I have really seen the error of my ways. No one of any significance cares about content management.
And what it really comes down to is that the community of people who do care is really just a bunch of IT people, records managers, and project managers running around and yelling that the sky is falling. But as a business user, I don’t care where my documents are or if they are declared records, just as long as I know where they are when I want to find them. And I believe I speak for the majority of users when I say: Users don’t care about where the content lives, how they are stored, or what the system of record is.
(Hel-lo….)
What users do care about is how they — and other individuals — interact with their content. Human nature takes over, and people take pride in workmanship. A user wants to know when someone edits, approves, or comments upon their work; in these instances, they are engaged; they have bought into this system. Unfortunately, however, this really isn’t what most document management implementations give them.
Say “collaboration” or “social business”, and budgets and funding start flying open. Business users do an end run around IT to buy these tools in their SaaS or Cloud formats to work better. CIOs hang their hats on big corporate collaboration projects or a successful social launch. But business users will not do an end run around IT to buy a records management tool. Nor does your average CIO stand up and say, “I improved our document retention this quarter” in the annual report.
Do you see the difference? I do; it’s crystal clear. Content management will continue to be the stuff of dark caves and sub-basements.
Here is the challenge to all of you that love enterprise content management records management, capture, etc. Make yourself relevant by making yourself invisible. That’s right — just disappear. Don’t collect any more requirements; don’t make any more plans; don’t make any more executive presentations. ECM is best when it works through other tools — within the HR system, within Research and Development, as part of an authoring system.
If I want to be successful, I will just improve the system and not make it a big deal. It is infrastructure, foundation, plumbing. Fix it, but don’t tell the users what you’re doing. They don’t care.