This week AIIM announced the availability of a Certificate program focused on best practices for adopting and implementing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 that goes beyond technology to the necessary strategies and structures required to in effectively sharing and managing corporate information using the SharePoint 2010 platform. The need to look beyond the technology and take a holistic approach is echoed in a recent AIIM study, ’SharePoint: strategies and experiences’, which reveal that governance is sorely lacking in the majority of installations. For the 500+ surveyed, there appears to be very little thought given to e-discovery, retention policies, and most of all, classification schemes and metadata standards.
Many organizations I have spoken with indicate that they are moving in a direction to include SharePoint as a technology of choice to enhance or even become their Enterprise Content and Records Management (ECRM) solution but all too few address the issues of governance, metadata and taxonomy to name a few, that are essential to implementing and maintaining any ECRM environment regardless of the chosen technology. Above all else, these areas must be addressed and included as part of the project in order to reach the levels of success that is expected.
In my view, many organizations fall short because they equate ECRM to technology or the suppliers who deliver these solutions, without understanding the true business needs of the organization and the guidelines under which they must operate. While there is now a shift in this thinking, it is too slow and still not on the project scope for many, causing less than expected results and in some cases the failure of a project. If the environment is not planned and implemented properly to align with the business needs, it will fail. In order to ensure you align properly, you must look at technology as a tool in support of the business that will function and deliver results within the operating guidelines. This means you must address governance, taxonomy, metadata, security and so much more that which technology to use.
What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? What is on your mind? Do you have a topic of interest you would like discussed in this forum? Let me know.
Bob Larrivee, Director and Industry Advisor - AIIM
Email: blarrivee@aiim.org
Twitter – BobLarrivee
www.aiim.org/training
www.aiimcommunities.org
#governance #ElectronicRecordsManagement #SharePoint #metadata #Taxonomy #compliance #technology #AIIM