The benefits of consolidating enterprise content management

Managing the volume and increasingly diverse formats of business-critical data is a major operational challenge. To cope with the torrent of information, investment has been wisely made in enterprise content management (ECM) systems. However, as the number of these systems multiply within the organisation, so to do the hidden costs.

Whether it is a result of company merger/acquisition or internal departments specifying and investing in ECM systems (such as Mobius ViewDirect, FileNet Report Manager and IBM B2B CMOD) to meet their own insular requirements, the cost burden associated with running multiple disparate systems range from:

• Excessive ‘per seat’ licensing charges.
• High annual maintenance charges.
• Ongoing operational costs for specialised staff due to the specific skill sets required to maintain proprietary systems.
• Lack of integration between systems resulting in no or inadequate access to information.
• Continued risk of not meeting regulatory compliance requirements or deadlines.

Better, faster, cheaper

To put a precise figure on this cost burden is difficult as companies are typically reluctant to divulge the amount they are spending on their infrastructure. However, in my experience of speaking to financial services organisations I am no longer surprised to hear instances where upwards of ten ECM systems are running simultaneously, and Gartner has just reported that global 2000 organisations have between 6 – 25 document archives, so we are clearly not talking petty cash!

Recognising that there may be unnecessary duplication occurring in the organisation is the first step, the next is to take the right course of action and that often means consolidation. The greater challenge is in answering the questions: What ECM systems do we have? What are our current and future requirements? How much is each system costing us? And how can we reduce our total cost of ownership (TCO) whilst improving service? Start to ask these questions and you are on the road to defining the criteria for an enterprise wide ECM strategy.

Defining and implementing an enterprise wide ECM strategy

Undertaking a consolidation exercise for all your disparate ECM systems is complex and not necessarily recommended (and my advice is to seek counsel from a specialist consultant), but a vital starting point is to understand the true cost of the ECM systems currently in use. Then an audit must be performed against the cost burdens listed earlier and multiplying by the number of ECM systems that are operational within the business. You will then have a benchmark figure for reducing your overall TCO. Armed with this insight the strategy can be devised by evaluating five key areas of access, storage, integrity, use and indexing.

• Access
  Whether they are end-users, customer service representatives (CSRs), or internal departments, each party has the need to access particular documents in a method that is most convenient to them. Understanding how each of these user groups accesses the data is paramount.
• Storage
  Documents, their associated metadata and related resources can be stored in a variety of ways and the effect that particular storage methods have on factors such as performance need to be considered and evaluated.
• Integrity
  Document migration and consolidation strategies have the potential to jeopardise data integrity. Therefore it is important to plan to maintain the chain of custody by minimising the number of processes or vendors that come into contact with the data.
• Use
  How documents are used implies how they should be presented and in what formats. Consider customer statement presentment, print proofing, CSR enablement and the needs of individual departments.
• Indexing
  Once a document is stored, some ECM systems document archives do not allow indexes to be added, or changed. Document migration and consolidation can provide an opportunity to revise and enhance the metadata used to organise and search for documents.

Kenneth Chin, The Vice President at Gartner Research has made the following assertion of ECM consolidation: “Enterprises today are often faced with multiple content platforms and repositories without a unifying strategy or technology to make the data actionable. They need the ability to quickly and easily access and repurpose information and make it available through self-service channels.”

Consolidating the number of ECM systems in operation enables organisations to:

• Position for future growth in customer demand and document volume.
• Handle the multiple diverse document formats that are stored in the ECM systems.
• Address regulatory compliance and legal discovery requirements for customer-facing documents such as statements, check images, invoices, trade confirmations, policies and explanation of benefits.
• Ensure documents are stored in a format, such as PDF/A, that is guaranteed to be viewable throughout the required retention period.
• Make documents available via self-service channels, such as web portals, in various electronic formats to end-users including customers, CSRs, agents and financial advisors.
• Provide the individual lines of business within the organisation with seamless access to the valuable information locked away in the ECM systems.

To summarise, when accomplished correctly an ECM consolidation exercise will allow an organisation to realise the financial and operational benefits from reducing the number of disparate content management systems that are owned, increasing agility, efficiency and overall reliability.

Jeff Mills is the Managing Director of Xenos Europe.