Considerations for a fool-proof ECM strategy

An ideal Enterprise Content Management platform makes it convenient for decision makers to do away with monolith architecture and to pick and build content management applications

Updated: Jun 28, 2018 12:45:42 PM UTC
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In today’s turbulent business environment, shaped by digitisation, boasting of products and services is not enough. There’s an incessant pressure on business heads to make their organisation agile and accommodate advancing requirements of their customers. An ideal Enterprise Content Management platform should make it convenient for decision makers to do away with monolith architecture and to pick and build content management applications. It is important to build customer-centric business apps, wherein business users can tie in content to build context across customer transactions.

The underlying ECM platform must have necessary functionalities, from content capture, content processing and storage, management of content-centric processes and delivery of information, to archival of documents and records. These functionalities must be available through loosely-coupled content services that can be consumed from anywhere without losing the context.

Evaluating ECM platform, the right way

Multi-channel content management for digital customers The time-deprived digital natives seek for hurried comfort and are privileged enough to access global marketplace at their fingertips. They touch base with organisations over preferred engagement channels, share information in multiple formats and demand engagement in real-time for every transaction. You, as a business leader, must facilitate your users to understand expectation of your customers, map their journey across sales lifecycle, and tap preferred engagement mediums. Consider an ECM platform with rich content services for processing any content type over given channel mix.

Analytics for contextual customer interaction
Real-time customer engagement drives results. If put out of context, even creative ideas, strategies, and content, can be of no use. While interacting with customers, business users want context for each of the past customer interactions. This helps them respond in a quick, relevant and contextually accurate manner. Look for such a platform that provides efficient content & data analytics services at the core and allows your users to consume critical business information for providing the right response.

Accuracy in content capturing
Successful accomplishment in the first mile remarkably improves an organisation’s customer experience. It also reduces operating costs, turnaround time, thereby fostering sustainability and profitability. Hence, you should look for fully featured advanced content capture services.

Quick capture, easy storage & accessibility of voluminous content
In the perpetually-on business environment, front-end workers capture store-access information on demand and back-end workers replicate the same for millions of documents in one go. Robust capture services along with foundational content services over a well-connected content repository are central to different operations. And, must be thought through while evaluating the platform.

Automated operational workflows for real-time customer services
For choices, ease and flexibility, today’s digital customers are empowered than ever before. Facilitate your users with automated operations so that they can respond to customers in real-time. ECM platform should have automated workflow services for functional heads to map the operational steps in any business process.

Monitor business & processes for continuous improvements
Any stakeholder in a business (whether it’s a CEO, Functional Business Head, IT Head, CIO, Team Manager, Admin, End User),it is required for them to track their respective activities, processes and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to monitor if things are being implemented as per needs. As reporting and analytics services help businesses generate required information for specific user sets, it becomes important to generate required information for specific user sets.

Repository agnostic ECM to connect disparate Data Management System (DMS)
Several content repositories are used by multiple functional teams across departments. Thus, via distributed but connected repositories, users can focus on 'what' over 'where' and access the required information. It, therefore, underlines the need for content strategists to look for virtual repository services and ensure that ECM platform is repository agnostic.

Extensibility with content services integration/ aggregation
As ECM application is intended to be used across the business functions along with Line of business systems including Customer Relationship Management (CRMs), Enterprise resource planning (ERPs), Business Process Management (BPM) application, integration complexity poses a key barrier to seamless business operations. Hence, it is important to look for hybrid integration approach that can support external micro-service integration and/or external service aggregation.

Rules, regulations and policies compliance
A regulatory compliance officer is required to ensure operations comply with the set internal and external regulatory programs, standards and policies. Thus, it becomes necessary for organisations to be 100 percent compliant and consider micro services around record management, archival, process workflows, business rules, complex events handling.

User-centric modularity across ECM application landscape
Information workers can develop applications around their business requirements via design-driven, low code application development graphical user interface (GUI). The developed content management features can be effectively reused while developing others business apps. Henceforth, to build apps fast, consider user-centric modularity.

On the whole, take these aforementioned aspects into consideration while considering an ECM platform and improve customer satisfaction, enhance business productivity, and reduce operating costs significantly.

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.

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