Blogs

This is the fourth part of our series called The Road to ECM Hell. Check out the start of the series here. After some time has passed and a few failed ECM projects later the organization, with good intentions, starts to look for something new...this time, the project will be successful! It has been a few years since the last implementation - clearly technology has moved on. We've heard some good things about some new systems - let's go and find out what is on the market. The CIO has some new requirements - let' s make our ECM system more social! The company starts getting demos from perspective ECM companies. The demos go well. Things really have moved on. This time our project will be great! Unfortunately the "Shiny new ECM System" is another reason for repeatedly ending up in ECM Hell. Each time we look for a new ECM system, the promise is so much more than what ultimately gets delivered. The cost associated with planning, migrating, implementing and training around the new system is considerable. New skills are learned, but even so things are slightly more complex than the demos implied. Even the venerable SharePoint- the fastest selling Microsoft server product, used by 78% of the fortune 500 companies – and a billion dollar business for Microsoft, has been criticised about being too complex to implement, and to use. ECM Systems are complex. So during an evaluation, we often focus on new features, or specific “business-critical” features. The demos look simple, but the complexity comes in the implementation and eventual use or user adoption. It turns out the users weren’t quite ready for the new functionality or the new confusing interface. They didn’t use the new social features. They wanted the simplicity of their file shares, or their email system. What happens? The users continue to use what they are familiar with – and despite our good intentions, we are back in ECM Hell. Until the next time…… the next new shiny system.