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ECM Connection is proud to present a five-part series entitled Enterprise ECM: Strategies For Success by industry veteran Jim Thumma, Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Services for Optical Image Technology. The series will help readers understand the steps in developing a successful enterprise-wide ECM implementation. Although many organizations are jumping on the digital efficiency bandwagon, too often they digitize and automate processes for business areas most in need without considering issues that have a significant impact on long-term, enterprise-wide success. Each article will address major considerations in enterprise-wide business automation.

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•Developing An Enterprise Vision For Business Process Automation

Enterprise-wide projects require clear vision and effective leadership. This is especially true if your company engages in BPM (business process management) with the goal of maximizing efficiency gains enterprise wide. Since your everyday processes are built around your mission-critical content, a thorough understanding of your data, routine processes, and the interrelationship of one business area to the next is crucial.

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•Indexing For The Enterprise: Retrieve Your Documents 100% Of The Time

"Seek and you will find" would be great for workers if their software would consistently deliver the information they need, where and when they want it. Ideally, employees would determine what they need and have it delivered to their cerebral desktops. Not only is this impossible, but security considerations necessitate filtering what each user is (and is not) allowed to access. To ensure specific, meaningful, and consistent search results rather than extensive, irrelevant lists of files (or none at all), you should follow these basic indexing rules.

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•Look — No Hands! Using BPM And Workflow To Drive Work Efficiently Across The Enterprise

Do you remember the first time you rode your bike without gripping the handlebar? "Hey — look — no hands!" you probably exclaimed with excitement. If you're lucky, you ended the trip still on your bike, bearing a bright smile rather than a skinned knee. Planning for a BPM and workflow implementation bears some resemblance to riding hands free, only on a larger scale. Whether or not you stay on course isn't just a matter of luck. You need to know where your business is headed, understand what you are striving to achieve, streamline your processes to ensure efficient routing, anticipate the unexpected, keep a sharp eye out for change, and make changes on the fly so you remain steady till the end.

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•BPM Success: Integration Is The Key

Communication is everything. The moment we're born, the labyrinth of neurons in our brain starts processing and distributing information. Strong neural connections help our brains to expand their function so we can make smart decisions and reach our potential. Our well-being relies on quick, efficient messaging. If the right connections aren't made early on, our brains will miss vital input that would otherwise instruct or protect us.

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•ECM: Managing Change Effectively

While researching ECM, you've probably read some discouraging statistics about IT project failures, ranging anywhere from 30% to 50%. Gartner analyst Mark Gilbert recently noted that over 30% of ECM projects do not realize full success, according to discussions held with clients during 2008.1 Building the right team, identifying and articulating project goals, and making appropriate software choices are critical, but they don't guarantee success. Although there are numerous reasons for project failure, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon of change management as one of the root causes, and ride it through the final article of this series.