ECM Best Practices: Document Capture & Metadata Collection

The term “Data Strategy” and can be used to understand strategic requirements for enterprise metadata concepts and best practices.  Why is this important for an ECM solution?  The simple answer is why contribute to the disarray of an organizations data management when implementing an ECM solution.

The key to a successful ECM system is the ability for users to easily and quickly find information within the repository.  If specific information cannot be easily and quickly found, users may not be enthusiastic about using the system.

The biggest stumbling block in the way of finding specific or relevant information is when the search returns too many documents that the user will have to physically look through before finding the specific document or set of documents that exactly meet their requirements.
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SharePoint for the Enterprise

Microsoft has created a major presence in the enterprise content management arena with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.  Is SharePoint best suited to serve as a single ECM solution for the Enterprise?  The real question is what does it take to have a successful SharePoint implementation.  From my perspective, here are the things one should consider:

• Implementations must be carefully planned. Incorrect installations lead to a lot more time and money spent later on down the road to fix the problem. Where are the cost savings then?
• Tame the data chaos by defining document libraries based on content types. Be sure to not use a one solution fits all approach when defining metadata and requirements.
• Administration is critical from an IT perspective in terms of its support, maintenance, and updates.
• Have a roadmap, design documents, and a detailed project plan that defines roles and responsibilities, along with a risk assessment.  Don’t try to do it all at once and make sure everyone knows the plan and the timelines.

Organizations such as ImageSource are using SharePoint for managing active electronic content and supporting collaboration.  SharePoint can be easily used as a bolt on to existing ECM systems like Oracle IPM (Imaging and Business Process Management).

The value of implementing a duo like this increases exponentially with the ability to store fixed paper based content with in the Oracle IPM content repository and to leverage the SharePoint repository for your active electronic content and team collaboration portals.

Jon Sutherland
Sr. Systems EngineerImageSource, Inc.