ecm study - strategy, management & technology
DESCRIPTION
Lesson learned from an effort to consolidate the management of information at EUMETSAT. The first phase surveyed the current state and identified options while the second phase explored selected options in more depth. The outcome of the study covered Strategy, Governance and Technology.TRANSCRIPT
Slide: 1
Strategy, Management &
Technology
Lessons learned for ECM at EUMETSAT
Slide: 2
Contents
• EUMETSAT
• The ECM Study
• Phase 1
• Phase 2
• Next Steps
• Lessons Learned
• Discussion
Slide: 3
EUMETSAT overview
Mission ... to deliver operational satellite
meteorological and climate data
and products that satisfy data
requirements of its Member
States – 24/7 hours a day, 365
days a year
Intergovernmental
21 Member States
550 employees
30+ nationalities
Slide: 4
ECM infrastructure
• Multiple ECM systems – Document management - Open Text (Hummingbird)
– Web content mgt - Stellent
– Images - Imagine
– Bespoke applications
– Large amount of information in GroupWise & File System (Tb)
• Fragmented information management approach – Many local practices
– Limited awareness of overall policy
– Overall policy not kept up to date
Slide: 5
The ECM Study
• Identify options to better integrate current systems – Enhance support for business processes
– Gain increased value from corporate information
– Better manage risks and uncertainties
• Phase 1: review current state & identify options
• Phase 2: explore selected options in more depth
• Constraints – Operational systems and data out of scope
– Avoid major disruption to EUMETSAT staff
Slide: 6
Phase 1 - Approach
• Survey current information and systems – Document review (40+ docs defining systems and standards)
– Interviews (29 people)
• Develop overview and refine via 2 workshops – Content and systems matrices
– Key issues
• Analyse root causes & hence frame findings
Slide: 7
Systems
Information
Types
Slide: 8
Phase 1 - Hard to find information
“It’s hard to know where to go to for the master version. i.e. a lot of docs aren’t covered by ECM.”
“I lose a lot of time looking for info – I may need to open several docs to find one I’m looking for.”
“I need some sort of mind-map to help me find the information I’m looking for.”
“Once a document is created it goes into a black hole and you find it by searching.”
“Everyone creates their own folder structure: there are no clear rules” General agreement on the
difficulty of assigning and managing access permissions
Slide: 9
Phase 1 - Inconsistent processes
Inconsistent processes across different units
Inconsistent enforcement of approval processes, e.g. due to reliance on manual processes
Inconsistent use of document versioning (eg. use of draft documents)
Duplicate registration of documents in Mail Registration system
Overheads of existing processes (e.g. to walk physical documents around approvers)
Reliance on manual processes to ensure documents are consistent across systems
Slide: 10
Phase 1 - Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths Areas for Improvement
Governance (Structures for decision making and alignment)
1) Alignment between Information Management and organisational objectives
Document management is embedded within
organisational processes and quality management
systems through ISO9001.
Web information is not covered – Stellent is not
a recognised system within the QMS.
2) Alignment between Information Management and ICT systems
Web management and document teams established
and functioning to make decisions about priorities for
systems development.
Organised by system, rather than having an
overview of broader objectives.
3) Management of policies and standards
Groups to discuss policies and standards (e.g. web and
document user groups) are established and meet
regularly.
Organised by system. Authority to define policy
is not clear. Would welcome training on
information management.
4) Operational management of information
Key roles are in place (e.g. document controllers) and
appear to be operating effectively.
Processes are often manual, and differ across
divisions/units.
Slide: 11
Strengths Areas for Improvement
Policies and Standards (Guidance on how to manage information)
1) File Plans (e.g. defined folder structures for storing records)
Well defined in programme document management
plans. Appear to be understood & adhered to.
Not defined at organisational level. Not
embedded in Hummingbird DMS.
2) Information types (e.g. definition of types & processes for managing them)
Are well defined for some information types (e.g. in
PRC001).
PRC001 out of date and incomplete. Differing
interpretations of its application.
3) Classification schema (e.g. controlled vocabularies, keywords, taxonomies, etc)
Some teams have keyword schemes for local use. Generally very fragmented.
4) Confidentiality and security policies
Policies are documented and everyone appears to be
well aware of their existence.
Many people expressed difficulty in knowing
how to apply them.
5) Archiving and retention policies
Policies appear to exist, at least for some information
types.
As above, people expressed difficulty knowing
how to apply them.
6) Supporting training and guidance
Training courses for tools available & run regularly. Widespread desire for additional training.
Phase 1 - Strengths & Weaknesses
Slide: 12
Strengths Areas for Improvement
Systems and Tools
1) Repositories (e.g. databases and document stores)
Suite of enterprise-class applications are generally well
matched to functional requirements. EUMETSAT has a
good pool of skills to manage and extend these
systems.
Integration between Stellent and Hummingbird
could be improved (e.g. as being addressed by
current projects).
2) Business process (e.g. workflow and related logic)
ECM and ERP applications provide a suite of tools to
define and manage business processes. Again,
EUMETSAT has a good pool of skills to do this.
Not fully exploiting capabilities of existing tools.
Need to manage overlapping capabilities
across WCMS, DMS and SAP.
3) Search
Individual tools (Stellent, Hummingbird) have
reasonable search engines.
No enterprise-wide search facilities.
4) General adoption and development of ECM systems
DMS and WCMS are widely used.
DMS, in particular, is very widely used throughout the
organisation.
Phase 1 - Strengths & Weaknesses
Slide: 13
Phase 1 - Technology risk
• Major concern for EUMETSAT and a key reason for initiating the study – they had major commitment to 2 vendors, both of whom had subsequently been acquired.
• The study’s conclusion: – Technology risk is manageable – evolve and integrate current
applications (unless/until vendors force change)
– Focus on information management policies and guidelines
Slide: 14
Phase 2 - Mandate
• Three out of four options
– Information Organisation Standards
– Workflow Architecture
– Collaborative Document Management pilot
– Workflow and Sign-off pilot
Slide: 15
Phase 2 - Organisation
Project Manager
Niklas Sinander
Project Support
Paul Breindel
Paul Macneil
Graham Oakes
Sara Redin
Janus Boye
Steering Committee
Florentin Albu
IO Ref Group
Repr from Div x
Repr from Div y
Repr from Div z
.
.
.
IO Team
Repr from Div a
Repr from Div b
Repr from Div c
.
.
Slide: 16
Phase 2 - Priorities
• Recommended approach:
– Subteams to refine the IO documentation
(1) Overview and type catalogue
(2) Classification
(3) One document type
– Pilot one of the other 4
IO Documentation
Classification Schemes
Security & Access
Permissions Archiving Policies
External Access
Registration
Signatures and
VISA loops
Simplify and reduce
duplication
Single Work Queue
Slide: 17
Planning
Tutorials
Homework
Homework
Homework
Workflow Pilot
Roadmap
Slide: 18
IO Documentation Structure
• Information types – Summary of the information types covered by the IO architecture
– Template for definition of information types
– Detailed definitions (following the template) for each information type
• Information organisation – File plan
– Facets and keywords
• Processes – Document generic processes (applying to multiple information types)
– Workflow specification
• User documentation
– Glossary
– Reference guides
– How To’s
– Training
• Governance
– Roles and Responsibilities
– Processes for maintaining IO policies
and standards
– Processes for ensuring IO policies and
standards are followed
Slide: 19
Slide: 20
Governance Options
• Who defines policies and standards? – Ad hoc – individual units define their own standards
– Council – members of individual units come together to decide
– Central – central unit defines standards
• Who approves policies and standards? – Devolved – whoever defines them is also empowered to approve them
– Executive – executive body oversees and approves
• Who enforces policies and standards? – Self – people/units are assumed to follow them (really guidelines)
– Audit – audit function identifies breaches, for executive to deal with
– Police – central unit audits and enforces
• Who implements policies and standards? – Self – people/units implement
– Central – central support function implements stds (e,g, archivists)
Slide: 21
Typical Structures
Definition
Imp
lem
en
tati
on
Central Devolved
Devolved
Central IM Unit
IM CoE
with Audit
IM Centre of
Excellence IM Council Anarchy
Central
Processing Unit
Slide: 22
Slide: 23
Lessons: Three layers to delivering info
Layer Strengths Weaknesses
Strategic Mgt
Organisational
commitment and focus
Recognise need to commit
resources
Fragmented and highly
bureaucratic structure and culture
Visibility of commitment?
Information Mgt
Appropriate policies,
processes & resources
Strong commitment of
resources (people) to information
mgt, e.g. doc controllers
Lack key skills and policies
(e.g. metadata)
Policies and processes are
fragmented and weakly
disseminated
Technology
Appropriate systems and
tools
Strong suite of systems
Fit for purpose
No major impl. issues
Widely adopted
Could make better use of
systems in some areas
(collaboration, workflow)
Slide: 24
Lessons
• The issues were primarily about policy and direction
• But the initial symptoms were in the technology
• It’s hard to work from the bottom up – Difficulty getting people’s time
– Team not confident of their authority
– Conflicting messages to team
– Conflicting messages to rest of organisation
– But this is often the way we need to work: gain evidence & build support
• Defining policy requires time and thought
• Managing upwards is essential