I was working with a major pharmaceutical company that wanted to consolidate web content into a single CMS system (in this case Documentum, but later moved on to SharePoint). When the client did their due diligence to discover all the content that had been created and was being maintained they found over 400 internal web sites dedicated to things like bowling and other non-essential topics. Money well spent? Probably not in this economy.
The best content storage methodology is to store content within the business process itself. Taxonomy tagging is wonderful and can truly help you execute general searches for corporate goodies but understanding where the content fits into your revenue model and business process, how it was created and for what purpose, is much more valuable. Can you say what percentage of files in your CMS/ECM system provide(d) no value to your company? (How much did those files cost to create in lost productivity?).
There is an easy way to avoid such problems. Governance of your systems has always been the key to keeping things under control (duh) but also adds a layer of administrative cost that isn’t directly lending a hand in converting effort into revenue and profit. Modern CMS tools can allow you to implement a more context aware governance and work environment that ensures all recorded (created and stored) content is there for a purpose that is related to your business. Imagine a SharePoint implementation where sites are created when tasks are added from up the chain of command. For example your boss is charged with conducting a clinical trial. The new task is assigned to your boss by his boss or committee. A new team site is automatically created from a template specific to the type of task. Your boss assigns resources through a subpage and you are notified of the new work space and task at hand. All project management, compliance, work process (workflows) and score carding are ready to go…. And all content is created within the proper context to satisfy pre-determined requirements.
This type of implementation is more than possible at present with Microsoft SharePoint. Documentum is adding like capabilities with the new Center Stage application.
Imagine if you could validate the governance process as an implementation and then just maintain your policies to achieve a desired goal. If you ever need to migrate to a new CMS tool, the content will be easy to migrate saving even more money in the long haul.
