If your organization is like many others, managing unstructured content is becoming more and more difficult.  By “unstructured content” we mean: paper documents scanned to digital form, digital documents such as Word and PDF documents, spreadsheets, e-mail, presentations, brochures, documents associated with work flow processes, web pages, electronic design documents and graphics, media such as video, and text messages.  This unstructured content represents a significant repository of company records and knowledge based assets that should be readily accessible through proper security controls to any and all personnel wherever they may be geographically or organizationally.  In many cases, this content, if properly managed will allow the organization to better leverage its knowledge base, generate new business opportunities, provide better customer service, outperform competitors, reduce cost, enhance collaboration, provide contingency safe guards and satisfy compliance issues.

Although many organizations recognize the significant benefits of converting paper into digital form, or addressing individual business processes with various ECM software and hardware tools now amply available, the real benefits come from implementing information governance, ECM software and hardware necessary to address the entire Enterprise.  This can be done by initiating an ECM Program within your organization.

An ECM Program usually starts with a typical senior management strategic objective such as, “improve our knowledge sharing and so better equip our staff to perform their jobs, wherever they are or wherever they work, in an efficient, effective and consistent manner.”  At the highest level, this “Strategic Objective” plays a large part in the scope, vision, commitment of senior management, and business case for an ECM Program.

Key Imitrieve staff members are industry certified in best practices for initiating and executing an ECM program.  Imitrieve consultants will work with senior management and all other areas of your enterprise to layout the framework of an ECM program by: developing the necessary Program Management Structure, determining the program scope, determining the “as is” and “vision” of the target ECM infrastructure, developing business and functional requirements, determining business classification schemes, performing information surveys, creating necessary business cases, developing RFIs/RFPs for procurement of one or more vendor solutions, implementing change management programs, organize support groups, manage implementation and rollout of pilot and final systems.  As these tasks indicate, a proper ECM program relies heavily on upfront planning in many areas.