EDMS business strategy
David Brown
IIM seminar
26 September 2006
Themes
 Strategy for local/global
implementation
 Gaining senior management and
staff support
 Technology alignment
 Politics of selling DM and RM
The views expressed in this presentation are not necessarily those of my employer
Outline
 No general how-to rules
 Stages in the firm’s DMS story
 approach
 achievements
 issues raised in each stage
 comments on the issues
Political themes
 EDMS protagonists and their
environment are not neutral
 A struggle to sell a world-view in a
crowded selling space
 Organisational ‘hypocrisy’ (Brunsson)
 Ritual and rationalism
 hard is soft; soft is hard
 Technology is people
About KPMG
 Audit, tax, advisory
 Documents are important
 Client information, KPMG actions
and information
 Primary record is paper
Pre EDMS approach
 National document management
framework
 2-3 years
 all offices, all divisions
 paper files
 file servers
Pre EDMS achievements
 National DM framework
 Acceptance of DM as a business
activity
 RM maturity
Pre EDMS issues
 Latent recognition of the
significance of document
management
 Opportunity to tap the effort that
already goes into DM
 minimise sense of additional effort
 ‘doing X instead of Y’
Pre EDMS comment
 Records quality driven by
professional practice
Plan A
National generic DMS
Plan A approach
 Information sessions
 Functional requirements
 Product evaluation
 Risk management auspice
 Standard EDMS implementation
Plan A achievements
 Management acceptance and awareness
of DMS
 Recognition of the role of DMS in
mitigating risk
 Functional requirements
 But… the generic approach was
trumped by a strong divisional initiative
Plan A issues
 Although things were going well
with the generic approach, we
were glad to have a business
initiative to hang the EDMS off
Plan A comment
 Getting top-level buy-in is
relatively easy
 Getting action and bums on seats
is hard
 Framing DM within a business
initiative is good selling and good
practice
Plan B
Vertically integrated DMS
Plan B approach
 Single service line
 Focus on efficiency
 Full automated business process
 Workflow, dashboards, wizards
 Detailed business process
requirements
Plan B achievements
 Selection of a DMS application
 Executive approval of resources
 Recognition of the role of DMS in
delivering efficiency
 Understanding of business requirements
 But… our national project was trumped
by a global initiative
Plan B issues
 Integration problems with another
application
 in-house professional product
 off-line team-working tool
Plan B comment
 The importance of a business-
driven agenda
 not technology
 not administrative red tape
Plan C
Global standard DMS
Plan C approach
 A single global product standard
 Document management, content
management, email journaling and
records management
 Rigorous selection process over 6
months and 3 continents
 Strong Australian involvement
 product assessment
 evaluation of workflow capability
Plan C achievements
 A single DMS product standard
 DM and RM only
 Support network, shared
experience
 Economies of scale
 Understanding the importance of
workflow
 Our national initiative goes global
Plan C issues
 Global homogeneity and delay or local
initiative, relevance and momentum
 Multiple perspectives on DM
 Limitations of broad technology
agendas
 Documentation as process rather than
stuff
 Impact of the IT landscape
 Multifunctional EDM systems bump into
other IT systems
Plan C comment
 Central projects tend to be more
technology-driven
 Loss of business context
 Navigating multiple frames
 DM, RM, CM, WF
 IT agendas
 data frame
 Microsoft frames
 limitations of the RM frame —
documentation as stuff
Plan D
National generic DMS
Plan D approach
 Two-phased implementation
 firm-wide roll-out of generic DMS
 divisional business process
improvement program
 Limiting technology and change
risks
 Strong change management
 e-mail pilot
Plan D planned
achievements
 Greater staff awareness of their
compliance responsibilities
 Improved sharing of information
across the organisation
 Skills in using DMS
 Platform for business process
improvement
Plan D issues
 Staff commitment to implementation
 Management commitment to
planning, migrating, communicating
and training
 Conflicted role of DM
 Business owner of EDMS
OR
 System deliverer
Comment
 Managing ‘hypocrisy’ (Brunsson)
 extending involvement in selling
 Communication is talk, silence,
action and inaction, sequence
Plan E
Business process development
Plan E approach
 Business-initiated projects using
 DMS
 workflow
 practice management system (SAP)
 Support with business analysts
 Using phases to control scope
 Get the business to accept
development risks
Plan E planned
achievements
 Program of efficiency-driven
initiatives
 In-house BPM capacity
 Electronic engagement files
 scanning
 primary record is electronic
Plan E issues
 Harnessing business initiative
 Decentralised management and
resourcing
 EDMS just one of a suite of
applications
Plan E comment
 Avoiding technology-driven
initiatives
 Avoiding technology language
 DM and EDMS are intersecting
worlds
Conclusion
 Plans don’t end, they just change
 Keep moving through the maturity
model
Panel discussion