ECM Briefs

Online communities for business are much different from social-networking communities like MySpace or Facebook. Since people are supposed to be productive at work, spending time in online communities isn’t necessarily an activity that the boss is likely to see as a good thing.

According to Open Text Vice President Martin Sumner-Smith, the key to building a successful online business community is to work overtime to ensure that people can find what they need to help them in their jobs. While networking and making new contacts are certainly elements of business communities, more important is making it easy for members to find content and information they can take back to their companies and put to practical use.

To that end, Sumner-Smith and his team running the Open Text Online community made sure to use advanced communities of practice tools with comprehensive tracking capabilities. “We can tell what people are interested in, what they are finding and what they are not finding,” says Sumner-Smith. “As a result, we make sure we pick the right things. The key has been to focus on what people really need.”

Along the same lines, Sumner-Smith isn’t inclined to push technology for the sake of technology. Within the enterprise software community in general, most people tend toward the conservative side when it comes to new technology. Sumner-Smith’s approach has been to “recognize the most appropriate technology that meets the needs of our customer base at this point in time.”

To learn more about the Open Text Online community and to hear from several community members about their experiences, be sure to check out our latest podcast here: http://www.opentext.com/news/podcasts.html. Even better, subscribe to the ECM News Podcast RSS feed so you don’t miss an episode.

At Open Text, we’re big believers in the idea that if people have a place to share ideas about technology, they will gain more value from technology. With this need in mind, we’ve introduced our Open Text Online (OTO) customer communities to give our customers forums where they can share ideas about new ways to leverage our software. We’re especially excited about the launch of a new online community for law firm customers: OTO go/legal (Registration is required.)

In a recent ECM Briefs interview, I discussed the many unique and difficult challenges law firms have in managing information. Customers using our LegalKEY solutions now have a central place online to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and find detailed, useful information they can take back to their firms. Called the Legal Business Solutions Special Interest Place (SIP), the OTO go/legal community offers legal customers information on Webinars, conferences and shows; details on products and strategy; and how they can continuously maximize the value of their LegalKEY investment. Visitors will also find links to various online forums including a special forum dedicated to topics of interest specific to the legal industry where customers can exchange ideas, pose questions, and provide feedback on how to improve the community.

We look forward to seeing our legal customers become active, participating members of this SIP.

LegalKEY Convergence V Conference
The annual LegalKEY user conference, Convergence V, was held in Sonoma, California, on May 6-9 at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. This year’s conference included two days of informative technical- and business-focused sessions. Speakers included Open Text staff, LegalKEY partners and customers. The conference provided LegalKEY customers with the chance to view current and future Open Text Legal Solutions offerings, giving them the opportunity to comment on functionality, usability, and future direction.

Copies of all the session presentations can be found at Open Text Online by following this link: http://communities.opentext.com/go/convergence2007.

For further information about LegalKEY, Convergence V, or any of the Legal Solutions offered by Open Text, please contact us at legalsolutions@opentext.com or visit the Legal Business Solutions Special Interest Place found at http://communities.opentext.com/go/legal.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has been implementing an integrated document and knowledge management system for almost a decade now and it has become an indispensable tool for the accomplishment of the Court’s mission. The IT system not only streamlines the business processes of the Court to enable it to deal with the ever increasing number of applications, but it also provides a public service via its Internet sites to the citizens of the greater Europe and indeed the world. Since its roll-out, the system has acquired an international reputation as ground-breaking technology and best practice in the relevant domain.

Recently, we spoke with John Hunter, Head of the IT Division at the ECHR, to learn more about its implementation and strategies for increasing end-user acceptance and support.

Can you tell us about the ECHR and how you were able to solve your key IT challenges?

John Hunter (JH): The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) deals with allegations of human rights violations against the Council of Europe's 46 member states. The Court is legally obligated to publish its judgments and actions on every case and make all information available to the public. With the number of applications to the Court increasing significantly each year, from 14,000 applications in 1997 to 50,000 applications in 2006, the Court needed to streamline internal processes and improve accessibility and dissemination of its case-law and related human right documents to the outside world.

In 1998, the Court rolled out the Human Rights Documents project (HUDOC), deploying Open Text Livelink ECM, comprising eDOCS DM and KM, as part of the overall Court Management Information System. This project enabled the Court to process cases faster by creating a Web-based document and knowledge management system which supports over 700 internal users and millions of external users worldwide for easy and efficient access to human rights documents. This system is a mission critical project to help ensure the proper administration of justice in Europe and to provide access to the Court's jurisprudence for national courts, practitioners, academics and the general public.

Numerous articles have been written about the system and a Gartner Group report indicates that the HUDOC case-law data-base represents, in terms of what would be necessary to provide the same service, savings of some 7.9 million Euros a year. The Court regularly receives visitors from other international organizations and from government bodies from COE member States to see the system.

How has the project changed how tasks are performed at the Court? What are the benefits?

JH: The creation of an integrated IT system involved a complete transformation of the Courts processes for handling incoming and outgoing information. It also created new possibilities for how to better service the growing number of citizens within the 46 member states and ensured that the Court could handle the rapidly growing application and case load. Each phase of the project involved tremendous change, but the success and benefits have been significant. The benefits realized from the solution include a rapid return on investment costs, substantial ROI, streamlined internal business procedures, ease of use, and a Web-interface that allows remote access and a flexible work environment.

The integrated system not only saved the Court millions of dollars through improved efficiencies, but it de-institutionalized access to the Court’s information and positioned them effectively to handle rapid growth. By implementing a cutting edge IT solution and committing to continual innovation of the solution, the European Court of Human Rights has become a trailblazer in knowledge and document management for other international organizations and government bodies.

Often the most innovative projects encounter the greatest resistance. What are some of the biggest obstacles that other IT professionals should consider?

JH: When you take on a project of this size, it is very important that you conduct extensive research, plan in advance and clearly define your business objectives. I would recommend that you start small but think big. It’s very important to get your end users and top level management involved as well as external developers that have experience in major developments. Also, don’t be afraid to "get your hands dirty" – it helps in team building.

It is critical that you conduct end user interviews to ensure needs are met, but be prepared – this can be a lengthy process. For example, for the document management system, the Court spent six months interviewing users to ensure that when the system went live the existing documents were migrated into the system and proper metadata rules for populating the document profile were established. User requirements gathering was the most important phase of system development.

I’d also add that it’s important that you make sure vendor selection is consistent with the procedures laid down by the procurement policies of the organization. Under the Financial Regulations of the Council of Europe, the Court has to follow a Tenders Board procedure for acquisition of services and vendor solutions which can slow down project timescales.

How do you see your project's innovation benefiting other applications, organizations, or global communities?

JH: The Court has set the standard for how other government bodies or other large organizations can efficiently manage large amounts of information. The ECHR project demonstrates that with thoughtful planning, top-level project support, and committed vendor partnership, a broad transformation of business processes is possible.

This project has allowed the Court to continue their mission of protecting human rights around the world. As a public organization, the ECHR is accountable to over 800 million citizens and this project has helped to streamline the Court’s functions to help it keep up with the increasing case load and open up access to information to the public. Over the last decade, the Court has experienced exponential growth and this IT project has made it possible for the Court to continue to function and be prepared for continued growth.

For over 60 years, AIIM - The Enterprise Content Management Association has been a neutral and unbiased source for helping individuals and organizations understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. AIIM is international in scope, and, as the representative of the entire ECM industry - including users, suppliers, and the channel - acts as the industry's intermediary. The association provides professionals from all industries and government and all levels of management, with market education, peer networking, professional development, and industry advocacy.

Open Text is very pleased to now have a presence on the AIIM Standards Committee. The volunteer members of the twenty-plus committees and working groups each collaborate, research, and bring best practices to the table. These working groups meet regularly to discuss changes in the industry that affect their Standards; regularly review each accredited Standards for relevance and currency; and form new groups to discuss and draft Standards related to the latest technology practices.

In addition to enhancing our presence on key committees, we are encouraging our staff, partners and customers to get involved with their AIIM local chapters and take advantage of the educational content and professional networking opportunities these groups provide. Open Text customers who are AIIM members today are invited to visit OTO, where we are planning an enhanced AIIM forum to encourage sharing of information, events and activities related to their membership.

Last month, we joined Microsoft in its Partner Pavilion at the AIIM 2007 Conference & Expo to demonstrate our business and industry-specific ECM solutions for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Office 2007. This year’s conference, held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center from April 16 – 19, featured exhibitors from over 425 companies and attracted more than 25,000 business and technology professionals from around the world.

The AIIM conference program included pre-conference workshops, keynote presentations and 14 tracks addressing the needs of business and IT professionals as well as compliance and records managers. Attendees heard from vendors, industry experts, and their peers on a wide range of topics that looked at the evolving information management industry; the business impact of the technologies; and some successful implementations and best practices.

While at the conference, we were able to meet with many of our customers and partners as well as other conference attendees. Here’s some of what we saw and heard at conference sessions and on the Expo floor:

There is a lot of confusion in the marketplace about what ECM means. As the industry is shifting, and as new players come into the market and older players are consolidating, what the end user and the business owner really want to know is: ‘What’s in it for me?’ ‘What is the right software for my organization?’ ‘Regardless of the technology choice I make, where am I going to learn how to deploy successfully?’

The sessions that focused on how to develop a strategy, elements of success in ECM deployments, best practices and change management plans seemed to be the most popular. Attendees heard some consistent messages by the presenters including: a clear business strategy with well defined objectives and metrics to measure success is critical; understand your objectives up front, before you start thinking about technology; and engage the end-user community as part of the change management plan.

The technical tracks were attended by people who were trying to sort out what this “ECM” thing is. ‘How do I go about deploying the software?’ ‘How do I select a vendor?’ was a prevailing theme for many at the show.

Most importantly, attendees wanted to hear from their peers about successful implementations – what are some best practices and lessons learned? They wanted to hear real, live stories about how a company was able to deploy and get business value out of the technology. Not surprisingly, these sessions were well attended.

One of the sessions: “The Content Technology Marketplace – Where is it Going?” featured a panel discussion with leading industry analysts on the current state of, and future prospects for, the content technology marketplace. Questions posed to the panelists like: “What are the greatest risks and opportunities in implementing ECM?”, “What is the trend with ECM Suites versus Best of Breed?”, “What will the content technology marketplace look like in 2010?” and “Are organizations paying attention to Web 2.0?” offered a good indication of what was on the minds of many of the attendees.

In terms of market differentiators, one of the messages we heard from more than one session is that ECM is an infrastructure and building and incorporating solutions that meet specific vertical requirements is where the market is heading. The trend is not which vendor will have the most features, but who can provide organizations with a solution deployment. This is the approach that Open Text has been taking for the last couple of years and we are very well positioned to deliver the solutions customers want today and into the future.

On the subject of Web 2.0, which refers to Web based communities and hosted services — such as social networking sites, wikis and blogs, at Open Text, we are seeing a growing acceptance of more collaborative applications in the work environment. Our focus is on the kinds of work activities that are best facilitated through these collaborative content authoring systems. The Open Text Online Global Community – OTO – is a great example of how we are using our own communities of practice software to onboard some of the former Hummingbird customers. This site is the gateway to collaborative support options to our valuable end users, customers and partners where they can ask us questions and speak to each other in a secure environment.