Putting Together an ECM Project Team

Part 3 – The Project Team

In previous blogs on this same subject, we have discussed the role of Executive Management in the overall Project Team effort.  And what elements from the  internal organization would likely comprise an effective team.   In summary, vibrant and effective executive leadership is likely to be critical in solidifying the vision for the project.  The target of effort to achieve project acceptance and enthusiasm is cascading in that the focus of executive leadership is middle management.  The components of a project team may be different for each organization or type of organization – whatever best suites the particular organizational structure, and what special considerations there might be in the project (i.e. does it involve web content, collaboration, integration with ERP or SharePoint environments, etc.).

The Role of Line of Business Managers in the Project Team

As your project will likely either be addressing a limited requirement of a single department or two, or will be the start of an enterprise wide implementation of ECM, it is always recommended that it focus on a manageable quantity of work – normally one or two Departmental or workgroup solutions.  Enterprise wide ECM, ERM, and Business Process Management implementations usually start with one or two departments.   The Department(s) chosen for the Project are normally those where enthusiasm for improvements is high, cooperation is supportive, and where the business entity will benefit highly from the application of ECM technologies.

Starting with one or two areas that have been carefully selected based on their high potential for success and strong need for improvement, permits the rapid and clear demonstration of  ECM technology benefits – and that strong example can assist in the acceptance of the larger project to come across the enterprise.

Departmental management and supervisory involvement and strong support is crucial.  The organization’s line-of-business (LOB) managers understand the routine and cyclical “problems and challenges” of business operations.  They are operational experts within their areas of responsbilbity, know the character of the staff resources they have to work with, entity strengths and weaknesses, the potential to accept change, and what “change management” efforts should be implemented.   These LOB Managers and supervisors routinely “concentrate on organizational effectiveness through current processes” they will become the bridges that will carry the success of the ECM project forward into routine of daily work production.

The LOB Managers and other key supervisory or lead personnel need to be considered for the Project Team for either full involvement, or participation in the development of specific new process or workflow designs.

• They are most cognizent of what is done in their departments and why, what documents are received and how they are processed, the various sources of data (paper from internal and mail sources, voice mails, emails, internet provided input, etc.).
• They understand the decision criteria in the flow of work, the point where specific processes are needed, risks to successful processing, exception processing, and all the rest of the challenges that will need to be considered in a process design.
• They also know which other business areas need access to their documents and data.
• They usually have the only available insight into key details regarding operational systems, processes, and policies that support their organization’s mission.

When you apply ECM and BPM technology to an organization’s routine processes, you must have input and significant levels of planning participation from the managers and key personnel who are most familiar with operations so they can ensure that the new system will be successful in meeting objectives at all meaningful levels.  These people are needed to allow the project team to reach all objectives through consistent operational production.

From time to time this blog will continue with the subject of project team challenges, some considerations to remember, use of supporting vendor resources, and some recommended methods for implementation.

Neil W. Lindsey, ECMm, CDIA+

Project Manager / Senior Business Analyst
ImageSource, Inc.

ECM and Internal Controls

It is time to revise your organization’s internal controls!

It has been almost 8 years since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act became law in the U.S.  Even though this act covered only public companies, a significant percentage of ECM projects were undertaken  by exempt companies to make them ‘SOX compliant’, specifically in regard to the  sections of the Act that specified the criminal penalties for manipulating, destroying or altering a company’s records.  Have you taken a look at internal controls since?

Over the past few years financial analysts have produced conflicting reports as to whether the benefits of compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley exceeded the implementation costs.  I’m not going to weigh in one way or the other, because regardless of the benefits, the costs of ECM implementation have been incurred, and these ECM systems are now part of our corporate infrastructure.  Prior to complying with the controls imposed by Sarbanes-Oxley, ECM projects were driven by the desire to reduce storage costs and improve processing efficiencies associated with documents.  More recently, ECM projects have been driven by ‘green’ initiatives to save paper; reduce postage/shipping costs, etc.

Your ECM project team has probably focused on typical high document content areas within your organization to drive the ROI on ECM implementations, such as improving the AP process by automating invoice handling.  Perhaps the next projects on your ECM team’s horizon include automating document intensive processes with workflow, implementing electronic forms for high volume repetitive paper, or integrating your ERP and ECM systems.

Typically, we review our internal controls only after an instance of employee theft, fraud, or when forced to by regulations geared to preventing repeats of scandals such as Enron or WorldCom. 

Consider the benefits of extending your ECM projects to preemptively improve controls, extend the depth and focus of internal audits, or reduce your exposure to fraud.

As an example, consider your accounts payable department through which most of your variable expense payments flow.  Your Oracle, SAP or other ERP system can most likely provide rudimentary controls to insure you don’t pay the same invoice twice, but you have to insure that your AP clerk enters the invoice number correctly.  Given the large volume of paperwork historically flowing through an AP department, it’s pretty safe to assume that your existing review of invoice number accuracy focuses only on large dollar payments.

Why can’t your ECM project team configure an automated process to route invoice images for review (prior to payment) for any invoice numbers that don’t match the vendor’s historical invoice number pattern which would be based on invoice number length, position of alpha/numeric characters, and even changes in the invoice number sequence over time?

• How does your company ensure that only valid address changes are being made for your vendors or customers?  Can you utilize your ECM system to insure that changes are made only when proper documentation has been received and approved?
• How do you review the work of new employees for accuracy?  Will your new-hire process and training regimen interact with your ECM system to identify errors or areas requiring re-training?
• When it isn’t practical to segregate duties (typically for smaller companies), have you configured your ECM system to review transactions to provide similar assurances?
• Can you easily and readily identify occurrences of management override of controls?
• Is there any area within your organization where you can’t ask similar questions about existing controls, and where they might be improved?

So, for your next ECM project – include internal control activities by first reviewing and revising policies and procedures that would benefit from your ECM infrastructure to ensure that management directives and controls are carried out.  These control activities are found at all levels and functions throughout each company.  You will benefit your organization by improving controls utilizing ECM for activities that include approvals, reconciliations, verifications, asset security or segregation of duties.

Steve Kissinger

ImageSource

  

ECM Best Practices: Training – How much is too much, how much is not enough?

How much is too much, how much is not enough?  That is the proverbial question. Often times when project budgets are being developed, training is a secondary consideration. Sometimes it’s not considered at all.  When you’re working with customers helping them to determine what kinds of training and how much should be included, the first thing should be clearly identifying what your objectives are (and qualifying them with the most affected stakeholder – the end users). At times you will find the answer to that question to be very different coming from the project sponsor vs. the End User management team, vs. the End Users themselves. Your ‘objectives’ often transcend the simple task of selecting classes. Hence, the need to clarify with all of your stakeholders…

First, who are your stakeholders in training?  The End Users are obvious.  What about Team Leads?  IT Support (i.e. desktop support, server support, and help desk)? Application Support (administrative and end user)? Change Management teams? What about your Project Sponsor? The list can go on and on.   How much is too much, how much is not enough?

Second, what are your budgetary constraints? Within your project budget, you may have a line item for training, or even a separate line item for training for different phases of the project. This is the money originally allocated by the sponsor. How that money is spent may be rigidly defined, or it may be simply a line item budget number to be used at your discretion. With a little probing, you may be able to determine that ‘other monies’ are available from different budget codes or cost centers (unrelated to the project) that can also be used in a discretionary manner by the department managers. In those cases, with a well thought out justification, you may be able to pool that money in addition to what’s been allocated to the project to increase your available funding for training. In the case where you have line items for training for different phases of the project, close examination and analysis may reveal that there is an imbalance in the amounts allocated for some areas. Understanding that demographic need and the spread can help you level the available funds in other areas or phases of the project where you are deficient in the amount of money needed to support those particular initiatives.  How much is too much, how much is not enough?

Third, what are your logistics and operational contraints?  Training requires time and resources. Staff time, training rooms, systems\application environments, etc…  To train people, the traditional model involves taking them out of their work environment, putting them into a classroom, and running them through a curriculum based program that will orient them to the new systems and sometimes to the specific processes or application used in their jobs.  Point being you are taking people away from their jobs which directly impacts the organizations ability to do business. How do you compensate for that from an operations perspective?  Do you need to compensate for that from an operations perspective? When you’re trying to implement training in large organizations, these challenges become even more daunting.  How much is too much, how much is not enough?

Fourth, what are your timelines?  The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…  I’m not sure that when Robert Burns penned that famous quote, he wasn’t thinking about project planning, schedules and interdependencies, but he could have been!  You can develop the most comprenhensive training plan possible, taking into consideration every possible need. Then you start to consider the functional dependencies required to pull that off (i.e. availability of systems, availability of facilities, etc…), the personell logistics (availability of staff, availability of trainers, availability of technical support, etc…), and the human factor (how much time will elapse between training, testing and GOLIVE when people will have to use the system) and you start to realize that you have created a monster. How much is too much, how much is not enough?

 Now, how does this all play out in the context of your objectives?

Stakeholders – You have to address all of them.  You don’t necessarily have to deliver to all of them. As quickly as possible assess what their critical functional needs and requirements are in relation to training. Be careful to note the difference between ‘nice-to-haves’ and ‘must-haves’.

Budgetary Constraints – Make a short list of the ideal classes and training Deliverables you would provide in a best case scenario. Ball park cost it and compare to your ‘nice-tohave’ and ‘must-have’ lists from your stakeholders. Identify the gap if one exists. Prioritize the stakeholders in the context of functionally (and successfully) completing the project.

Logistics and Operational Constraints – Now review your operational capability and capacity for delivering the training.  Do you have the required classrooms, computing resources and the application environment to deliver to the volume of people that need to be trained.  Even if all of those people can be spared from their jobs for the time it will take to train them, is it really necessary to pull all of them to accomplish your functional objectives?

Project Timelines – Now that you’ve considered your stakeholders requirements, budgetary constraints, logistics and operational constraints, consider your overall project timelines. Will your systems be online and functional in the appropriate time frame to be used for training.  Will tapping these systems for training impact other scheduled activities (i.e. development, system integration testing, user acceptance testing, etc…)? Can training be combined with other scheduled project activities in ways that create synergy and efficiencies in overall project execution? How much time will elapse between training and when you will count on users to participate in testing and actually take the system live?

Conclusions

1. The blue sky approach is that everyone will want training and as much as they can get. The reality is that you will almost never have the budget, available resources or the time for that, even if you can tap those outside-of-the-project discretionary departmental budgets. It’s up to you to ascertain what is really required to successfully launch. Typically it’s the end users, and some mix of application administration\desktop  support. This is where you engage the Project Sponsor and potentially the clients Project Director to help set expectations with the various stakeholders on what will be delivered. This is also where Change Management comes in. Help the client to understand the need that change management addresses, and suggest  creative ways that change management techniques can help to address the training of future hires and the additional training of people not included in the formal project training.
2. As an alternative to training everyone, consider ‘organic approaches’ that leverage departmental super users for propagating training within their departments. This approach done properly can also yield a secondary benefit of producing ‘product evangelists’ within the department that will culturally promote the use of the system from within. The production of computer based training (CBT’s) for training of the masses can also be a very cost effective alternative when largely repeatable tasks come into play. These can be produced much more cost effectively with current productivity tools than could be done even 3 to 5 years ago.
3. However you deliver your training, it will be more effective if it is delivered just prior to when users will be required to use the system. Typically this should be just before test, and then test should be immediately followed by the launch so that users are using the system while the skills and concepts developed in training are still fresh in their minds.

How much is too much, how much is not enough?

The short answer is that more is not always better. Users need to be able to do their jobs, nothing more, nothing less. We want to deliver the best solution, but we have to remain focused on our core objectives. If informal training with ‘Cheat Sheets’ at the users desktop is sufficient, go there. If it requires multiple language translations of End User Manuals and CBT’s with customized voice overs, go there. It’s about the right solution in the right place for the right people at the right time. It’s your job to understand and articulate what ‘right’ is.

Gene Eckhart
Program Manager
ImageSource, Inc.

Quality Management Within the ECM Project Plan

For every major ECM project being defined and planned, a Quality Management Plan should be included within the Project Plan and consider that:

• Quality planning can be, and is usually closely related with aspects of the Risk Management Plan.
• Quality planning does define the aspects of the project to which quality standards apply and how to measure and report on compliance.  Benchmarking will be accomplished in accordance with realistic expectations and the customer/stakeholder’s requirement that benefit analysis or ongoing metric comparisons be provided outside of or within the purview of the Project.
• Quality assurance is included as an application of the Project Plan to assure that an analysis of where standards apply is actually accomplished according to the processes for Quality Assurance that are identified in the Project Plan. 
• Quality control is reflected in the process used in the monitoring of project results at key points within the project and/or at relevant points within each Deliverable as appropriate. 
• Some monitoring is constant and in compliance with professionally established practices.   The actual monitoring activity, along with reporting and meetings, is planned and critical activity junctions are considered for specified attention.   Monitoring processes are closely tied with the “Communications” Plan so that a the internal customer or external organization’s Project Manager and team is apprised of project status as pre-planned or as is prudent.

Neil W. Lindsey
Project Manager / Business Analyst
ImageSource, Inc.
See me at Nexus 2009

  

Embracing Client Budgets in Meaningful Ways

Setting the “Fixed Bid” model of funding projects completely aside for a moment, let’s talk about the “Time and Materials” model of project funding in relation to project management…

In these difficult economic times, the realities are that budgets for funding projects, particularly new implementations of technology, have become more scarce. When they are available, they are often smaller than what might have typically been allocated for a given organization even 2 or 3 years ago. Many clients that might have historically embraced a fixed bid model for project funding are considering the time and materials model as an alternative for any number of reasons. Again, setting aside the wisdom of those choices, it is a reality that we are seeing more frequently.

Another importat dynamic in this equation as partners and project managers is that even in a T&M engagement, there is often a cap on the funding for the project, which may or may not be sufficient to do the project properly from a consulting vendor or a “best practices” perspective.

The unspoken choice that we have as project managers for these types of projects is whether or not we truly embrace the client’s budget in a meaningful way. The short, easy path is to simply carry on with planning and executing the project the way we would normally in a well funded fixed bid effort, and when problems do occur, to simply blame it on the fact that the client doesn’t have the funding to ‘complete’ the project properly. While this may be an accurate statement, and you may have performed due diligence in planning and execution (up to that point), in the end it serves neither yourself or the client. If your project is not completed, or is completed in haphazard manner, the benefit sought by the project is lost, the relationship with the client is damaged and no one wins.

We have to understand that our clients constraints and limitations are our own by virtue of our current relationship, and our desired long term relationship with them. Once we are truly reconciled to that fact, we should seek ways to meaningfully embrace the budget to accomplish the overall goals and objectives of the project. Consider the following possibilities:

1) Have open and honest dialogues with the project sponsor and key stakeholders about the potential shortfalls in the budget. The message that you want to communicate should be clear. You both need to have a realistic understanding of the limitations of the budget. That being said, they should know that you are conciously and proactively working with them to find creative ways to make it work for both parties within those limitations. By setting these expectations properly, everyone will be more engaged in the process.

2) Fully assess the internal resources that your client can make available for the project. Be creative in how you engage these resources. Be willing to stretch their normal experience boundaries and give them a growth opportunity on the project. Their growth opportunity if properly managed can be an effective way to complete necessary tasks and to take vital project dollars for your teams and use them more strategically in areas of the project (e.g. development) that are more important to the end game.

3) Work with your end users to figure out creative ways to address training. Be open to models other than conventional classroom training which might require significant time (and expense) to develop courseware and curriculum. Consider rapid development of “Cheat Sheets” focused only on the specfic tasks that users will need to complete their jobs. Consider incorporating ‘train-the-trainer’ models into the customers Change Management plan.

4) Be thoughtul when developing your QA\Test plans. Be open and flexible as you work closely with the stakeholders and end users to determine what the true success and acceptance criteria should be. It’s easy, particularly with software development projects, to spend a large amount of time and budget on properly performing Quality Assurance, System Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing. Seek to find the balance between the overall budget of the project, the anticipated ROI for the customer, and what is reasonable and prudent given the technical complexity of the software that is being developed. This is also an area where the first item comes into play. If you are proactive in engaging client resources early on in the project, you may be able to turn a large part of this effort over to them, and help to reduce the budget.

5) Be diligent in recognizing the difference between genuinely flushing issues out in discovery, and eating up project dollars while your team sits and watches clients sort out their internal decisions and differences. Don’t get caught up in internal politics that can consume large amounts of time and budget with meetings that don’t necessarily require your attendance or participation.

Again, it’s easy to say, “The client didn’t have enough money to do it properly”, particularly if you have done ‘good work’ on the project. The scenario where everybody wins is when you creatively work together and find ways to complete the project successfully, and meet the budgetary constraints of the project by thoughtful planning, management and leveraging the client staff and end users in a manner that gives them opportunities for growth and a deeper sense of ownership of the solution.

Gene Eckhart

Program Manager

ImageSource, Inc.

Basics of Consulting for the ECM Project

Many organizations look for expert assistance in a quest to justify, plan, and develop the concepts for an Enterprise Content Management system (ECM) or smaller departmental system using this technology.  A provider of these services needs to have demonstrated expertise regarding consulting services focused on the application of the entire breadth of the disciplines associated with Enterprise Content Management.  General business process or management consultants seldom have the experience necessary to provide the requisite resources.  The solutions addressed by the consultation project need to focus each client’s objectives and how they may have to be addressed by the professional application of a combination of:

• Document Management
• Document Imaging / Image Management
• Digital and Physical Records Management
• Digital Asset Management
• Business Process Management and Workflow
• Reports Management (ERM / COLD)
• Content Addressable Storage
• eForms Design, Library management & business processes
• Legacy system and database integration for data sharing (i.e. SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft)
• Legacy system integration for image enablement of third party applications
• Digital signatures and data encryption
• Large Document Viewing Enhancements
• Data capture technologies & custom document and data capture management
• OCR/ICR/OMR & bar code reading
• Data capture from Digital forms and Web forms
• Web Publishing & Content Management
• Web based information delivery systems
• Network Fax Systems and capture
• Collaborative Portals and resources
• File conversion, document migration, and scanning services
• Application Development and Programming Services for Custom Requirements

Consultants need to be able to actively provide expert participation and guidance in analysis to determine requirements/objectives, develop and validate goals and expectations, and apply capabilities of technology for application concepts, business processes, and design at the workgroup, departmental, and enterprise requirement levels per objectives. 

Consultants need to provide resources to advise and direct on project aspects such as technical design specification for hardware, ECM software platforms and components, the network infrastructure, conversion and migration of document information, the training program and facilities to be utilized. 

A consultant’s roll can consider numerous other ECM specific factors such as performance standards, operational and functional objectives, ROI analysis, Change Management considerations, and others which frequently need to be addressed, researched, analyzed, documented, and presented to the client when . 

ECM Consulting Services should also be able to address and provide guidance on the following when generating documentation to the client in the form of a Consultant Report, a Project Charter, and/or a subsequent full Project Plan with design detail:

• Current process documents and flows of work
• Project Scope Planning, Definition, and Management
• Definitions – Process Re-engineering to Technical Opportunities
• Project Deliverables Definition
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) at the Project Plan level
• Conversion and Migration Services Requirements – Deliverables
• Standard and Advanced Training Curriculum Planning and Management
• Quality Control Strategies and Planning
• Project Cost Estimating Costing

Application Design for Project Standard Deliverables as well as Architecture Engineering Analysis and recommendations.  These can include conceptual to detailed Design for standard and custom system components and design details for:

• system configuration, and all standard software modules
• document/image capture including information capture considerations for workflows and business processes
• planning, design, and development for web-based resources
• interfaces and integrations with legacy systems as required by objectives
• Activity Definition, Sequencing, and Predication Planning
• Risk Identification and Management Planning
• Duration Estimation with Project Schedule Development and Control (Microsoft Project) when developing Project Plan level strategies plans.
• Project Team Development and Management with Resource Planning
• Communications, Information Distribution, and Performance Report Planning

The consulting organization may bring multiple experts to guide and participate with the client in the discovery and analysis process. Consultants, no matter what their expertise in a particular vertical application, should remain open to a client’s specific goals and interests and not automatically apply past experiences to the specifics of what solution a new client will need.  There should be an initial concentration on specifically defining business challenges, phased implementation priorities, and evaluations of the best opportunities for initial success. This process leads to business solutions that integrate with a client’s standing technology investment and unique business culture, and result in real returns if managed professionally.

Find out more about ECM Strategies and Project Planning at NEXUS 2009

Neil W. Lindsey, Project Manager
ImageSource, Inc.
www.imagesourceinc.com

What Type of Search is Right for You?

For many functions in the organization the full text “Google” like search capability found in most document management systems may be useful.  For others, it’s not sufficient in providing the business value.  Here’s some situations that may help determine what is right for you.

A business professor once said “There are three core functions to any process… 1. Procurement of Materials 2. Conversion of Materials and 3. Distribution of those Materials.  All other functions only support these three”.  In translation, these three things can map to any function found in business for any department (Sales, HR, Information Technology etc.)  It seems that when analyzing any business process, this old adage always comes back and discussing search in the enterprise is no exception.

When looking at search it’s helpful to see both sides of these functions for document management.  Documents either “drive the process” as a core function, or documents are ”driven by the process” as in a supporting role.  The differences are not all that hard to see.  Document that drive the process are directly related to the three functions above 1. Procurement 2. Conversion and 3. Distribution.  Documents that are driven by the process may be everything else.

Vouchers, Invoices and Checks are all documents that drive Purchasing.  Service Orders and Proof of Delivery are documents that drive Operations.  Purchase Orders and Service Contracts drive sales. 

On the other side, Marketing Literature  is driven by Marketing.  Brochures are driven by Sales.  The company Calendar is driven by HR and Inventory Reports are driven by Operations.  These documents support the functions of their departments.

A less technical way to look at this dichotomy is ”gotta have that document now” and “gee, this looks like what I’m looking for”.  When designing a search architecture, this is one of the basic questions you can ask yourself.

Documents that drive the business process tend to require a discrete index field search.  This is because the user is typically looking for the one document they need, and they need it quick.  A Sales Order for a customer service representative or an Invoice for a purchasing manager.  These documents also typically already have a structured meta-data component already designed for them before the document management system is in place.  A Sales Order Number field is always generated for Sales Orders and an Invoice Number Field always has an Invoice number.  This is true before or after a document management system exists.

Documents that are driven by the process are less structured in nature.  Marketing Literature, Progress Reports and the Employee Vacation schedule to name a few.  The user is typically looking for some information that could be in one, or many of these documents.  Could an employee figure out if Memorial Day is a company holiday by finding the wrong documents to their search?  Like last years vacation schedule?  Probably so.  If this is the case, a full text content search may prove successful.

Documents that “drive the process” answer questions to a search that only that one document can satisfy.  What items were billed for Invoice # 123456?  What date was Employee #78910 hired?  Who signed for Proof of Delivery #34567?  In these cases, a discrete index field search is required.

 

John Moffitt

Systems Engineer

ImageSource, Inc.

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