There are some folks who believe that content and process are less related that one might believe. Content is content and process is process; never the twain shall meet. My belief is that content and process are closely related and that content without process goes nowhere and process without content serves no purpose. If you change the way you manage content, you change the processes around it and likewise, if you change process, you will likely impact the way you capture, access and manage content.
One of the questions here is how the content enters and exits a process and whether the content drives the process? Think about this for a minute. In your organization, does content trigger your processes? For example, a loan or claims application provided by a client; does this content trigger a process? If so, what happens through the process and how does that impact the content lifecycle, security scheme and retention policies?
When addressing this type of scenario, you should take time to walk through the process, assessing each step. Ask a lot of questions. Is this step needed? Could you move this to another phase and gain in productivity as a result? If you uncover a serial phase in your process, ask if it can be broken out into parallel steps?
In my view, the relationship between content and process is often overlooked or misunderstood. Many organizations are now coming to realize the connection and the importance of fully mapping not only the process but inter-dependencies of content and process. Take time to learn and understand what drives your processes and how the content relates to them. Make improvements to your processes and then automate where possible. In this way, you will gain greater efficiencies and higher levels of success and acceptance.
If you are ready to move forward and are finding yourself stuck or unfocused and are not sure where to begin or what to do next, seek professional assistance and/or training to get you started.
What say you? Do you have a story to tell? What are your thoughts on this topic? 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 me: blarrivee@aiim.org
Follow me on Twitter – BobLarrivee
www.aiim.org/training
I will be speaking at and look forward to meeting you at the following events:
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February 26-28, 2012 Share Conference, Johannesburg, SA
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March 20-23, 2012 AIIM 2012 Conference in San Francisco, CA
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April 10-13, 2012 BPM Masters in Silver Spring, MD
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June 13-14, 2012 info360 Conference in New York, NY
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