Right-Size the Governance Model for Your
ECM Program
Operationalize and optimize your ECM program through effective governance.
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ANALYST PERSPECTIVE
Get the most out of your ECM strategy and technology with principled governance.
Sophisticated strategies and expensive technologies do not guarantee
successful ECM programs. Governance is required to ensure the desired
plans and policies become actual practice. Without mechanisms to monitor
and enforce standards, people will revert back to the old way of doing things.
ECM governance is a living, breathing capability; set-it-and-forget-it
approaches do not stand up in the long run. Great ECM governance is
achieved over time by adopting core principles early on, establishing a
minimum viable model, and optimizing through continuous improvement
based on metric-driven insight.
Getting started can be tricky. Organizations need a tested framework, like
Info-Tech’s Ten Principles of ECM Governance, to understand their current
state and translate this insight into a meaningful ECM governance model.
The alternative isn’t simply a lack of governance – it’s squandered
investment and a bad ECM program.
Ryan Smith
Associate Director, Information Management Practice
Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group
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Stop! Are you ready for this project?
This Research Is
is Designed For:
This Research Will Help You:
 Information management professionals
 Evaluate the maturity of your current ECM
charged with implementing ECM governance.
 Business and IT leaders tasked with
establishing a governance model to support an
ECM program or solution.
 ECM governance councils looking to review
and improve the existing ECM governance
model or the overall ECM program.
governance practices and set goals for the
future.
 Define a right-sized ECM governance model
that encompasses all relevant content,
repositories, processes, and policies.
 Set performance metrics and manage a
roadmap to systematically develop and
improve ECM governance capabilities over
time.
This Research Will Also
Assist:
Assist:
This Research Will Help You:
Them:
 CEOs looking to get the most out of ECM
 Systematically assess the performance of
investments.
 Heads of LOBs looking to drive higher quality
and risk management from their content
operation.
 Process owners looking to increase efficiency
ECM program investments.
 Make a case for investing in ECM governance.
 Contextualize their role in maintaining a
successful ECM program.
through improved access to and delivery of
content assets.
Info-Tech Research Group
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Executive summary
Situation
Info-Tech Insight
• In the face of exponential growth in the variety and volume of content,
1. You cannot not manage content.
Every organization, and every unit, is
managing content; the question is how
well are you doing it?
•
organizations everywhere are transforming their information
management practices in order to take advantage.
Investments in ECM systems have steadily increased as organizations
turn to technology to help manage their digital and physical content.
• The promised benefits of ECM systems are not guaranteed out of the box;
2. Governance prevents content chaos.
Without people and process to design,
police, and enforce standards, ad hoc
content management prevails.
information quality, findability, availability, and compliance to regulations
and standards require people and process to enact enforcement.
ECM projects often evolve out of point-in-time need, and afterwards users
often revert back to ad hoc and informal behavior patterns that jeopardize
the efficacy of an ECM system.
3. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Start with
minimum viable governance, and
optimize the model over time as part of
ECM program continuous improvement.
Complication
•
Resolution
• Understand the need for ECM governance to make your desired ECM program a reality, and coordinate your governance
•
•
•
•
•
•
projects by setting a vision and mission aligned to the overall ECM program vision.
Set the initial project scope by knowing where your ECM governance maturity stands today and where you’re headed
tomorrow.
Support your organizational dynamics by choosing a ECM governance model with the right mix of centrality and formality.
Define the structures, roles, and functions that will comprise your ECM governance model.
Ensure quality across the information lifecycle by determining classifications and policies.
Gauge ECM program success and inform continuous improvement by setting performance metrics.
Create a roadmap of work initiatives to establish ECM governance and execute an ECM program release.
Info-Tech Research Group
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Information assets (i.e. content) are what facilitates
organizational decision making
The Data Value Chain
Information is what bridges the gap
between collecting data and creating
knowledge.
Today, the vast majority of organizations are aware
that data is a key asset and the ability to leverage it
can create competitive advantages. But gathering
data is not what directly yields business value.
Shared Insight
Shared insight is the goal of using data.
Mix knowledge with collaboration
between business units and IT to
enable innovation and trendsetting by
the organization.
Knowledge
When data is layered together and presented in a
way that is actionable, information is created.
Information
Information can also come in the form of content,
which may not have data intrinsic to it, but still
supports the completion of mission-critical and
operational processes.
Data
Knowledge is the result of
overlaying multiple sets of
information.
IT
Information is data in a usable
format. Can be a trend in the
data or a summary in report
form.
Data can be in many
formats but is most
commonly in structured
table form.
Info-Tech Research Group
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The Digital Revolution has brought with it an unprecedented
amount of content
From the birth of the world to 2003,
humans generated 5 exabytes of content.
While this content expansion presents
opportunities for innovation in content creation
and consumption, there are three caveats every
organization should be aware of:
In 2013, 5 exabytes of content was created
per day.
1
Greater exposure to risk.
2
Increased costs for storage and
management.
3
Difficulty getting access to the right
content.
Source: ACI, 2013
In the Digital Revolution, information is as valuable as currency. All organizations are information
organizations. Whether you’re a bank, a government, a CPG firm, a services firm, or any other variety
of organization – to be the best at what you do requires the right information, at the right time, and in
the right format. Maintaining architecture and governance that support this (i.e. information
management) is not just a competitive differentiator anymore, it is essential to an organization’s
economic survival and success.
Info-Tech Research Group
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You cannot not manage content – it’s about how well you do it
If content exists in your organization,
there is some degree of management
activity happening around it.
There’s no such thing as green-field ECM; there are always
repositories in play, even if it’s just network drives or piles of
paper managed ad hoc.
The differentiating factors
between organizations that are
able to derive measurable
benefits from their content and
those that do not are:
1
2
The degree to which defined practices
for managing content have been
implemented.
The strength of the alignment between
the objectives for the practices and the
organization’s strategic direction.
Info-Tech Research Group
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If your organization hasn’t invested in governance, your users
are feeling the pains of poor content management
17%
of organizations
have completed an
enterprise-wide
capability.
15%
23%
are beginning to
construct a
company-wide
initiative.
While governance remains
largely absent, the pains around
content management persist:
are starting to
integrate between
departments.
The verdict:
Very few organizations have
succeeded in establishing a
co-ordinated effort for
enterprise content
management.
Source: AIIM, “ Information Management – State of the Industry
2016”
62%
52%
46%
of organizations feel it takes
too long to find their content.
feel they are duplicating
efforts in content creation.
experience insufficient reuse of content.
Source: AIIM, “ Information Management – State of the Industry 2016”
Info-Tech Research Group
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Time is money – without content management, you are
throwing away both
Inefficient content searches have significant
bottom-line implications.
In 2012, content searches cost companies:
$14,252
and
494
hours
per worker.
Source: ACI, 2013
In an age where the ability to respond and adapt to change is
paramount, no organization can afford to throw away
resources and productivity by not having repeatable
guidelines and processes for accessing information assets.
Info-Tech Research Group
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Organizations know that information governance policies are
important, but few have a structure for enforcing them
Even though organizations may invest in an ECM system and information governance policies,
glaring gaps persist:
18%
15%
29%
of organizations have a practice for aligning
information management (IM)/ECM strategies
with their information governance policies.
of organizations have information governance (
IG) policies but they do not drive decisions.
of organizations have no established IG
policies.
Source: AIIM, “ Information Management – State of the Industry
2016”
Why can’t organizations get it right?
41%
state that enforcing the policy once
it’s created is the biggest issue.
39%
find that getting the right people
involved, particularly senior
management, is another prominent
barrier.
Source: AIIM, “Information Management in 2016 and Beyond”
Policies formed without governance won’t be worth the paper that they’re printed on. You need a systematic
approach for identifying the right individuals and forming the necessary bodies to give some power to your information
governance policies. Without directed content management, the sins of the past will be recreated, jeopardizing your
organization’s ability to fully leverage internal and external information assets.
Info-Tech Research Group
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Ask yourself: do you really want transformational ECM?
Governance can’t be done for the sake of governance.
Do you want a digital
filing cabinet or an enhanced workspace?
What you hope to accomplish with your ECM program will dictate:
The centrality of your governance
structure.
The diversity and division of roles
and responsibilities pertaining to
ECM within your organization.
The formality of your governance
structure.
The metrics used to measure the
effectiveness of your ECM program
over time.
ECM governance is the mechanism that enables effective ECM program capabilities. You need to
identify a model that aligns tightly with key organizational drivers for ECM, as well as cultural and
maturity considerations, and allocate the necessary investment to make it a reality.
Info-Tech Research Group
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