TakingAIIM

ECM - From Here to Eternity

I just returned from an AIIM road show in Los Angeles on the Sharepoint effect – (there are 3 more cities - San Fransisco, Seattle and Dallas -  if interested you can still register).

The road show looks at Enterprise Content Management (ECM) – and positions Microsoft Sharepoint as illustrative of a current market phenomena:  the ability to more easily embrace online content creation sharing/collaboration, but simultaneously creating a control and command issue, one that if not managed can lead to chaos, unused resources and potential great risk.  This is a subject that is discussed in detail in the AIIM Market IQ on Content Security, and Market IQ on Enterprise 2.0.

The subject of collaboration versus control is not only interesting, but at the fulcrum of most ECM strategies today.  No guessing as to why over 220 people attended this event in LA, with similar numbers signed up for the upcoming cities.  The enthusiasm of the audience, the questions and comments made rekindled my own enthusiasm for the ECM. 

Over the 20+ years in which I have been a part of the ECM market place,  much has changed but much has also remained the same.  The physical characteristics of the document, the approaches to "document-based" communication and the platform have changed, but the need to manage documents, no matter the format or platform, and the criticality of an ECM strategy remain constant.  Viewed slightly differently: the potential value derived from enterprise content has significantly increased, but so too has the potential risk associated with poorly managed content.

I recently read an article entitled "IT Hiring Defies Broader Job Picture."  The article points out that in Massachusetts, IT related jobs are actually on the rise.  Among the technologies behind this is ECM.  While the perspective of the article is one of pleasant surprise, I was not surprised.  ECM is burgeoning.  New opportunities and challenges exist.  Technology alternatives and  opportunities emerge on a regular basis. The ECM component of the organization is likely to stay active and grow in importance as business migrates more to e-based communication and business models. 

In deed, while I often like to discuss the cutting edge issues surrounding ECM, the LA road show activity reminded me that the vibrant nature of ECM is found not just in the cutting edge, but in the ongoing adoption of technologies and capabilities that are well established components of the ECM platform.

Among the 18 technology providers that were exhibiting at the road show, 7 represented scanning and imaging products.  These are technologies that have been part of ECM longer than I have.  Those in the industry, like myself, sometimes take them for granted - like picking up the phone.   The road show activity caused me to step back and re-assess the vibrancy of this sector of the ECM market.  While imaging and scanning are by no means new, there is still a large market associated with them.  While more and more content is created online, paper (that needs to be scanned) is still prevalent  in many organizations, both in the form of legacy content, and new content. 

In an earlier post,I introduced a New York Times article in which it was reported that for the first time, paper consumption in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Canada and Finland actually went down, between 2000 and 2005.  Such statistics cause people (including myself) to sometimes  lapse into thinking scanning and paper are less relevant.  Ah, but in doing research for a whitepaper he is writing, my colleague, Dan Keldsen uncovered an equally telling statistic of a different nature.  The advent of electronic filing (e-filing) of taxes began in 1992.  This year the IRS expected about 60% of tax returns to be filed electronically. (ah yes, less paper consumption in the U.S.) Nonetheless that meant that for the 2008 Filing Season, the IRS was still expecting approximately 52 million paper returns (Source: “Interim Results of the 2008 Filing Season” TREASURY INSPECTOR GENERAL FOR TAX ADMINISTRATION,Reference Number: 2008-40-100).  In a word - WOW.  Sure we are embracing new technologies and migrating to online communities and content, but in the process we are still creating a fair amount of paper that still needs to be dealt with.  While more Americans are now submitting tax returns electronically, the 52 million that continue to use paper represent a very real and large scanning application.

Now keeping that in mind, also consider the fact that electronic-based content grows exponentially.  While the legacy keeps ECMers busy, so too does the emerging electronic content.  With it come myriad issues - many unprecedented.  In an earlier post, I discussed the ongoing concern of migrating business content so that is  accessible and readable  years from now.  This issue also surfaced in a recent article in the Business & Innovation section of the Boston Globe. Its worth a read and is referenced here to call attention to a real and present issue (yet another) that ECMers need to manage.

But access and readability over time is just one issue.  If we make content accessible and readible over time we also have to worry about copyright.  Electronic content is easily proliferated. ECMers must  contend with the impact their domain has on copyright. After three years of hearings, studies and deliberation, the Section 108 Study Group, a committee of copyright experts charged with updating for the digital world the Copyright Act, has posted its final report on how to bring the U.S. Copyright Act regarding libraries and archives into the digital age. The results are somethingthat every ECMer need to be concerned with legally and technically.

A few weeks back I listened to an NPR "Marketplace" broadcast,  in which the issue of obituaries was discussed.  Apparently, obituaries are one of the last things to go the digital age.  In their own way they are keeping paper newspapers alive (of the irony).  But Web-based alternatives are emerging and will likely pose a formidable challenge.  Newspapers, like many business, find themselves caught with one foot in the paper age, and one foot in the digital age, forced for the time being, with straddling the two to meet various market demands. Nearly every organziation must deal with issue of ECM - media migration, legality, readability, storage, process efficiency, effective communication, generational differences, the list is nearly infinite. 

Perhaps this post is a bit long, but perhaps it needed to be.  The point is despite its age, ECM is an issue that is still growing - perhaps an eternal issue. Old issues linger, while new issues arise.  The talents and competencies  required of an ECMer grow.  But one thing is for sure there is great job security for those that do it well.

PDF/A - Final Resting Ground for ECM?

Nearly twenty years ago I gave my first ECM seminar.  Cutting edge topics included imaging and optical storage.  Much has changed since then.  Imaging, then a standalone, typically proprietary siloed technology has evolved into a function or feature of an ECM.  Optical storage is no longer viewed as "different and confusing", and has evolved into a mainstream component of a hierarchical storage management strategy (HSM).  Some things haven't changed however.  One of the more frequent questions back then, is still often asked - "If I migrate business content to electronic format, how to I guarantee that the content will still be accessible and readable 20 years from now, 50 years from now, 100 years from now."

The question often caused me, and other presenters to go into the consultant song and dance routine.  There was no one sure fire way to do it.    The industry has made a major step forward in addressing that concern.  The AIIM standards group has developed a electronic archiving file format standard known as PDF/Archival, or PDF/A.   

PDF/A, is the first PDF standard developed in a collaborative manner by AIIM and NPES (The Association for Suppliers of Printing, Publishing, and Converting Technologies). It was developed to define a file format based on top of the Adobe PDF standard, that provides a mechanism for representing electronic documents in a manner that preserves their visual appearance over time, independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing, or tending the files.  In other words, PDF/A provides a file format for long-term preservation of electronic documents.

In order to raise  market's awareness of the standard, AIIM has developed a new training course on PDF/A.

Beginning in April, this two day training focused on PDF/A (ISO 19005-1) and its use as a file format for archiving and preserving electronic data will be available as either web-based, public or private class offerings. This course will enable the person attending to speak more knowledgeably about PDF/A as well as know how and when to apply the use of PDF/A.

AIIM is responsible for the majority of the PDF family of standards which includes PDF, PDF/E, PDF/UA, PDF Healthcare and PDF/A.

Those who are interested in the training should contact Betsy Fanning (bfanning@aiim.org or 301-755-2682).

The ECM Market - Its Not Easy Being Green - or is it?

At last night's annual AIIM awards dinner, Bob Zagami, Vice Chair AIIM, quipped how the ECM industry is green – "just compare it to the OnDemand (Printing) show next door."  Funny as the comment was (you had to witness the consumption of paper at the OnDemand show to appreciate the humor in this statement), Bob was right.  ECM does indeed have a green aspect to it.   

In fact, I am not sure if Bob realized how timely his remark was.  Its been a long time coming.  For the 20 years that I have been attending the AIIM show,  we have been touting the advantages of online content.   Perhaps not always with a focus on the ecology side of green, but the financial side.  The market has not responded to either "green light" (cost savings/new business models or reduction in paper consumption) with the speed one would have liked,  but there is evidence that we are finally reaching a critical mass, not just in business but in the general population.

In a recent article in the New York Times,  it was reported that, for the first time, paper consumption in the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Canada and Finland actually went down, between 2000 and 2005.  (Less developed countries such as China, India, Russia and Mexico continue to increase their paper consumption.) For years, despite the prevalence of computers and electronic content, we watched paper consumption rise globally, as the more content we created (online) the more we printed (on paper).  Apparently, in the world's more developed countries, that tide is turning and people are "Doing the AIIM thing", and not only creating electronically, but using, managing, sharing and accessing online.  The article points to several business and personal life scenarios in which paper is playing a lesser role in developed countries. 

At around the same time, NPR ran a story (listen to it)  entitled Digitizing Libraries.  This audio article focused on a recent move by several libraries and educational institutions to digitize their collections, for a variety of reasons. While this article also provided evidence for the movement by society as a whole to embrace online content, it also pointed out some of the challenges we face.

Apparently, Harvard teamed with Google to digitize its collections.  The Boston Public Library declined to work with Google however.  Why? Google wanted to place controls on access to the collection. (Ben Franklin would roll over in his grave).  In this regard, Google acted similarly to Amazon with its Kindle e-book appliance (see earlier post). So the library had to go a different route.   

Migration to online content at home and in the office is, and will continue to be fraught with challenges and challengers.  But, nonetheless the migration has started, in earnest.  Whether the migration is motivated by a desire to be green, or make green (cutting costs, new business models, better means to share and collaborate), is somewhat irrelevant.  Either way, the end is the same.  Digital content (and vicarioulsy the ECM industry) is no longer seen as fringe, and it should not be long before it is the norm, not the exception. 

ECM - What's On Your Christmas Wish List?

Thanksgiving is over, that means it is the official start of the holiday shopping season.  So, what's the hottest item on the holiday shopping list this year?  Well judging by the fact that it is already back ordered due to popular demand, Amazon's Kindle is on that list.  But the fact that it this e-book appliance is a hot new “holiday item” is not why I am blogging on it (but if any of my friends or relatives are wondering what to get me this year . . . ).  What catches my attention as an ECM blogger is that Kindle helps to herald in (I can hear those angels now), an ECM subject that I have been speaking about for several years, content delivery.   (See earlier blog post and recent paper). 

This is so cool - no not Kindle itself (though it is), but the fact that ECM is  once again hitting the mainstream public, and this time in the form of content delivery. Content delivery represents a huge opportunity for the ECM market, and for the creativity of content managers.  Personalized content, dynamic content, JIT content, portable content, nimble navigation through the entire Library of Congress - carried around in your hip pocket . . . the list seems endless.

On a more technical note, it is interesting to note that Kindle utilizes technology developed by Xerox many years ago, digital ink and digital paper.  While Xerox once again failed to bring technology to market itself, it has fueled and empowered the commercial instinct and reach of Amazon, who has productized this technology for the mainstream, and is positioning Kindle as the book version of the iPOD (there is a Kindle store - available directly from Kindle).  This is interesting times for ECM indeed, as not only does Kindle represent the widescale adoption of digital paper, but another player in the business content delivery market place - Amazon.  While Kindle makes traditional publications available (magazines, newspapers, books),  it also provides access to blogs, e-mail, Word documents, image files, IM (although it should be noted that Amazon charges a fee to convert "non-Kindle" files such as e-mail and Word to their proprietary format) - all through the high-speed data network (EVDO) used by advanced cell phones (hot spots not necessary) and in a unique (for now) book type interface (complete with page turning, highlighting, dog-earring, bookmarking) and the physical look and size of a paperback. The lines of distinction between laptops, cell phones, PDAs and now e-books continues to blur.

The topic of content delivery (the on ramps and off ramps of ECM) is on the AIIM Market Intelligence Market IQ editorial calendar for Q4 2008.  Kindle will definitely be a part of the issues discussed in that report.  So stay tuned. Due out in December 2008, the Market IQ may be the hot new content of the 2008 holiday season – available for download to your Kindle – if you are among the lucky recipients  this holiday season.

   

ECM – Did You Hear That?

Last month I posted on the advent of digiscent content within the world of ECM.  I positioned this subject within the broader topic of digital content - the power and fun in being able to leverage multiple forms of data (text, pictures, audio, video, smell taste). 

In that same vein, I want to draw attention to the upcoming SpeechTEK show.  Though not as edgy as digital odor or “tasty inks”, speech processing and speech recognition nonetheless represents another form of content and functionality for ECM.  Whether as front-end/interface to content capture and content retrieval, interface to workflow/BPM, integrated personalized training/warnings in content or as part of a content security strategy,  digital audio content and speech technology  need to be explored and appreciated by the ECMer.   

I am sad to say I will not be attending the show, and that, unfortunately, from my perspective, SpeechTEK is a bit heavy on the automated customer service side of speech technology application.  But the show does provide a forum at which to become exposed to the latest underlying technology and features of this form of digital content.  What you do with that knowledge and functionality is up to you.  Like I said in the earlier post “God I love ECM – its so cool.”

ECM - Special Delivery

If a document is written and no one is there to read it, does it exist?

This is how I started an article, which will appear in an upcoming edition of E-Doc Magazine.  The focus of the article is a particular aspect of ECM – content delivery. 

We at AIIM define ECM as “. . . the technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and DELIVER content . . .” (emphasis added).  Unfortunately, far too many ECMers pay little attention to the delivery aspect of ECM.  ECM should not be focused only on capture, storage and retention.  Retrieval and access are critical components of an ECM strategy, and, in that regard, content delivery (i.e. how content is physically retrieved and presented) is fundamentally important.  Often, far too little attention is paid to  delivery mechanics and effectiveness.  The more fortunate ECMers may be teamed with a marketing team that will influence some aspects of content delivery (e.g. colors, layout).  But we in the ECM community should take a more proactive role and understand that there is far more to content delivery.

Content delivery is the pinnacle of our profession. Leveraging myriad forms of content in myriad formats and medias, we can create compelling one-on-one communication. In his book The Brand Gap, Marty Neumeir states that “The standard communication model is an antique. “ I could not agree more.  ECM technologies provide an unprecedented opportunity and capability to not only create content, but deliver it in clever and compelling ways.  Today content delivery is highly adaptable and flexible and in that capability lies a great ROI for ECM – see my previous blog on that subject.)

For those that think this is only for the world of web-based communication, think again. Paper has great appeal to many from a legacy/comfort perspective.  It is also highly portable, and can, in some cases, rise above the noise of the other forms of media. (Those who want to learn more about effective use of paper-based print should visit the EDSF resource center).

The integration of e-based content with print-on-demand (POD) can make production and distribution of paper documents (e.g. brochures, training manuals, reference guides) that are customized and individually tailored to the nth degree not only possible, but practical and cost effective.

Of course, for those who are leveraging their content strictly in an on-line environment, the options and possibilities are virtually endless (see my earlier blog on Digiscent technology).  In this environment, to accept or play by the old rules of delivery is just lazy and ignorant.

Content delivery is a very powerful tool for the communicator.  It can provide points of control over the audience.  From relevancy ranking to media selection, content delivery needs to be addressed head on in every ECM implementation because it has a direct impact on the effectiveness of content, which can be directly tied to bottom line benefit.

ECM – Do you Smell Something?

I have to say, the geek in me is most excited today.

Those that have heard me speak over the years may recall that I often retell the story of a pharmaceutical company I was consulting with on a patent & trademark-focused ECM project.  In defining their overall ECM strategy I proposed that they keep content independent of application – object-orientation if you will.  The benefit I explained was that as content types came and went they could be easily plugged into the ECM applications.  (This is the beauty of a well defined ECM strategy.  It is content-type agnostic and thus scalable.)  In an effort to inspire and rally the staff of techies and attorneys I gave examples of how applications initially executed on document images could be migrated to include XML “live” files and audio files.  I then introduced the concept of olfactory data – or digitized scent.  (As I stated in my first posting to this blog, The C in ECM – content is a very broad term.  Anything that can be captured and “replayed” is content.  ECM is not just about paper versus images, but paper AND images and structured data, web pages/html, XML files, e-mails, recorded audio (e.g. digitized recorded customer support phone calls), video (e.g. training applets) and – yes odors.)

When I was working with the pharmaceutical company – some 15 odd years ago, digitized scent was a focus in the content world.  Companies like Digiscent (now hosting a great blog on the subject), and TriSenx were focused on techniques for “digitizing” smell and making it yet another digital data type.  For whatever reason, interest and market pick-up waned.  Well, the reality of smelly documents may be back.  Today I read, with great excitement that the Gene Wilder Movie, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is being re-released with Smell-O-Vision technology (article).  That’s right – can’t you just smell that chocolate river now. 

With any luck, this will be another case where the business content industry is led by the entertainment industry.  The application of olfactory data in a business ECM system seems virtually endless and powerful to me.  Imagine embedding smell in marketing brochures, or being able to patent an odor and use it to market products to the visually impaired (an attorney at the pharmaceutical company came up with that one – a great idea.)

So what’s next – digi-taste  Yeah – stay tuned, apparently printers that can reproduce lickable-tasteable “documents” are in development mode.  God I love ECM – its so cool.