapers to business users.

Segment Your Users

The first step to delivering a personalized customer experience is to segment your visitors so you can present them with what’s most relevant to them.

Any good personalization strategy starts with a fundamental understanding of your customer’s behavior, needs and goals. Upfront research goes a long way to building out the personas and having the insight from which to develop an approach to personalization. This may already be gathered through ongoing customer insight or voice of the customer programs, or be more ad hoc and project based. Regardless of the approach, be sure that any approach to personalization is grounded in a solid understanding of your users.

The next step in the process is to define the audience goals and objectives so you can know if the personalization efforts are successful. These may include top-line key performance indicators such as conversion rate or online sales, or be more specific to the personalization scenarios (i.e. landing page bounce rate). Try to be specific as possible and ensure that your measures of success directly relate to the areas of focus for your personalization efforts impact.

Personalize Your Content

In order to provide personalized content, it is necessary to determine which content is most effective for each audience segment. This content mapping process can be done alongside the audience segmentation model to ensure you have the right content for the right user at the right stage. If we use the business users and developers example from above, we can personalize the home page for the developers segment to talk about things related to the technology and how it can be extended while we serve business users with information related to how they can achieve their goals using this solution.

The biggest mistake organizations make with personalization is thinking too big and getting overwhelmed before they even start. It is exhausting to even start thinking about how to deliver the right message to the right person at every single interaction. Starting with a few specific personalization scenarios can help you more rapidly adopt the processes and technology and see what works on a small scale before expanding.

Here are a few example rules-based scenarios for an insurance company:

• If a user in a specific region of the United States visits the site, show them regionally specific rates and agent information.
• If a user has shown a specific interest in a vehicle, show images and offers that include that vehicle.
• If a user is an existing customer (as identified through specific site actions or e-mail campaigns) feature tools and content that help them maintain their relationship with you.
• If a user has already subscribed to the newsletter, replace the subscribe to newsletter call-out with a different offer or high value piece of content.

As you begin to think about the overall customer journey and digital experience, this list of scenarios is going to be far more detailed. However, it should not be more complicated than is necessary to accomplish the organizational goal of making it easier for audience segments to achieve their objectives while having the best possible user experience.

The process of content mapping and scenario planning will inevitably surface holes in the inventory of your existing content. Obviously, they will need to be filled. This will require some combination of recreating existing content for different audiences in addition to generating some which is completely new. Not to mention the ongoing process of updating and managing these content variations based on what’s working and what’s not.

Personalization in CMS

It would help to develop a content model and taxonomy for your CMS that is aligned to your audience segmentation approach. By tagging content appropriately you can often automate many areas of personalization. For example, display all white papers from a specific vertical industry.

Regardless of what tool is used to manage all of this complexity, it will require custom configuration. Some systems are naturally more user friendly than others but none of them come out of the box knowing your audience segments, content mapping, and scenarios. All of this information, once determined and defined, will need to be entered to the system.

Rules-based configuration is the most common type of work you’ll do with a CMS which is literally going through a series of "If, Then" statements to tell the CMS what content to show to what users. It’s important to have someone inside your organization or agency partner that owns the product strategy for personalization and can ensure it is consistently applied and within the best practices for that specific platform.

Sitefinity content management system has a simple interface for defining segments through various criteria such as where the visitor came from, what they searched for, their location, duration of their visit, etc. You can define custom criteria and have any combination of AND/OR criteria to define your segments.

Testing Your Personalization

Once your audience and content plans are sorted out and the technology is configured, it is time to test the experience from the perspective of each segment and scenarios within segments. You should test each variation on multiple browsers and mobile devices.

Some CMS allow to impersonate to test your results. For example, Sitefinity allows you to impersonate any segment and preview the customer experience on any device with the help of the mobile device emulators. This way you can be sure how your website looks like for every audience on any device.

Measure the Results

After you’ve segmented your audiences, personalized their experience and checked how your website/portal/CMS is presented for different audiences on different devices you should see the results of your work. They can be measured by the conversions and other website KPIs for the different segments compared to the default presentation for non-segmented visitors or to the KPIs prior to the personalization. Measuring will help you iterate and improve the results further.

Going forward it will be possible to revise previous assumptions with new information which is substantially more valid. Using the built-in analytics within your CMS or third party analytics, you’ll be able to watch how each segment interacts with the personalized content and if it was effective.

Galaxy Consulting successfully implemented content personalization for few clients. We can do the same for you. Contact us today for a free consultation.

Enterprise Content Management and Mobile Devices

With mobile devices becoming increasingly powerful, users want to access their documents while on the move. iPads and other tablets in particular have become very popular. Increasingly, employers allow employees to bring mobile devices of their choice to work.

"Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) policy became wide spread in organizations and users started expecting and demanding new features that would enable them to work on their documents from mobile devices. Therefore, the necessity to have mobile access to content has greatly increased in recent years.

As with most technology, mobile and cloud applications are driving the next generation of capabilities in ECM tools. The key capabilities in ECM tools are the ability to access documents via mobile devices, ability to sync documents across multiple devices, and the ability to work on documents offline.

Most tools provide a mobile Web-based application that allows users to access documents from a mobile’s Web browser. That is handy when users use a device for which the tool provides no dedicated application.

The capabilities of mobile applications vary across different tools. In some cases, the mobile application is very basic, allowing users to perform only read-only operations. In other cases, users can perform more complex tasks such as creating workflows, editing documents, changing permissions or adding comments.

Solutions and Vendors

Solutions emerged that specialize in cloud based file sharing capabilities (CFS). Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com, and Syncplicity (acquired by EMC) provide services for cloud-based file sharing, sync, offline work, and some collaboration for enterprises.

There is considerable overlap of services between these CFS vendors and traditional document management (DM) vendors. CFS vendors build better document management capabilities (such as library services), and DM vendors build (or acquire) cloud-based file sharing, sync, and collaboration services. Customers invested in DM tools frequently consider deploying relevant technology for cloud file sharing and sync scenarios. Similarly, many customers want to extend their usage of CFS platforms for basic document management services.

DM vendors which actively trying to address these needs include Alfresco (via Alfresco Cloud), EMC, Microsoft (via SkyDrive/ Office 365), Nuxeo (via Nuxeo Connect), and OpenText (via Tempo Box). Collaboration/social vendors like Jive, Microsoft, and Salesforce have also entered the enterprise file sharing market. Other large platform vendors include Citrix which acquired ShareFile. Oracle, IBM, and HP are about to enter this market as well.

Key Features

Number of Devices - Number of devices that the ECM vendor provides mobile applications for is very important. Most tools provide specific native applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPad (based on iOS operating system) and Android-based phones and tablets. Some also differentiate between the iPhone and iPad and provide separate applications for those two devices. Some provide applications for other devices such as those based on Windows and BlackBerry.

File sync and offline capabilities - Many users use more than one device to get work done. They might use a laptop in the office, a desktop at home, and a tablet and a phone while traveling. They need to access files from all of those devices, and it is important that an ECM tool can synchronize files across different devices.

Users increasingly expect capabilities for advanced file sharing, including cloud and hybrid cloud-based services. Most tools do that by providing a sync app for your desktop/laptop, which then syncs your files from the cloud-based storage to your local machine.

Most tools require users to create a dedicated folder and move files to that dedicated folder, which is then synced. A few tools like Syncplicity allow users to sync from any existing folder on your machine.

A dedicated folder can be better managed and seems to be a cleaner solution. However, it means that users need to move files around which can cause duplication. The other approach of using any folder as a sync folder allows users to keep working on files in their usual location. That is convenient, but if users reach a stage when they have too many folders scattered around on their laptop and other synced machines, they might have some manageability issues.

Some tools allow users to selectively sync. Rather than syncing the entire cloud drive, users can decide which folders to sync. That is useful when users are in a slow speed area or they have other bandwidth-related constraints. In some cases, they can also decide whether they want a one-way sync or a bi-directional sync. Once they have the files synced up and available locally, they typically can work offline as well. When they go online, their changes are synced back to the cloud.

Most tools that provide a dedicated mobile applications can also sync files on mobile devices. However, mobile syncing is usually tricky due to the closed nature of mobile device file systems.

While most ECM and DM vendors provide some varying capabilities for mobile access, not all of them can effectively offer file sync across multiple devices.

Your options should be based on your users' requirements. Access them very carefully before deciding on a suitable solution for your organization.

Success in Enterprise Content Management Implementations

A successful enterprise content management (ECM) implementation requires an ongoing partnership between IT, compliance, and business managers.

Strict top-down initiatives that leave little for users' requirements consideration result in ECM systems that users don’t want to use.

Similarly, an ad hoc, overly decentralized approach leads to inconsistent policies and procedures, which in turn leads to disorganized, not governed, not foundable content. In both extremes, the ECM initiative ends with a failure.

Whether your organization uses an agile, waterfall or mixed approach to ECM deployment, ECM leaders must think about program initiation, planning, deployment, and ongoing improvement as a process and not as isolated events. Team composition will change over time of ECM project planning and roll-out, as different skill sets are needed.

For example, a business analyst is a key member of the team early in the project when developing a business case and projecting total cost of the project, while legal department will need to get involved when documenting e-discovery requirements.

But, there is often no clear location in the org chart for fundamental content management responsibilities, and that can contribute to weakened strategy, governance and return on investment (ROI).

Approach to ECM

Successful ECM initiatives balance corporate governance needs with the desire of business units to be efficient and competitive, and to meet cost and revenue targets.

Organizations should determine the balance of centralized versus decentralized decision making authority by the level of industry regulation, jurisdiction, corporate culture and autonomy of business units or field offices.

A central ECM project team of content management, business process, and technology experts should define strategy and objectives and align with the technology vision. Local subject matter experts in business units or regional offices can then be responsible for the execution and translation of essential requirements into localized policies and procedures, along with the business unit’s content management goals.

Business managers can help to measure current state of productivity, set goals for improvement, contribute to a business case or forecast total cost of a CMS ownership over a number of years. A trainer will be needed during pilot and roll-out to help with change management and system orientation. Legal department should approve updates to retention schedule and disposition policies as practices shift away from classification schemes designed for paper to more automated, metadata-driven approach.

Project Roles

The following roles are essential for an ECM project:

• Steering committee is responsible for project accountability and vision. Their role is to define an overall vision for an ECM project and outline processes and procedures to ensure integrity of information.

• Project manager is responsible for the ECM project management during CMS deployment. The project manager's role is to create project plans and timetables, identify risks and dependencies, liaise with business units, executive sponsors, IT, and other teams.

• Business analyst is responsible for outlining the desired state of CMS implementation and success metrics. This role is to gather business and technical requirements by engaging with business, technical, and legal/compliance stakeholders. They need to identify the current state of operations and outline the desired future state by adopting a CMS system.

• Information architect's role is to define and communicate the standards to support the infrastructure, configuration, and development of ECM application.System administrators - their role is to define and implement an approach to on-premises, cloud, or hybrid infrastructure to support a CMS.

• CMS administrator is responsible for the operation of the CMS. This role is to define and implement processes and procedures to maintain the operation of the CMS.

• User experience specialist's role is to define standards for usability and consistency across devices and applications, and create reusable design and templates to drive users' adoption.

• Records and information managers' role is to define and deploy taxonomies, identify metadata requirements, and to develop retention, disposition, and preservation schedules.

Core competencies will be supplemented by developers, trainers, quality assurance, documentation, and other specialists at various phases of the ECM deployment project. It is important to provide leadership during the deployment of a CMS. The team should bring technical knowledge about repositories, standards and service-oriented architectures, combined with business process acumen and awareness of corporate compliance obligations.

Information architects will be important participants during both the planning and deployment phases of the project. Communication and process expertise are essential for ongoing success. IT, information architect, and information managers should learn the vocabulary, pain points, and needs of business units, and help translate users' requirements to technical solutions so that the deployed CMS could help to improve current processes.

Compliance subject matter experts should communicate the implications and rationale of any change in process or obligations to users responsible for creating or capturing content.

Project plans, budgets and timetables should include time for coaching, communication, and both formal and informal training. Even simple file sharing technology will require some investment in training and orientation when processes or policies are changed.

Strategic Asset

ECM is a long-term investment, not a one-time technology installation project. Enterprises can often realize short-term ROI by automating manual processes or high-risk noncompliance issues, but the real payoff comes when an enterprise treats content as a strategic asset.

A strong ECM project team demonstrates leadership, communication skills and openness to iteration, setting the foundation for long-term value from the deployment efforts.

For example, a company aligned its deployment and continuous improvement work by adopting more agile approaches to project delivery, as well as a willingness to adopt business metrics (faster time to market for new products), instead of technology management metrics (number of documents created per week). That change allowed the company to better serve its document sharing and collaboration needs of sales teams in the field.

The project team must engage directly with the user community to create systems that make work processes better. It is a good idea to include hands-on participation and validation with a pilot group.

Recommended Practices

Follow best practices from completed ECM projects. Review processes, applications, forms, and capture screens to identify areas of friction when people capture or share content. User experience professionals have design and testing experience, and they need to be included in the ECM deployment team.

User participation is valuable throughout the ECM deployment project. Direct input on process bottlenecks, tool usability and real-world challenges helps prioritize requirements, select technologies and create meaningful training materials.

Senior managers who participate on a steering committee, or are stakeholders in an information governance strategy, should allow their teams to allocate adequate time for participation. That might mean attending focus groups, holding interviews, attending demos and training, or experimenting with new tools.

Be Proactive

A sustainable and successful ECM initiative will be responsive to the changing behavior of customers, partners and prospects, changing needs of users, and corporate and business unit objectives. Stay current with ECM and industry trends. ECM project team members should keep one eye on the future and be open to learning about industry best practices.

Businesses will continue to adopt mobile, cloud and social technologies for customer and employees communication. Anticipate new forms of digital content and incorporate them into the ECM program strategy proactively, not reactively.

Proactively push vendors for commitments and road maps to accommodate those emerging needs. Stay alert to emerging new vendors or alternative approaches if the needs of business stakeholders are shifting faster than current ECM technology. Aim for breadth as well as depth of knowledge, and encourage team members to explore adjacent areas to ECM to acquire related knowledge and think more holistically.

Unified Index to Information Repositories

Amount of information is doubling every 18 months, and unstructured information volumes grow six times faster than structured.

Employees spend far too much time, about 20% of their time, on average, looking for, not finding and recreating information. Once they find the information, 42% of employees report having used the wrong information, according to a recent survey.

To combat this reality, for years, companies have spent hundreds of thousands, even millions, to move data to centralized systems, in an effort to better manage and access its growing volumes, only to be disappointed as data continues to proliferate outside of that system. Even with a single knowledgebase in place, employees report decrease in critical customer service metrics, due to the inability to quickly locate the right knowledge and information to serve customers.

Despite best efforts to move data to centralized platforms, companies are finding that their knowledgebase runs throughout enterprise systems, departments, divisions and newly acquired subsidiaries. Knowledge is stored offline in PCs and laptops, in emails and archives, intranets, file shares, CRM systems, ERPs, home-grown systems, and many others—across departments and across geographies.

Add to this the proliferation of enterprise applications use (including social networks, wikis, blogs and more) throughout organizations and it is no wonder that efforts to consolidate data into a single knowledgebase, a single "version of the truth" have failed... and at a very high price.

The bottom line is, moving data into a single knowledgebase is a losing battle. There remains a much more successful way to effectively manage your knowledge ecosystem without moving data.

When there are multiple systems containing organization's information are in place, a better approach is to stop moving data by combining structured and unstructured data from virtually any enterprise system, including social networks, into a central, unified index. Think of it as an indexing layer that sits above all enterprise systems, from which services can be provided to multiple departments, each configured to that department’s specific needs.

This approach enables dashboards, focused on various business departments and processes, prospective customers. Such composite views of information provide new, actionable perspectives on many business processes, including overall corporate governance. The resulting juxtaposition of key metrics and information improves decision making and operational efficiency.

This approach allows IT departments to leverage their existing technology, and avoid significant cost associated with system integration and data migration projects. It also helps companies avoid pushing their processes into a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter framework.

With configurable dashboards, companies decide how/what/where information and knowledge is presented, workflows are enabled, and for what groups of employees. Information monitoring and alerts facilitate compliance. There is virtually no limit to the type of information and where it is pulled from, into the central, unified and, importantly, highly secure index: structured, unstructured, from all corporate email, files, archives, on desktops and in many CRMs, CMS, knowledgebases, etc.

Enterprise applications have proliferated throughout organizations, becoming rich with content. And yet all of that knowledge and all of that content remain locked within the community, often not even easily available to the members themselves.

Now it is possible to leverage the wisdom of communities in enterprise search efforts. User rankings, best bets and the ability to find people through the content they create are social search elements that provide the context employees and customers have come to expect from their interactions with online networks.

Imagine one of your sales executives attempting to sell one of your company’s largest accounts. They access a composite, 360 degree view of that company, and see not only the account history, sales opportunities, contact details, prior email conversations, proposals, contracts, customer service tickets, that customer’s recent comments to a blog post, complaints about service or questions posed within your customer community.

Armed with this knowledge, your sales executive is in a more informed position to better assist and sell to that customer. Without moving data your sales executive has a single, composite view of information that strategically informs the sales process.

Ubiquitous knowledge access allows employees to search where they work. Once you created the central index, you need to provide your employees with anytime/anywhere access to pertinent information and knowledge.

In many organizations, employees spend a lot of their time in MS Outlook. Other organizations with large sales teams need easy access to information on the road. Also valuable is the ability to conduct secure searches within enterprise content directly from a BlackBerry, including guided navigation. Even when systems are disconnected, including laptops, users can easily find information from these systems, directly from their mobile device. Again, without moving data, organizations can enjoy immediate, instant access to pertinent knowledge and information, anywhere, anytime.

Companies that stopped moving data report favorable results of their unified information index layer from multiple repositories such as faster customer issues resolution time, significant reduction in dedicated support resources, savings in upgrade cost for the legacy system which was replaced, increase in self-service customer satisfaction, and reducing average response time to customers' queries.

There are few applications currently in the market that fulfill these functions. These are enterprise search applications.

However, there is no "one fits all" approach. Any solution should be based on organization's business requirements.