ECM Briefs

BEHR.com Paints the Ultimate "Do-it-Yourself" Web Experience

2009-10-20T16:53:50Z

It's the classic conundrum: You want to liven up a room with a new color but you don't want to hire an expensive designer and you don't want to create walls so bright that satellites can pinpoint them from orbit. This is where BEHR.com comes in. BEHR, using Vignette Content Management from Open Text, has created a dynamic Web site that ensures a successful do-it-yourself painting experience. Visitors to the site have a vast array of tools to help them pick, compare and test-drive colors. The Virtual Color Center is a cornucopia of colors, bundled into handy groups and variations. The Inspiration Center displays brainstorm-inducing pictures while our personal favorite, Paint Your Place, lets you upload pictures of your space for virtual painting. While the site offers quite a view for its visitors, behind the scenes the Open Text-powered site is putting content control straight into the hands of the people who need it. As Marc Webb, Director of eBusiness for BEHR Process Corporation says: "Vignette Content Management enabled us to minimize IT involvement in Web site updates, putting the ownership of BEHR.com directly into the hands of the eBusiness and marketing professionals that drive our online initiatives." Interested in learning more? Read the press release or visit the Open Text Web Content Management Solutions Web site.

Hydro-Québec: Achieving the Ultimate Intranet with Open Text

2009-10-13T15:22:09Z

Hydro-Québec generates, transmits and distributes electricity, mainly from renewable energy sources, in particular hydroelectricity. It also conducts research in energy-related fields and takes an active interest in energy efficiency. With over 20,000 employees spread across four divisions, Hydro-Québec had difficulty managing their complex intranet structure to communicate and share relevant information with and among their staff. Hydro-Québec was an active user of Open Text Content Server to manage enterprise content, however with eight Content Server instances and several in-house Web applications that supported over 300 sites, 200,000 active documents, and 35 news bulletins; it was becoming increasingly difficult for employees to access relevant information. Stéphane Ritchot, IT Solution Designer at Hydro-Quebec, was integral in the decision to add Open Text Web Solutions to their Content Server environment to make structured and unstructured content more accessible through a dynamic and contextual environment. The powerful combination of Content Server with Web Solutions authoring capabilities helped Hydro-Québec improve the ROI their existing implementation by expanding document access throughout their organization using a simple Web interface. Employees are now able to easily retrieve company knowledge created by over 12,000 content contributors, while Hydro-Québec still ensures their compliance needs are being met with secure links to documents used across various Web properties. Hear Stéphane discuss the "ultimate intranet" at Hydro-Québec on Thursday, October 15th at 2:00pm with an interactive case study presentation. And don't miss Stéphane's session at Content World on Thursday, October 29th at 2:40pm.

What Records Managers Need to Know About Enterprise 2.0

2009-10-07T14:49:49Z

What do records managers need to know about Enterprise 2.0? Well, that question was answered during a presentation at the Records Management Association of Australasia (RMAA) Convention on September 22, 2009. The presentation, titled "Candy and Aspirin: The Precarious Balance between Personal Creativity and Corporate Compliance" by our own Dan Larocque, highlighted emerging trends within the government and commercial sector as both sectors have adopted real-time and collaborative communication platforms. These platforms often originated in the personal productivity realm and can include newer content vehicles, such as blogs, wikis, forums, chats and social networking sites. The presentation discussed current challenges in records management, how Records Managers are crucial to the Enterprise 2.0 and why this system matters within the public sector. This presentation affirmed that the new wave of electronic business communication is on the horizon and ignoring this could be very risky. This session provided insight of how such tools have been used to successfully connect people, content and business processes in distributed and decentralized environments. The risk of using such tools in an unsanctioned and unmanaged fashion is also discussed. Enterprise 2.0 and its possible implications for legal/FOIA/ATIP discovery, records capture and corporate memory preservation are better understood at the end of the session. If you weren't able to catch the session, please enjoy the video footage of the presentation below, and it should help to answer many Enterprise 2.0 questions. Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:

Customer Case Study: Open Text Sheds New Light on Santee Cooper's Property Management Department

2009-09-29T18:46:31Z

Santee Cooper, South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility, generates power for more than two million South Carolinians. Their property management department dealt with stacks of information regularly, which opened the door to multiple content problems. Technology was changing, the company was growing, and their content was escalating fast. To tackle this problem head on, Santee Cooper employees from various user areas formed the Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Project team, to assess the pros and cons of electronic document management. They needed to streamline administrative processes, improve customer service, comply with federal and state rules and regulations, and retain knowledge from a retiring workforce. The utilities provider chose Open Text for the user-friendly nature and functionality of the company's records management product. IT liked that it was simple to implement. The records management department liked the ease of inheriting records classifications and retention periods, as well as the one folder structure of both physical and e-records. Project teams liked how well the ability to work with the vendor played out, and all users loved the search and add documents functions. Together with Santee Cooper's ECM project and ECM technical teams, Open Text Global Services gathered information about the document and records processes, and mapped it out for the records management solution. After the system was fully implemented-out-of-the-box, with some process improvements added by the IT team-users were trained in various scenarios to ensure user confidence. Now, each form has a barcode for convenient electronic filing. Using Kofax® Capture, all of the property management departments' documents were scanned into the system, receiving the correct classifications according to the folders they were placed in. The records management system is also linked to Santee Cooper's Oracle Property Manager, to manage the company's leasing data. The application of the records management offering has enabled the streamlining of large projects, higher efficiency, improvement in customer service response time (from 34 minutes to six), and even the recovery of costly floor space now that Santee Cooper no longer needs filing cabinets! Misfiling is also a non-issue thanks to the ability to search for documents, and aging paper documents are now electronically preserved. After the triumph within their property management department, Santee Cooper anticipates making the records management solution an enterprise-wide choice. Read more about Santee Cooper's success with records management here.

Scratch the Blackboards: DC Public Schools' New Web Site Launches

2009-09-28T16:11:09Z

Ensuring that 44,000 students in 120 schools - and their parents and teachers - get the information they need from their school system is no easy task. Now, the District of Columbia Public Schools has aced this test with the launch of its new Web site - http://dcps.dc.gov. (Read the press release here.) The Web site, powered by Vignette Content Management from Open Text and implemented by partner RCK Corp., is the first in a series of planned Web site upgrades. Implemented in 90 days, the solution allows DCPS to edit and publish more efficiently, reducing its reliance on technical support. The launch complements Chancellor Michelle Rhee's initiative to give faculties and families the tools they need for a supportive environment. According to the Chancellor, "... I expect that this Web site ─ and the way we use it to inform, communicate with and listen to our communities in order to support student achievement ─ will set a standard for other school districts." The Web site offers easier navigation (think three clicks to get your information) and superior access to information such as vision, enrollment, community involvement and events. In addition to providing valuable information, the DCPS site also showcases the talents of its students. Check out these links to see the galleries of Student Writing, Art and Videos.

Guest Post: "The Next Big Thing" by Eugene Roman

2009-09-16T15:07:15Z

This week, we're in Gatineau, Quebec networking with more than 500 government workers as part of our annual Canadian Public Sector Days. This morning, I'm opening up day two of the event with my thoughts on "The Next Big Thing." To sum it up; we live in a world where billions of people are using trillions of devices to create digital content. After 125+ years of telephony, 50+ years into the computer era and after 20+ years of the internet age, all organizations, governments and enterprises are seeking ways to be effective and efficient in this digital world. Open Text was founded at the beginning of the Internet age by two Canadian professors who invented the first Internet search engine. From this beginning, the company has pioneered many advances in developing tools to help governments and enterprises store, retrieve and usefully manage ever-increasing volumes of structured and unstructured information. The fast rising Digital Content World is the next big thing. The challenge for leaders and knowledge workers is to implement digital frameworks that effectively "control" critical information, while also turbo charging your organization's ability to utilize advances in information management to improve organizational capability while keeping costs and benefits aligned. We'll be speaking more about this digital revolution over the next little while... Stay tuned. Eugene Roman is CIO of Open Text

Canadian Public Sector Content Days Kicks Off Next Week

2009-09-08T15:21:04Z

Canadian Public Sector Content Days Kicks Off Next Week If you have a yearning to visit Quebec next week, why not stop in to see what the Canadian Public Sector is up to in the ECM Space? Canadian Public Sector Content Days are being held at the Palais des Congrès in Gatineau, Québec on September 15 and September 16. We'll let you in on a little secret... the Canadian Public Sector is up to some pretty cool stuff and you can hear all about it from our very own, Tom Jenkins in addition to a whole list of great keynote and session speakers at the event. Here's a list of some of the topics that will be discussed over the course of the two days: • Canada 3.0: Defining Canada's Digital Future - Tom Jenkins, Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Open Text • Implementing Enterprise Information Management: Preparing for and Managing the Journey: Mark Vale, Chief Information and Privacy Officer, Ministry of Government Services (Ontario) • Essential Steps to Reduce eDiscovery Costs and Risks: Stephen Ludlow, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Open Text • From Records to Documents to ECM and Beyond: Breaking Down the Silos: Gordon Briscoe, G. Briscoe & Associations; Jeff Lamirande, Director, IM Program Agri-Foods Canada & Brian Towers, Executive Director, IM, CORADIX Technology Consulting Ltd. • Social Media in the Enterprise: Sean Murphy, Senior Manager, Open Text Public Sector Practice Lead, Deloitte • BlackBerry Beyond Email: Nick Dawson, Manager, Public Sector, Research IN Motion • Interaction 3.0: Anthony Gallo, VP Digital Media Experiences, Open Text • Meeting New Demands of Media Management: Boris Langer, Solutions Consultant, Open Text • How Social Media Can Enable Better Teamwork, Faster Information Sharing and Smarter Decision-Making: John Myers, VP and General Manager, Open Text ...and many more! Interested? Get more info here and while you're at it hit the "register now" button...

ILTA '09: Open Text adds to its legal market solutions and keeps the momentum going

2009-08-25T18:21:55Z

This week we're at the ILTA '09 Conference near Washington where we've announced several additions to the Open Text portfolio of legal solutions, including new integrations with the Open Text ECM Suite. In the press release issued today, Mohit Thawani, Director of Legal Solutions for Open Text said: "ECM is about much more than just document management. More than ever, law firms expect solutions that help them manage all of their matter content, whether it is located in Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, a corporate web site, or a document management system." So with that, here is a rundown of the new capabilities we announced today that will help law firms manage all of their content, but be sure to visit us at booth #307, or come to the Open Text Demo area in Room Baltimore 5 to get a real sense of what these really offer. eDOCS Integration with the Open Text ECM Suite • Open Text has furthered its integration of its eDOCS product line with the Open Text ECM Suite, allowing customers to take advantage of a wider range of new ECM capabilities in the company's flagship ECM suite. • Recently, the company successfully completed DoD certification for Open Text Records Management and Open Text Document Management, eDOCS Edition (eDOCS DM) with Enterprise Connect as the desktop client for the integration. eDOCS DM has also achieved integration with the archiving functionality of Open Text's Enterprise Library. • Open Text has also launched the latest version of Email Filing, eDOCS Edition which offers updated email archiving support enabling emails archived by Open Text Email Archiving to be flagged and categorized the same way as normal Microsoft Outlook items. Additionally, "clean up" rules can be defined that automatically delete items from Microsoft Outlook that have been saved to the document management system. Open Text Enterprise Connect and Microsoft SharePoint Integrations • The latest version for Enterprise Connect offers new plug-ins for Microsoft SharePoint and eDOCS DM; as well as support for subscriptions with views. • Open Text eDOCS Integration for Microsoft SharePoint enables law firms to capture content created in SharePoint so that it can be centrally managed in accordance with regulatory and business requirements. The latest version of Open Text's eDOCS Integration for Microsoft SharePoint includes support for matter-centric views. • Open Text also announced the latest version of its Legal Information Management offering which provides users with exclusionary ethical walls, automated Microsoft SharePoint site archiving upon close of a matter; support for multiple-site collections; and support for locking content and making it read-only. This offering was also a finalist in Microsoft's most recent Information Worker Solutions, Enterprise Content Management and Forms Development Partner of the Year Award. Matrix Logic Announces Wireless DMS for eDOCS • Open Text Wireless DMS for eDOCS is a new offering from long-standing partner Matrix Logic that extends the reach of a document repository allowing users to access key information from a BlackBerry, iPhone, pagers, PALMs and PocketPCs and Windows CE handheld devices. Wireless DMS for eDOCS translates requests to and from a wireless device and any changes in eDOCS DM are immediately shown on a user's handheld. Users can also search document libraries and fax or email retrieved documents. Read more here: http://tinyurl.com/mupexg

Navigating Contracts with Contract Lifecycle Management

2009-08-04T19:26:36Z

We don't typically post many items without the name of the customer, but this story was just too good to pass up. This one is about an aerospace and defense systems giant (and Fortune 500 company), that has many types of contracts in each of its business units, and needed help with its contract lifecycle management. The company added a contract management solution that offered a centralized system that tracked and managed the lifecycle of its contracts, in addition to identifying trends and opportunities for the company. Before the implementation, most of the users in the organization used Excel spreadsheets for tracking their contracts or they used SharePoint sites, but there was no notification mechanism. They wanted a contract management system with a central electronic repository, access control, reporting, workflow automation, and contract notifications. The primary goal was to standardize the management of contracts and create one cohesive repository for those contracts. By doing that, it would make the contracts easier to find by all of the different parts of the company. The supply chain and legal departments drove the initial request for a contract management solution. They found there were many signed contracts that contained some non-standard clauses in them, and contracts and agreements underpin almost every business transaction in the organization. After looking at five different vendors, the company decided to leverage its existing platform with Open Text for a contract management solution. The roll-out of the initial two of its 10 business units was completed in just five months. The company considered workflows to be very important to a smoothly functioning department, leading to better visibility into task completion, streamlining of the approval process, and the identifying of bottlenecks in the negotiation cycle. But the biggest benefit of the contract management system by far is the notification mechanisms, according to the IT Project Manager. Misunderstanding key dates can lead to financial implications. Users also love the convenience of one system which archives all of their contracts, which makes finding contracts easier. This contract management solution allows for standard terms and conditions, resulting in better negotiation power, and minimal maverick spends. The management tool is lending the company flexibility, scalability, and core functionality when dealing with contracts. Instead of having to adapt to an out-of-the-box application with only a few functions, users have an application that they can adapt to their own needs. By mid-2010 the company expects to double the amount of contract management users. With this system in place, this global supplier to the aerospace, defence, and homeland security markets gained new control and full support over its contracts, and was able to reduce costs and increase revenue in ways its paper-based system couldn't. Read more about this company's success with contract management here.

Energy Spectrum: Interview with Hugh Ritchie - Part 2

2009-07-29T18:08:35Z

On Monday we posted part one of an interview with Hugh Ritchie, Industry Manager for Energy and Manufacturing at Open Text. Read part two below.
Open Text: Documentation within the energy sector continues to be a major issue. What does the situation look like now? Hugh Ritchie: Today, conditions in the power plants are continually and almost always automatically recorded and documented through automated reporting and SCADA systems. These are structured data that operators and managers have under broad control nowadays. But to be able to interpret this flow of data and to make the right decisions, you need the knowledge of experienced technicians and engineers requires planning, forethought on what if scenarios that need to be accessible. There are, for example, critical components that often have to be replaced before their conventional service life has expired. For such decisions, technicians and engineers need a fast, current and comprehensive overview of all available information. What they don't need is important information from the supplier in the inbox of a colleague who is on vacation. One of the main tasks of an ECM system is to document knowledge and the state of the company's knowledge. For example, it provides a virtual storage area or project space in which analyses, reports, logs and correspondence are filed that can be accessed simultaneously by external parties. The storage of documents, mails, scans, etc. is so user-friendly now -- thanks to integration in the PC environment -- that it is no longer necessary to store information in personal inboxes, on the hard drive or in a file share. In this way, even a few structured decisions or development processes are documented in which, for example, approvals are issued per e-mail. Open Text: How exactly do you envision cooperation with the support of ECM? Hugh Ritchie: Its workflow, task, version and schedule management tools enable the ECM system to best document cooperation with regard to change activities and projects. With the use of process templates, compliance with standards, quality and completeness can be guaranteed and documented. Furthermore, roles, rights and tasks can be assigned per project. All this accelerates the technical change processes in the plants while, at the same time, meeting high quality and safety standards. At the same time, you get an overview of the schedule, quality and budget status of projects, which is almost impossible today due to the multitude of projects going on simultaneously. Because not only change projects are subject to documentation for a power plant operator, but also requests for proposals in purchasing, system rollout in IT, planning energy acquisition or researching incidents. Open Text: So many operators are battling mountains of paper? Hugh Ritchie: Yes, that's right. There are documents that pile up for maintenance, service and change activities that are part of the required documentation. Ideally, they are managed in an ECM system. A central repository for data and documents provides comprehensive lifecycle management for all sort of important information. This can include: • Technical drawings, documentation, manuals, procedural instructions, safety data sheets or maintenance schedules that hang on the plant machinery and equipment • Photos, notes and checklists included with a report • Acceptance reports, test reports, surveys, repair report that are included with maintenance orders For storing these "process documents" that collect in large volumes, ECM systems offer very efficient scanning procedures and batch import processes. Open Text: Which advantages does an SAP connection offer in this case? Hugh Ritchie: The integration in SAP PM and MDM is significant if the equipment hierarchy and documents is displayed there. Ideally, integration is so deep that an administrator who operates primarily in SAP does not have to leave the SAP GUI if he or she is looking for documents on technical specifications, equipment, messages or a PM order. All documents are linked to the SAP objects, but can be researched in file structures that offer the essential ECM functions in the SAP GUI. A similar integration would also be required for a different ERP system, but also for PLM, GIS or other leading systems. Basically, the introduction of an ECM system is always an integration project.

Energy Spectrum: Interview with Hugh Ritchie - Part 1

2009-07-27T17:59:39Z

We talked to Hugh Ritchie, Industry Manager for Energy and Manufacturing at Open Text recently about the energy sector and what organizations are doing to manage their content. Read part one of the interview today. We'll post part two later this week.
Open Text: These days, power plants have to operate with greater flexibility in order to meet rising requirements in, among other areas, regulated energy markets (for example, through more renewable energy). How has the situation changed in your view? Hugh Ritchie: Power plant operators run highly complex plants and plant systems. The complexity is due to having to meet higher efficiency levels, environmental constraints, safety standards, cost savings and now, even high flexibility. This is true for power plants and utility companies in regulated and deregulated markets. Open Text: What effect does all the complex business requirements this have on ECM systems? Hugh Ritchie: Advanced technology works best with ECM software. Due to the increased complexity, advanced software is necessary to manage all the information and to meet all the requirements. ECM software enables power plant operators to decisively improve their knowledge management, optimize processes and lower documentation costs, increase knowledge around fixed assets, and drive business costs down. In terms of information management, power plant operators are faced with a number of challenges such as lost knowledge and know-how, process efficiency, efficiencies in managing change, and version control. Open Text: What opportunities and risks are hidden in these challenges? Hugh Ritchie: On the process efficiency front, processes that are complex, unstructured, interdisciplinary and time-intensive now have to be optimized, in particular, to improve cooperation between departments, locations, partners and suppliers. To this end, the way a company handles its information and documents has to be adapted to today's business processes. For example, more and more frequently, employees based at different locations have to work together. While the knowledge applied in plant construction, operation and maintenance has taken a century to gather is even harder to find when the key knowledge holders walk out the door. The lost know-how, experienced engineers, technicians, administrators and decision-makers organize their documents individually or leave the company and take their knowledge with them. Important information for making decisions is then no longer available. On the other hand in Capital Projects many specialists and specialized companies work together on complex projects with time pressures that often mean a deeper division of labor that if not captured needs to be recreated often at a great expense to the company. So, it is a question of managing unstructured information and documents that simply sit in personal inboxes, file shares, public folders, SharePoint sites, departmental archives and paper archives and making the information available to the right people at the right time. To further compound the problem with the new ways employees communicate -- digitally, by phone, on paper, with multiple versions in duplicate with unclear responsibilities, tasks and due dates the problems get larger. Open Text: Your third point, ensuring version control, is that really such a major issue for the industry? Hugh Ritchie: Documentation costs do in fact represent a major problem. In the last few years, the energy industry in North American and Europe has adjusted itself to the mandate for documentation from several laws and directives, including market regulation, environmental constraints and safety provisions. These documentation requirements result in huge costs, slow down processes and reduce flexibility. The networks and plants are even frequently documented five times in five different systems (construction, operation, maintenance, accounting, malfunction repair). In the case of malfunctions, the operator must demonstrate that the plant has been routinely maintained, the right checks performed, and that the training of its personnel was up to date. Look for part two on Wednesday.

Open Text and Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC)

2009-07-20T17:58:22Z

Each year Microsoft holds a conference for their partners from around the world. This year's conference was held in New Orleans, LA and was attended by approximately 6,000 partners and hundreds of Microsoft staff. Open Text had a number of staff in attendance and was extremely well represented throughout the show. Allison Watson, Corporate Vice President launched the conference with her keynote speech along with those of Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division and Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President of Microsoft Business Division. Open Text was featured in a video on Office 2010 which was filmed during our participation in the Office Technology Adoption Program (TAP) training recently in Seattle. Microsoft provided demonstrations of the coming Office 2010 and Windows 7 releases. The second day began with keynote presentations from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Bob Muglia, President Server and Tools business. Open Text was featured in discussion and a keynote video on our early adoption of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform. Open Text was also named as a finalist in two award categories. There are a number of awards given out each year at WPC. Each category receives thousands of applications and they are judged by a variety of Microsoft staff around the world. Open Text was one of the two finalists in two categories. The first is Global ISV Line of Business Partner of the Year. In 2006 Open Text received the Global ISV of the Year award, and achieving finalist designation in 2009 is a strong recognition of all the work that Open Text and Microsoft are doing together. The second award was the Information Worker Solutions, Enterprise Content Management and Forms Development Partner of the Year where Open Text received finalist designation for our Open Text Legal Information Management for SharePoint solution. This application brings together the strengths of Open Text Content Lifecycle Management with the collaborative and end-user abilities of Microsoft's SharePoint 2007 to provide a complete application for use in Law Firms and Corporate Legal Departments. During the conference we met with many Microsoft executives and teams from both Microsoft Corporate and Regional organizations. We met with several current and future partners for Open Text. There was a tremendous amount of information shared, knowledge gained and relationships formed and strengthened throughout the conference. Aside from the formal presentations, we filmed some publicly posted video clips. Look for Open Text speaking on the 2010 Office wave, and Windows Azure on Microsoft's Presspass site: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/videoGallery.aspx.

The Rising Stakes of Corporate Websites

2009-07-08T14:30:04Z

The rise of Web 2.0 and social media has upped the stakes for business websites. Your customers and partners are surfing across sites like Facebook, Twitter and iGoogle in unprecedented numbers. What they are finding is a highly personalized, intuitive and vibrant environment, complete with all types of rich media and interactivity. If what those customers find when they visit your organization's website is a decidedly Web 1.0 experience, chances are good they won't be staying for long. In the Web development world, if you aren't moving forward, you are falling behind. And it's not just the user experience. Business managers want to use the Web to help support organizational goals such as closing sales more cost effectively, or providing more responsive customer support. This means that the external website needs to integrate with corporate databases and systems in a way that is completely seamless to the end consumer. What's more, with the cost of creating video dropping dramatically, companies need a way of managing, storing and retrieving all that content. These are some of the factors driving the development effort behind Open Text Web Solutions Version 10, the 2009 major release of Open Text Web Solutions announced today. Jens Rabe, Vice President of Web Solutions at Open Text, sums up the capabilities of the latest release: "With Web Solutions 10, we are bringing the full Web 2.0 user interface to both the people editing content within the company and to the consumers of this content. The many enhancements and deep ECM and digital asset management integrations in this release will help customers save costs and produce more compelling and effective websites." If you are involved with building your company's website, take a few minutes to learn about all the new features in Web Solutions 10. In this space, if you fall behind, no one will be waiting for you.for you.

Hot off the Press! Highlights from the AIIM Market Intelligence Industry Watch: Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 - Work Meets Play or the Future of Business?

2009-07-06T13:31:58Z

Previously posted on GTEC blog by guest blogger Cheryl McKinnon. Last week, AIIM, the non-profit association dedicated to nurturing, growing and supporting the ECM (Enterprise Content Management) community published its state of the market survey findings. The 30 page PDF can be downloaded here: Link to AIIM.org download (free - registration required). Of the nearly 800 survey respondents to the May 2009 survey, 19% were from public sector - the largest single industry vertical. National governments as well as provincial, state and local were included here. 67% of the participants were from North America (no breakout of Canada vs. USA). The IT sector, finance and insurance were the next 2 largest responding, at 15% and 12% respectively (Survey Demographics on page 20). The points that that caught my attention: What a difference a year makes: In 2008, over 40% of the survey participants had "no clear understanding" of Enterprise 2.0, or what it could do. In 2009, only 17% chose that response. And in 2008, 44% considered Enterprise 2.0 to be important/very important to their business goals, rising to 54% in 2009. Age matters - sometimes... Not a big surprise that the 18-30 demographic is more willing to open up their personal details to an mixed business and leisure social network, 32%, in fact. Less open are the over 45 crowd, where only 12% see a mixed network of value. But - Not a big difference across the generations when asked "I can do a much better job at work making use of professional networking on the web". And everyone has the worry that "there is so much out there I could read, I get 'information overload'". 2.0 content is our looming ATIP/FOI/e-Discovery nightmare This is the part that scares me: the 'newer' online tools were the least likely it is to be covered by usage policies or records management retention rules. Here is a wake up call to government and regulated private sector to look carefully at this next generation content explosion. While 50% of companies have email records management rules, less than 10% have figured out what to do with wikis, forums, text messaging, chat rooms, social network groups or Twitter. RM 101 = the format shouldn't matter... the content purpose should. Still lots of room for education and awareness 2.0 technologies and social media aren't new anymore, but real adoption for business purpose is still in early adoption phases. Organizations need to pay attention to where and how their content is being created and shared, and ensure we're not ramping up for nasty surprises in the future. The time to develop safe social media practices is now. Encourage innovation, better collaboration, fuel the social workplace... but not at the expense of good information management fundamentals.

Social Media Records Retention and eDiscovery

2009-06-30T15:18:38Z

There is a good article in Information Week outlining how the US Federal Government is struggling with Social Media Records Retention Policies. My first thought was, can eDiscovery issues be far behind? It is interesting that the article goes on to say "one keynote speaker asked the crowd of several hundred how many of the archivists in attendance were sold on the use of social media. Only a smattering raised their hands." This is an interesting contrast to the current Obama administration that has clearly embraced social media both in the run up to the White House and now while in the White House. For anybody struggling with the implications of the adoption of new media technologies, the United States National Archives' Implications of Recent Web Technologies for NARA Web Guidance is a good starting point. It outlines some of the basic records management implications associated to new media types such as wikis, blogs, and microblogs. Open Text, along with Loeb & Loeb, recently produced a webinar called eDiscovery, Information and Records Management in a Web 2.0 World, where we explore more of the issues and legal precedent surrounding discovery of content that is outside the bounds of what the legal community has traditionally thought of as documents. I think that if I were to try and take two things away from the webinar, it might be:

It is the content, not the media the media that drives content classification, retention, and disposition. The best practices and policies that are slowly being adopted in Enterprises around email can be used to evaluate the use of new social media applications as well.
Don't wait for a problem to arise. Get out in front of the adoption of social media applications within your enterprise to develop policies for acceptable use, retention and disposition and eDiscovery. Developing the policies will provide the ability to evaluate new Social Media applications to understand if they are right for your organization.