Best Practices in Enterprise Content Management...Best Practices in Enterprise Content Management Sponsored by The E-business evolution Content may be the once and future king, but

Special Supplement to May 2001

Andy Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Overture Article: Content, the Once and Future KingWhether it’s the documents we write or the e-mails we send or even the videos wecreate, the raw material that powers e-business is content. Always has been. Today’ssmart business managers have figured out the power in content, and its potential tocreate action. We asked the industry-leading sponsors of this white paper to share their high-altitude views of this exciting, developing space…

Mike Zimmer, IBM Corporation . . . . . 4 Enterprise Content Management is a Key Success Factor for an e-Business Infrastructure

The growth of e-business is driving organizations to manage and distribute digitalcontent, including images, computer-generated output, business documents, rich mediaand more...

Martyn Christian, FileNET . . . . . . . . 6 Using Content Management to Realize a Competitive AdvantagePundits claim that the Web levels the playing field for many businesses today. And yet,few have been able to field a truly winning proposition online...

Randy Frid and Randall Eckel, InfoImage . . . . . . . . 8 Streamlining the Decision Cycle Through Collaborative

Decision ManagementOver the last 20 years, management philosophy has shifted from “command and control” to a more distributed and enabled management philosophy...

Compaq Computer Corporation. . . . . 9 The Enterprise Information Portal and eBusinessThe rapid advance of the Internet, groupware, relational databases and search enginesallows knowledge workers to come together and share ideas and information asnever before...

Scott Warner, AccuSoft . . . . . . . . . . 10 Maximizing Corporate Bandwidth Utilization and User Satisfaction ...at the Same Time!

We are drowning in a sea of information. The challenge is to learn to swim in that sea,rather than drown in it…

Mitchell Gross, Mobius. . . . . . . . . . . 11 Bridging the Back-Office/Front-Office GapWith 75% of your organization’s information contained in unstructured formats, canyou transform it into ‘usable content?’ The problem that e-business exposes most oftenis inadequate integration...

Nick Denton, Moreover . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Rise of Web IntelligenceWe live in a market of instant information, where perception and image are increasinglylinked to stock prices and the best strategic plans can be undermined in the course of a morning...

Benjamin B. Sargent, Lionbridge . . . . 13 Multilingual Knowledge Management Empowers Global eBusinessWith the penetration of Internet technologies into global business operations, employeesat every level are collaborating across multiple geographies...

Karen Strong, Clarity . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Enterprise ProfilingDocuments play a vital role in Enterprise Content Management. Unlike other contentsources, ‘document’ creation and capture can occur at every desktop, in every process,and by every on-line application...

Bisher Abaza, eManage . . . . . . . . . . 15 Managing Email Content—Challenges and BenefitsAs more organizations embrace e-mail as their primary method of communication,most overlook the fact that e-mail contains evidence of business decisions, actions and transactions...

Best Practices in Enterprise Content Management

Sponsored by

The E-business evolutionContent may be the once and future

king, but it hasn’t always been recognizedas such. Just as row-and-column databasesystems defined the nature of businessautomation in the ‘70s and ‘80s, it can besaid that the automation of the creation,storage and delivery of a more random(call it heterogeneous, if you must) mix of

data types has only penetrated business-asset management activities over the pastdecade or less.

“Early in the evolution of e-business,the idea of integrated information sourceswas foreign,” explains Teresa Whittle,Worldwide Segment Executive for ContentManagement, IBM. “The realization thatthere are these incredible informationsources, mostly in non-traditional forms,at our disposal if we could just get at them... that realization really changed the roleof content.”

Whittle continues, “You can draw acomplete parallel analogy to database sys-tems. At first we had desktop file systemsscattered all over. And this person couldn’tuse my file, and I couldn’t get to anotherperson’s data. We solved that problem withuniversally accessible, centralized systems.I see the exact same thing happening now

with all our other digital assets, and viewcontent management as an extension ofdatabase management.”

Whittle goes on to list the thingswe’ve learned from the history of data-base management: “One, islands of datashould be avoided; two, the need to sup-port multiple platforms and multipleoperating systems when we’re planninginfrastructure; and three, making thosevarious platforms and file types seamlessto the web interface is key.”

Sounds familiar. But however muchdéjà vu one may sense in this latest evolu-tionary stage, there is something that setscontent management apart from previousinformation management initiatives: Content,the king, serves many masters.

An example is “zero latency,” a termfamiliar to hardware geeks as a measure-ment related to computer hard drives butre-defined by Compaq as a term of enter-prise efficiency. Instant access to all of anenterprise’s many sources of business intel-ligence allows it to respond proactively toany stimuli sensed from any of the enter-prise’s points of awareness. Call it appliedbusiness intelligence.

“Take customer relationship manage-ment (CRM) as an example,” explains

Adrian Kasbergen, Director, Messaging& Collaborative Solutions, Enterprise &Mid-Market Solutions, Compaq ComputerCorporation. “In the traditional sense, itjust means having the ability to get tocustomer information and use it to yourbenefit.” But why stop there? What if youcould direct the decision-making andaction-taking process based on a changeor reversal in the expected course of acustomer relationship? “The simple exam-ple is a customer who suddenly stops ordrastically reduces ordering the usualamount of product. This informationshould be, first, identified as importantand then delivered to the sales force,”says Kasbergen. “CRM is then no longera single-employee-to-single-customerapplication.”

Nope. It’s much more significant; it’s acomplete business solution that is self-aware,

Special Supplement to

Content, the Once and Future KingEnterprise Content Management emerges as the key factor in employee empowerment

In his opening comments at a Web-market-ing conference last year, Jesse Kornbluth—editorial director for America Online andthus arguably the most-read content guy inthe wired world—leaned into the micro-phone and said quietly: “I propose that wefind whoever coined the term content andkick the living **** out of them.”

Funny line. The 500-or-so Web exec-types in the room roared with laughter,and approval.

But I’m not sure why. There are lots oftrite business terms that are far more regu-larly abused and misunderstood (if youdon’t believe me, take the term “knowl-edge” out for a spin sometime).

It’s relatively easy: Content is the digi-tal stuff we use everyday in our work livesto sell and service, help and maintain ourcustomers, our partners and ourselves.Content is the evidence of what we do.Carl Sagan said about life on Earth, “Weare star-stuff.” In our business lives, we arecontent-stuff.

So it stands to reason that “content”—the documents, messages, collaborationsand results—should emerge at the topof management’s to-do list. Because, asDavid Weinberger likes to point out, that’swhat we do: We Manage Things. “If itmoves, manage it” is the bumper stickerfor the age.

But just exactly how should we man-age our most precious items of corporateproperty. And more importantly ... justexactly why?

“Sure, the Web has been a great cata-lyst, but I don’t think it has fundamentallychanged the nature of the beast,” insistsMartyn Christian, Senior Vice President,Applications and Corporate Marketing forFileNET Corporation. “Whether contentcomes over the Web or the U.S. mail isirrelevant; content IS the feeder mecha-nism for all business processes. Andalways has been.”

May 2001S2

"The realization that there are incredible

information sources at our disposal if we

could just get at them...that realization

really changed the role of content."

—Teresa Whittle, IBM

By Andy Moore

Special Supplement to May 2001 S3

that directs decision-making and forcesaction. Something database-, document-,image-, bla bla- management never wasand could never be. And there, my friends,is the difference.

(There’s actually another huge differ-ence between content as we now under-stand it and good ole fashioned data: NewWeb authoring and metadata technologiesallow content to be created in such a waythat it can be pre-disposed to cross-depart-mental use. It can be made for versatilitywith planning aforethought, not as an after-the-fact kludge. With that kind of long-viewapplied to the creation, capture and mainte-nance of enterprise content, the future forits application is exciting indeed.)

Employees and Empowerment

Allow your minds to continue expand-ing for a moment, while we talk a littleabout decision-making. I say you couldmake the exactly correct decision everytime, every day, provided you had ... what?The correct information? Yep. The experi-ence of smart people to advise you? Uh-huh.And all the time in the world to think aboutit? Bingo.

But you don’t.“Every day, employees are tasked with

making decisions, little and big. Do I callthis customer? Should I offer this discount?Etc., etc.,” Randall Eckel, President andCEO of InfoImage explains. “At the sametime, managers have been trying to pushdecision-making down to the workers, forall the right efficiency reasons. But the ITtools are aimed at the top of the organiza-tion, and the folks who have to make thedecisions don’t have them.”

Eckel says, “The people who have thefacts don’t have the tools. The people whohave the tools (which tend to address trans-actional and logistical business functionsbecause, hey, that’s where the money is)don’t have the facts ... or at least a differentset of facts.

“So how do we solve this problem?” asksEckel, rhetorically, since his team decisionmanagement products are designed to dojust that.

Take a wider view, that’s how. Businessintelligence, and even so-called knowledgemanagement, tools tend to be individuallyfocused. I can produce reports ... for me. Ican do decision analysis ... for me.

“The problem is that decisions are gatedby time. I have 30 seconds, a minute,maybe an hour to make a decision,” saysEckel. And if we’ve learned anything aboutwinning, when we’re in knowledge-basedenterprises, bedeviled with geographical-ly dispersed teams, challenged with stu-pidly fast Internet time, well ... let’s just

say the immunity idol is probably notgoing home with our tribe tonight.

Now what?

So what advice can we get? There’s alot, actually. And the news is pretty hopefulfor a change.

“It’s a promising time,” declares AnoopGarg, Director, Enterprise Ready MicrosoftPractice Group, Compaq Global Services.“Yes, it depends on perseverance andfinding some successes, but I think thosedays will come. The next level of com-petitive advantage will come from mak-ing employees more effective. Peoplewill see that.”

IBM’s Teresa Whittle sees it as an“enabling” evolution ... you have to do onething before you do the next, but at least thepath is clear: “Knowledge management hasbecome a front-burner issue. And the great-est challenge to KM is the content manage-ment piece.

“At the base is a view of a fundamentalcontent repository that manages all differentforms of content,” says Whittle. “Digitaldocuments, audio, video ... having that sin-gle repository is critical to any portal orKM infrastructure...

“...BUT,” she continues (there’s always a“but”), “realistically, when there are acqui-sitions and departmental solutions getdeployed, there are bound to be separatesources and repositories. And the problemfor decision makers is ‘where do I get theinformation I need?’ Well, that ‘where togo’ question brings up search technologyand how critical that is.”

Which leads us to portals. Attempts toinstitute specialized and efficient viewsinto vast corporate and external informa-tion sources through portals is worthy ofanother white paper, which (surprise, sur-prise) is already under way. For now, we’llremain satisfied with a most intriguingview of portals that is held by Compaq’sAdrian Kasbergen: “Portals are not a fullsolution, but they’re better than nothing.Think of portals as a ‘leading indicator:’if your employees are demanding a cus-tomized desktop view into information inorder to do their jobs better, that shouldtell you and your IT management whereand how to invest your next round of tech-nology dollars.”

Just what you needed...someone tellingyou—again—where to spend money. Butthe inescapable truth is: you need to.There are opposing schools of thought onthis. You can choose to attack departmen-tal, single-function business problems,but you risk creating yet another impene-trable information silo. Or you can per-form drastic, open-heart surgery on your

entire process...but you better have thestomach for it.

Best advice? Take a good, long cold-eyed look at your business problems andopportunities. Think about how you wouldfinish this sentence: “Everything in mybusiness would be great if we could only ...”

In other words, figure out what, exact-ly, it is you’re trying to solve. Then call inthe cavalry.

Advice, and consent

How important strategic assistance isto those who are about to deploy contentmanagement technologies cannot be over-stressed. Of the dozen or so people I inter-viewed and whose work I researched forthis paper, all agreed: we are in earlyadopter times. “It’s a logical step to accom-plish B2B interactivity through Web con-tent management, but is anyone doing it?”asks FileNET’s Martyn Christian. “Not thatmuch. Supply chain is a mature idea to themanufacturing space, but for banks andfinancial services institutions ... it’s veryforeign so far.”

Off-the-shelf solutions do not exist, tomuch of a practical extent, and the engage-ment of a trusted advisor is inevitable. Andthat’s not a bad thing.

“Most customers are focused on specif-ic point solutions (such as CRM, whichhands-down is the favorite function inwhich to apply content management tech-nologies today), even though that’s aslow and evolutionary process,” saysCompaq’s Anoop Garg. “We try, throughour professional services group, to bringa broader view, and show the overallarchitecture necessary for total employeeempowerment. Because that’s what it’sall about.”

And that’s what this paper is all about.The articles here range from the ratherexotic (multilingual translation on the fly, aglobal must-have) to the wisely cautious(preventing the financial damage caused bycorporate and Wall Street rumors) to thejust plain helpful (what do I do now?!?!).

It is with pride and hope that we presentthis collection of deliberate and powerfulessays. Pride, in our association with theauthors and their colleagues; and hope, thatthe words you read can accomplish ourgoal of helping you create a world-classbusiness organization. ❚

Andy Moore is chair of this White Paper series and former editorof KMWorld Magazine.With 20 years in senior editorial positions in thetechnical, trade and business automation press, Moore has coveredtechnology advancements in networking, telecom, business produc-tivity and process improvement from just about every angle. He canbe contacted at [email protected] and welcomes feedbackand conversation.

(IDM) market, the media asset management(MAM) market, and the web contentmanagement market. Enterprise ContentManagement is a key component of an

e-business infrastructure and IBM ContentManager provides a full range of capabilitiesto capture, manage and distribute any kindof content, and is uniquely capable of han-dling all three types of applications.

“Simply put, Enterprise ContentManagement is viewed as the heart of e-business, “ says Marcel van Hulle, Director,

Worldwide Content Management Sales,IBM. “Why? Because you want your cus-tomers and employees to have seamlessaccess to your company, and this requiresmanaging all types of content and deliver-ing it in a personalized way. IBM accom-plishes this with tight integration betweenIBM Content Manager and the WebSphereebusiness platform with partners’ webauthoring tools. With an IBM infrastructure,

the same content in CRM or ERP businessapplications can be delivered to web sitesfor the most up-to-date accurate informa-tion, without the need for multiple copies.This is enterprise content management forsuccessful e-business deployment.”

IBM provides the core infrastructuresoftware (IBM Content Manager, IBMEnterprise Information Portal (EIP), IBMWebSphere ebusiness platform, and IBMMQSeries Workflow) to support the needsof all three content management areas. Arich layer of API’s enables partners tobuild or integrate applications on top ofthis middleware.

IBM Content Manager is an end-to-end product designed to electronicallymanage, protect and share critical businessinformation, in any format, includingXML and HTML. IBM Content Manageris the only offering of its kind, providing asingle, consistent, open programminginterface that enables rapid applicationdevelopment with unparalleled scalabilityand flexibility.

IBM EIP provides information integra-tion so that companies can have a singlepoint of access to multiple informationrepositories throughout the enterprise andbeyond. The IBM WebSphere platform fore-business provides tools for personaliza-tion and web site analysis for creating avaluable end user experience. For WebContent Management, IBM plans to part-ner with multiple companies to provide theweb authoring tools for assembling,


Enterprise ContentManagement is a KeySuccess Factor for an e-Business Infrastructure

By Mike Zimmer, Worldwide Marketing Manager, IBM Corporation

The growth of e-business is drivingorganizations to manage and distributedigital content, including images, comput-er-generated output, business documents,

rich media and more. Many people believethat more than 85% of today’s businessinformation resides in sources beyond tra-ditional databases.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM)is a new market formed by the convergenceof several existing markets including the tra-ditional integrated document management

May 2001S4

"ECM is the the heart of

e-business. You want your

customers and employees

to have seamless access

to your company."


approving and publishing content to websites, linked to IBM Content Manager forleveraging information throughout theenterprise.

Archiving for mySAP and Lotus DominoIBM Content Manager also provides

capabilities to archive and retrieve contentfrom ERP and E-mail systems. ContentManager allows mySAP users to archiveinactive SAP data into Content Managerand access print lists (reports), invoices,images, and other documents stored inContent Manager directly from their SAPGUI. Archiving of data and objects in anSAP environment can improve system per-formance and user response times, whilegiving mySAP users fast access to the doc-uments that support their mySAP applica-tions and significantly improving their pro-ductivity and customer service.

Lotus Domino customers can archive e-mails, attachments, and other Notes docu-ments in Content Manager. The volume ofe-mail within and between organizationshas literally exploded. Compounding thesituation is the content of the e-mails.Critical business information, that oncewas on paper and mailed, filed, and stored,is now routinely sent via e-mail. Space-hungry attachments, a feature that userslove, are consuming disk space at an accel-erated rate. Archiving e-mail can reduceoverall e-mail infrastructure costs, improvesystem performance, and provide a criticalaudit trail for this information.

Customer Relationship Management

An Enterprise Content Managementsystem is particularly critical to Customer

Relationship Management solutions. IBMhas teamed with Siebel Systems, Inc., theworld’s leading provider of e-businessapplications software, to increase produc-tivity of call centers by integrating IBM’sContent Manager with Siebel Call Center.The integrated solution can cut responsetimes and increase productivity at customercall centers by enabling call center repre-sentatives to access customer bills, corre-spondences and transactions regardless ofthe format in which they originated.

Tryg-Baltica, one of Denmark’s largestinsurance companies and the third largestpurveyor of life and pension productsworldwide, implemented a solution fromIBM and Siebel Systems to provide morepersonalized service to its customers, giv-ing representatives faster and more com-plete access to policies, agreements, andclaims status.

“Insurance customers demand easy andimmediate access to personalized service,”says Carsten Dalsgaard, director of develop-ment, Tryg-Baltica. “To continue to improveour ability to meet this demand, we havemade significant investments in CustomerRelationship Management (CRM) sys-tems. We chose products from SiebelSystems and IBM, the world’s two lead-ing e-business software vendors. OurCRM project will deliver a technologicalquantum leap that will include electronicdocument management, elimination ofunnecessary case processing steps, andthe first step towards web-based cus-tomer service.”

e-Bill/e-Statement PresentmentAnother key application for Content

Management technology is electronicbill (e-Bill) and electronic statement (e-Statement) presentment. IBM ContentManager OnDemand excels at capturing,

archiving and presenting (via the web)large volumes of bill, statements,invoices, and other transactional docu-ments. This enables customer self-serv-ice and when combined with applica-tions from IBM Business Partners canalso provide a total solution for elec-tronic payment as well.

AT&T Corp., a leading global voice anddata communications company, partneredwith IBM and CheckFree Corporation toextend its internal bill presentment solution

to its small business customers, allowingthem to interactively manage their bills andstatements online. The company created anumber of applications targeted at improv-ing customer service for its small businesscustomers, including e-bill presentmentand, more recently, online bill payment.The initial results of the AT&T SmallBusiness Center show improved customerself-service and satisfaction. Tools are nowat the fingertips of the small businessowner and quantifiable added revenueshave been achieved through promise-to-pay commitments from online customers.AT&T is currently working on extendingits bill presentment solution with easyonline payment choices for its small busi-ness customers.

Whether the technology derives fromintegrated document management, webcontent management, or media assetmanagement, IBM provides the infra-structure and integration for key e-busi-ness applications. ❚

IBM CorporationIBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with

80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM Softwareoffers the widest range of applications,middleware and operating sys-tems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to takefull advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to getmore information about IBM Content Management Software is by visiting our home page at www.ibm.com/software/data/cm

"The integrated solution can cut

response times and increase productivity

at customer call centers."

"Tools are now at the

fingertips of the

small business owner

and quantifiable added

revenues have been achieved."

as simple as an approval of certain docu-ments prior to posting them on the Web,like a new employee personnel policy oran updated price list, or as complex asevaluating the risk of underwriting a largecorporate insurance policy. These busi-ness processes represent critical corpo-rate assets for organizations, and the Weballows them to extend these processes toengage directly with their partners andconsumers.

Managing content and processes onlineare the cornerstones of high-performance,personalized Web sites and most, if not all,eBusiness applications.

End-to-EndIt is not enough to manage content and

processes in select areas of an organization.Successful eBusiness initiatives demon-strate end-to-end planning. An end-to-endContent Management capability involveseverything from the back-end content repos-itories to the presentation of that contentwithin a Web browser. Across the enterprise,this means addressing the demands for cap-ture, creation and management of multipledata types, streamlined editorial/approvalprocesses, publishing processes to multipledistribution channels, and total documentlife-cycle management. End-to-end alsomeans integrating processes between func-tions within the business and then extendingprocesses beyond the corporate firewall tovendors, partners, and customers.

Mission CriticalAs mentioned earlier, those at the top of

the slope are transforming their industries.The business transformation potential ofeBusiness is contingent on how well thebusiness manages its mission-critical con-tent and processes on both sides of thecommerce chain.

On the supply side, Content Managementis a vital component for mission-criticaleBusiness initiatives such as EnterpriseResource Planning, Supply Chain Manage-ment, and B2B commerce activities. With

end-to-end Content Management capabili-ties, businesses can integrate with their ven-dors and suppliers. This leads to automatingtransactions and better managing theresources involved in buying, making, andmoving products and services.

On the service side, Content Manage-ment is a vital component of CustomerRelationship Management (CRM). AsCRM becomes a mission-critical initiativeshared across the different functions ofSales, Marketing, and Customer Service,the content and processes that drive trans-actions and manage the customer relation-ship need to integrate across those func-tions. With end-to-end Content Manage-ment capabilities, businesses can integratethe different functions that touch the cus-tomer and better manage each and everycustomer relationship, from acquisition toongoing service.

An end-to-end Content Managementsolution that is capable of handling mis-sion-critical content and processes requiresa best-of-breed approach. In order tounderstand what best-of-breed approachis right for you, start by defining your spe-cific requirements.

Defining Content ManagementRequirements

A well-structured end-to-end ContentManagement capability is not easy toachieve. There are numerous challengesbusinesses need to overcome as they devel-op their capabilities. GartnerGroup1 statesthat enterprises that fail to recognize appro-priate Content Management requirementswill suffer numerous implications, rangingfrom lower efficiency to massive legal lia-bility. To assist in defining requirements,they identified different segments along theconsideration path:

Enterprise Internal Content Manage-ment: the process for integrating digitized


Using ContentManagement to Realize a Competitive Advantage

Pundits claim that the Web “levels theplaying field” for many businesses today.And yet, few have been able to field a trulywinning proposition online. Those thathave are fundamentally changing theindustries in which they compete—the oth-ers have yet to realize the promises andpotential of eBusiness.

The level playing field is, in fact, notlevel at all—there is actually a steep slope.How well a company manages its contentand its processes online dictates wherethey are on the slope—rising to the top orsliding to the bottom.

Defining Content ManagementGartnerGroup explains that “content

management is an ambiguous phrase withmeanings that vary depending on what auser may need or a vendor may offer.”1

Yet, no matter how it is defined, all agreethat Content Management is and will con-tinue to be a critical success factor forimplementing any eBusiness applicationthat is content and/or process centric. As astarting point, it is important to under-stand the two fundamental componentsthat are the essence of anyone’s defini-tion of Content Management.

ContentThe Web has permanently altered the

way organizations communicate with theircustomers, employees, and business part-ners. We still communicate informationwith sound, pictures, and the written word,but in the digital economy, this informationis changed and re-used faster than everbefore. Organizations must keep up withthe modifications of Web content for com-petitive, contractual, financial, and evenlegal reasons.

ProcessMuch of the content that organizations

need to provide to their customers,employees, and business partners is partof a business process. The process can be

May 2001S6

By Martyn Christian, Senior Vice President, Corporate Marketing, FileNET

Lee Roberts, CEO andChairman of FileNET, joinedthe company as presidentand COO in May 1997 andwas named CEO in April1998 and chairman inDecember 2000. He hasmade his mark with anumber of initiatives aimedat leveraging FileNET’sextensive customer base,

global marketing presence and vast research anddevelopment resources. His innovations include theglobalization of FileNET’s sales, marketing and supportorganizations to build on the company’s presence in morethan 92 countries. Roberts joined FileNET after 20 years atIBM in a variety of sales, marketing, and productmanagement and general management roles.

Lee Roberts


data of multiple types, in multiple formatsand from multiple sources, so that userscan access a cohesive set of relevant infor-mation about a topic. This includes infor-mation internal to the business as well asinformation the business needs to driveexternal activities.

Web Site Content Management: thecreation, organization, delivery, and main-tenance of non-transactional Web site-ori-ented content.

eBusiness Transactional Content Man-agement: The content relevant to a B2B orB2C customer transaction along with theset of business rules used to process thetransaction.

Shared Content Management: theprocesses that allow shared information to bemanaged and accessed jointly. This involvesthe management of the document life cyclealong with robust search capabilities.

Note that the considerations set forth byGartner include both content and processissues. There are other sources that define asimilar Content Management considerationpath. For instance, Meta Group classifiesthe content and process requirements andconsiderations into several major cate-gories including:◆ Content Delivery/Personalization◆ Site Development/Management◆ Document Life Cycle◆ Authoring◆ Commerce

ConclusioneBusiness initiatives promise great

opportunities for operations of all sizesthroughout different industries. Success formany will be contingent upon how wellthey manage their content and processesonline today and create a solution that cancarry the load in a future that will surely bemore complex and sophisticated.

Case Study: Bellagio ResortThe Bellagio Resort demonstrates how

content management can be successfullyapplied to a function every company mustmanage—Human Resources.

In front of the Bellagio Hotel in LasVegas, more than a thousand sparklingfountains surge skyward in a dazzlingdance of water, music and light. A differentkind of choreography—but even moreintricate—was required behind the hotel’smajestic facade in 1998. The BellagioResort, subsidiary of MGM Mirage, wasabout to open and more than 10,000 newemployees needed to be hired.

The ChallengeArte Nathan, vice president of Human

Resources for the Bellagio Hotel, had pre-

viously hired armies of employees to opennew resorts in Las Vegas. He knew fromexperience that paper job applicationswould be ineffective—approximately 10%of them would be lost. And scanning in thehandwritten applications would only resultin unreadable files. Nathan wanted a paper-less system that would not require a largehuman resources staff just to key in data.

“Then it dawned on me that after I hiredthe employees, I didn’t want to print out10,000 applications to store in 10,000paper jacket file folders. So I decided weneeded completely electronic personnelfiles,” said Nathan. The project then tookon an even greater dimension.

The FileNET SolutionAfter reviewing other solutions, Nathan

realized that only FileNET’s Panagon eProcessManagement products provided the Web-based, open architecture they would need as thebasis for the system. Nathan partneredwith Western Office Systems, a FileNETValueNET® partner to tailor Panagon to fitBellagio’s needs. Western Office Systemdesigned the implementation and continuesto support it. “We started with the out-of-the-box functionality from FileNET andfully customized it to deliver the exact fea-tures that Mr. Nathan and his staff needed,”said Ray Hughes, general manager ofWestern Office Systems.

In the first phase of implementation, acustom-developed applicant tracking sys-tem was used to capture data from morethan 75,000 job applicants in five months.Using a simple ATM-style format, jobapplicants entered their own data whenapplying for positions. The interface wasmodified so it would be easy for all appli-cants to use, especially those who don’ttraditionally use computers.

The next goal was even more complex—to create a completely paperless humanresources infrastructure. This meant settingup a system to make more than half a millionelectronic documents accessible to Bellagio’smanagers via the corporate intranet.

The resulting system takes a Web-basedapproach to HR management. Active serverpages (ASP) are displayed via a custom-made browser that interfaces with PanagonContent Services. Thanks to Panagon’s openarchitecture, it also leverages the hierarchicalsecurity features in Bellagio’s legacy AS/400-based system. Finally, the new system allowsthe retrieval of data residing on disparate plat-forms, such as the AS/400, Windows NT andSQL Server.

Bellagio managers can now access dataon more than 10,200 personnel files usinga common Web interface. Once a managerlogs on, “look-down” security featureslimit his access to his employees’ files only.Each file contains a photo ID and employ-ee signature to verify the employee’s iden-

tity. Nearly every form, from the interviewrating form to the job offer card, existselectronically. The work history of eachemployee is captured, and the system eventracks who has reviewed the file and when.

Yet Bellagio’s system delivers muchmore than data access. It helps supervisorsperform all aspects of HR managementfaster and more efficiently, without gener-ating paper forms. The system is used toverify and change employee status, workshifts, attendance, vacation schedules,commendations, and more. Managers canpost electronic “sticky” notes on any fileto keep all information in one place.Bellagio has even automated its PersonnelAction Notice, which is used to initiateany action such as wage changes, shiftchanges, promotions and more. This elec-tronic form is routed via email, approvedelectronically by supervisors, and postedand filed automatically.

In short, the new Human Resources sys-tem has delivered everything Nathan had onhis wish list—and more. “If you can dream it,you can do it with FileNET,” said Nathan. “Itisn’t hard to do.”

The Bottom LineTo help Bellagio Resort hire staff for its

grand opening, FileNET’s solution:◆ Captured more than 75,000 job applica-

tions in five months.◆ Eliminated the need for 15 human

resources personnel to input the data.◆ Resulted in the near-paperless hiring of

10,0000 new employees.

The new Panagon Human Resourcessystem now in place has:◆ Saved the Human Resources operation

approximately $1 million in the resort’sfirst 14 months in time, staff and admin-istrative costs.

◆ Replaced paper files, which would con-tain an average of 50-60 documentseach, with electronic files, saving stor-age and retrieval costs.

◆ Provided supervisors with all the infor-mation and tools they need to performtheir management duties more efficiently.

◆ Decreased input errors by HumanResources personnel, and freed managersfrom continually retrieving existing dataand keying it in.

◆ Shortened the processing time of per-sonnel actions by enabling electronicrouting, approval, posting and filingof forms. ❚

1The GartnerGroup Framework for Content Management,January 28, 2000

FileNET delivers the Substance Behind eBusiness(™) by optimiz-ing an organization’s Web-based business processes and associatedcontent to deliver a competitive advantage, maximum efficiency andincreased revenue.

phases, and little time is spent on the actu-al decision and even less for action.

The Decision NetworkWhen knowledge workers make deci-

sions, they reach out to a network of peoplewho they believe possess relevant informa-tion and/or experience. This network ofexperience usually does not reflect thehierarchical way in which organizationsfunction, but instead cuts horizontally ordiagonally across an organization. The sizeand shape of users’ decision networks areusually limited by span (who do I knowthat can help?), technology (how do I col-laborate with them?), and experience (haveI gone down this path before?).

Unfortunately, when time is the limitingfactor in decision-making, using the exist-ing non-integrated tools that are at the dis-posal of most knowledge workers (phone,fax, e-mail and meetings) makes movingthrough the decision cycle a very slow andinefficient process.

Collaborative Decision Management—Optimizing Decision-making Across the Enterprise

A solution is now available that solvesthis problem. It represents the confluenceof collaborative software, knowledge man-agement methodologies and business intel-ligence solutions—in other words, collabo-rative decision management. At the centerof this solution is a software applicationcalled an enterprise decision portal. Anenterprise decision portal creates a decisionworkspace that brings together all theinformation and experience users need tomake fast, quality decisions.

Information and experience from acrossthe organization are now synchronizedaround a specific task, project or process.These workspaces can be shared across thedecision network regardless of location ortime zone. Relevant information is nowdelivered to knowledge workers as opposedto discovered by them.

To see how a decision portal improves theproductivity of decision-making, let’s examinehow it affects each step in the decision cycle.

Information GatheringDelivering relevant information is made

possible by technology that creates a multi-dimensional meta-data model of the infor-mation and experience within a business.This allows users to access the informationvia easy-to-use taxonomies. Meta-data, ordata about data, resident in the decisionportal allows for navigation to informationwithout actually searching the informationitself. A meta-data repository acts like adirectory to information stored in therecesses of the organization or Internet.By exploring or searching the directory,response time is greatly improved andknowledge workers no longer have to knowwhere to look for data.

Collaboration and ExperienceWhile it is important to have relevant

information for decision-making, whatreally contributes to great decisions is expe-rience. Being able to identify and accessindividuals with relevant experience andfacts results in efficient and effective deci-sions. Decision portals create this oppor-tunity by both identifying relevant expertsand then making it easy to share a decisionworkspace with them.

The Streamlined Decision CycleDecision portals fundamentally change

the way knowledge workers approachdecision-making processes. Their tangiblebenefit is to speed the information gather-ing and collaboration processes so thatknowledge workers can bring significantlymore information and experience to bear,as well as spend more time in the “deci-sion” step of the process. Decision portalsprovide the technology to truly decentral-ize and optimize the decision-makingprocess throughout an enterprise and theextended enterprise. ❚


Streamlining the Decision Cycle ThroughCollaborative Decision Management

Over the last 20 years, managementphilosophy has shifted dramatically fromcommand and control organizationalmethodologies that focused all decision-making at the top of the organization, to amore distributed and enabled managementphilosophy that pushes decision-making tothe front line through “empowered”knowledge workers. Unfortunately, theinformation systems deployed through-out the organization don’t fully support“empowered” knowledge workers.

The hierarchical organizational model ofthe command and control era greatly influ-enced the deployment of business automa-tion systems. Even today, process-improvingtransaction-oriented systems are deployeddepartment by department. These applica-tions are designed to improve the depart-mental front- and back-office processes.However, decision-support systems areaimed only at the top of the organization. Inother words, decision-making informationflows upward, and decisions (and theiraccompanying instructions) flow downward.

What is needed is an application thatimproves the productivity of the decisionprocess throughout an organization, withemphasis on improving the process forfront-line knowledge workers. To under-stand how a software application canimprove the productivity of the decisionprocess, we need to understand moreabout this process. Let’s explore twoimportant concepts—the “decision cycle”(the process used by knowledge workersto make a decision) and the “decisionnetwork” (the network of people knowl-edge workers reach out to for informationand experience).

The Decision CycleIn its most basic form, the decision

cycle involves gathering relevant informa-tion, analysis of that information, collabo-ration for opinion and insight, making thedecision, and taking action. Most decisionsare constrained by time. There is a finiteamount of time that can be spent in eachstep of the decision process. Researchshows that almost 80% of the time current-ly spent in the decision cycle is in theinformation-gathering and collaboration

May 2001S8

By Randy Frid, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, and

Randall Eckel, President and Chief Executive Officer, InfoImage

Randall W. Eckel

President and Chief Executive Officer

Randall W. Eckel, a co-founder of InfoImage, has beenPresident and Chief Executive Officer of InfoImageand a member of the Board of Directors since 1992.Mr. Eckel is a recognized expert in collaborative andknowledge management software solutions and isregularly quoted in trade and business publications.


In eBusiness, the EIP helps achievecompetitive advantage by providing aframework on which to build KM prac-tices. KM, in turn, supplies the intelligencefor the decision-making and rapid actionthat enable Customer Relationship Man-agement (CRM) and Global Value Chain(GVC) activity to be effective in support ofeBusiness. Working in close harmony, KM,CRM, and GVC help an eBusiness surviveand grow.

KM involves collaboration, and the EIP isproving to be a good tool for it. The greaterthe quality and consistency of exchangeamong workers in the eBusiness, the greaterthe likelihood that the eBusiness will achieveanother vital goal, that of fostering innovation.

The following sections discuss typicalsteps in the implementation of EIPs.

EIP AssessmentTo prepare a successful portal strategy,

it is advisable to engage a systems integra-tor to evaluate the benefits of implementingan EIP to achieve your business objectives.This will help you identify how a singlepoint of access to information and applica-tions will enhance your knowledge work-ers’ productivity. It will enable you to:◆ Understand the benefits of a portal solution.◆ Validate and define the portal imple-

mentation that will complement yourbusiness requirements.

◆ Identify the process involved in designingand implementing a corporate portal.

EIP Planning and DesignYou should develop a blueprint for your

portal implementation that is practical,robust, and scalable. The solution shouldaccommodate your business and informationneeds and technical requirements, but alsoyour enterprise culture and environment.Plan and prepare to migrate your knowledgeworker environment to an integrated EIP.

EIP Rapid DeploymentIn order to lay a strong foundation for a

more widely deployed and full-featuredEIP, many businesses like to start with alow-cost entry into portal technology. Thisapproach helps you:

◆ Determine the type and extent of cus-tomization you need for your enter-prise portal.

◆ Find a solution that matches your busi-ness needs.This need is served by well-designed

kits that provide a core set of portal func-tionality and that can be up and runningquickly for group pilots.

EIP ImplementationIn deploying your portal in a department

or across the enterprise, you will use theintegration applications and architecturedeveloped through the planning and designstages mentioned above. Results include:◆ A smooth implementation with minimal

disruption to your business.◆ A portal tailored to your environment.◆ An environment that enables employees

to find critical information quickly,work and collaborate more productively.

In summary, your strategy for adopting anEIP should spell out all solutions including:

◆ Hardware and platform validation andoptimization.

◆ A complete life cycle of services (in-cluding planning, design, implementa-tion, and management).

◆ A flexible choice of industry-leadingapplication software.Think big, but start small. Many solu-

tions available today scale well for thegrowing enterprise. Set achievable goalsand make sure that successes are acknowl-edged and publicized along the way.Promote the new portal tools continually tothe audience that will be using them—adoption of EIPs involves not only techno-logical change but also cultural change.Finally, choose an expert consulting organ-ization to accompany you throughout thisvital project, knowing that you are equip-ping your enterprise with a mission-criticalsystem. It should, like Compaq, have anexcellent track record in delivering end-to-end EIP solutions that include all the prod-ucts, integration, and services required bythis complex technology.

About CompaqCompaq Computer Corporation, a

Fortune Global 100 company, is a leadingglobal provider of technology and solutions.Compaq designs, develops, manufactures,and markets hardware, software, solutions,and services, including industry-leadingenterprise computing solutions, fault-tolerantbusiness-critical solutions, and communica-tions products, commercial desktop andportable products, and consumer PCs that aresold in more than 200 countries. Informationon Compaq and its products and services isavailable at http://www.compaq.com. ❚

The Enterprise InformationPortal and eBusiness

The rapid advance of technologies such asthe Internet, groupware, relational databas-es, and search engines allows knowledgeworkers to come together and share ideasand information as never before. The prom-ise of universal connectivity made possibleby the Internet and intranets has enabledalmost every industry to adopt better meansof communication, collaboration, and com-merce between employees, partners, cus-tomers, and suppliers. But how do you trans-form information assets and intellectual cap-ital into enduring value for your organiza-tion, your partners, and your clients?

And how do you provide easy yetsecure access to collective information andexpertise so the right information is avail-able to the right person at the right time?The answer increasingly falls under therubric of Knowledge Management (KM).The effective practice of KM by the enter-prise is now widely perceived as an essen-tial ingredient of eBusiness success. Andthe marketplace now acknowledges that anessential tool for the practice of KM is theenterprise information portal (EIP).

In the competitive world of eBusiness,a company’s knowledge assets have neverbeen more valuable. The key to success isunlocking the knowledge within the com-pany and sharing it with the right people atthe right time. Businesses and organiza-tions invest in KM solutions so thatemployees can do their jobs more effi-ciently and effectively.

The Enterprise Information Portal helpseBusiness by enabling the effective use ofshared knowledge assets so that everyoneon your team can work collaboratively andsecurely across global boundaries. And youcan manage that flow of information moreefficiently for empowered decision-making.

There are two key concepts that definean EIP: access and integration. The EIPgives workers access to the information andresources they need to do their jobs. It inte-grates both information sources and appli-cations. It is a single unified interface con-necting workers to widely scattered anddiversely structured information reposito-ries. Closely related to the notions of accessand integration is the concept of personal-ization, meaning workers receive the infor-mation they choose in a desktop environ-ment whose appearance they can control.

Compaq Computer Corporation

School reports to any Web browser, ineither HTML or XML formats. Monster-Daata provides the capability to integrate2.5 terabytes of NeighborhoodPlace datainto users’ Web sites, with total flexibilityto incorporate charts, tables, graphics,colors and page placement into providerapplications, all without data managementhassles. In fact, RCD system (which isenabled by Accusoft’s platform-independ-ent NetVue server software) is implement-ed as part of Yahoo Real Estate, Homestore.com, and move.com, a further testament toits robustness.

This capability helps companies likeMonsterDaata provide cost-effective, secure,highly scalable application “plug-ins” and/or overlays to a broad variety of customerapplications. Designed as a Web-basedimaging solution to a broad range of appli-cations, NetVue provides a client-serverenvironment capable of delivering largequantities of data, in over 100 formats, to aremote desktop within seconds, even withend users on 28.8Kb modems. The patentedNetVue Document Streaming™ technologyis the core piece of the solution, providingusers with the ability to view, annotate, andupdate a variety of documents and imageswithout requiring the native application tobe resident. In addition, NetVue has anextensive set of Web application servertools, which provide system administratorswith control of the product as well as easyaccess to information being generated fromusers of the application.

NetVue works by pre-processing largedocument and image files on the server,

leveraging the power of today’s high-per-formance servers and storage systems, andthen providing delivery via a Web browserand a high-speed, zero-administrationclient, available in ActiveX or Java. A vari-ety of management and tracking reports isincluded, complete with common reportsalready built in. These reports take a fewinput variables and generate HTML pageswith the results, which can be shared withanyone interested. NetVue stores everytransaction into a simple Xbase-type data-base that any report writer can access. Anynumber of additional reports can be creat-ed for more specialized requirements.

The benefits of Document Streaming◆ It’s fast; up to 20 times faster than the

closest available alternative.◆ It minimizes network traffic substantial-

ly. On average only 1/10th of the band-width, compared to other solutions, isrequired.

◆ The system administrator and individ-ual users can control the type of stream-ing used.

◆ It’s secure; NDS images are intrinsicallysecure as the data protocol is notreversible and no performance-reducingencryption is required.Businesses now can have the flexibility

to accommodate existing documentationand images, scalability via the server-sideimplementation, and ease of access—whileproviding the functionality to help improvecustomer and knowledge-worker satisfac-tion. This flexibility is a key benefit for allcompanies that experience change in theiroperations, personnel, and markets.

NetVue technology allows your compa-ny to facilitate the rapid deployment of imag-ing and document management solutionsthroughout an enterprise and beyond. ❚


Maximizing CorporateBandwidth Utilizationand User Satisfaction ...at the Same Time!

“we are drowning in a sea of information,”write University of California researchersPeter Lyman and Hal Varian. “The challengeis to learn to swim in that sea, rather thandrown in it. Now society must figure out howto manage all that information.” Their recentstudy titled “How Much Information”summed up just how quickly we are gather-ing, storing, and disseminating information.

As corporations accumulate, digest, anddisseminate this information, the sheer vol-ume strains the sturdiest of corporate infra-structures, as well as the external pathwaysthrough which to access this data. Look atour Web pages (and even e-mail!) whichreflect this dramatically, as we have movedfrom simple text messages to full-motionvideo with CD-quality sound!

Fields including Legal, Human Re-sources, Accounting, Geographic Infor-mation Systems, Medical, Real Estate, aswell as Application Service Providers, areall faced with the increasing problem ofhow to extend corporate knowledge toemployees, partners, suppliers, and cus-tomers, while maintaining control, sourceintegrity, and containing costs. The abilityto review, annotate, and update documentsand images in a variety of formats, withoutthe necessity to run native client applica-tions on all client workstations, is a key toincreasing the productivity of informationusers wherever they may be located. Thisalso leads to shortened document process-ing cycle times and improved productquality and customer satisfaction.

How is this functionality being utilized?MonsterDaata, Inc.’s (a leading pro-

vider of Internet information utility gearedto Real Estate) Remote Content Delivery(RCD) system facilitates simple, efficientdelivery of Community, Property, and

May 2001S10

Scott Warner is thefounder and CEO ofAccuSoft Corporation inNorthborough,Massachusetts. He alsoserves as a boardmember for othertechnology firms as wellas an advisor to anumber of growthcompanies. Prior to

AccuSoft, Mr.Warner spent his years as a consultant toover twenty-five firms building complex softwareapplications. He is also a fourth-degree black belt andmartial arts instructor.

By Scott Warner, CEO, AccuSoft

"The ability to review and update documents is a key to

increasing productivity."

Scott Warner


different formats, including AFP, PostScript,PCL, PDF, text and others.

The project manager planning to usecontent in a front-office Web applicationmust ask a number of questions:

1. What is the source of the content Ineed to present? Are the documents appli-cation-generated? Scanned?

2. What format are the documents in?3. How can I capture these documents

and ensure that they can be linked throughshared values such as vendor number,account number, territory and product?

4. How will I want to present the docu-ments over the Web: HTML, XML, image?

All these questions must be answered inorder to implement an effective solution tomanage and present enterprise content.

Content management comprises a num-ber of activities associated with makingdocuments Web-ready, including captur-ing, indexing, integrating, transformingand displaying content. The robustness andflexibility with which your solutionaddresses each of these steps will deter-mine the success of your implementation.The first step is to capture the documents,regardless of format, from the scanningsystem or from the applications that pro-duce them and store them in an integratedrepository. This process indexes the docu-ments, making them accessible based onkey identifiers.

A robust indexing capability will sup-port multi-level, multi-key indexing tomake retrieval easy and flexible. Name,policy number and customer number, forexample, might all be used as access keys.A true enterprise indexing architecture willlet you create logical folders of related doc-uments, such as all the records for a cus-tomer or a particular transaction. It will letyou index and logically group documents,regardless of format, across time, across

platforms, across storage devices andacross applications. The indexing structureis what enables an employee to research allthe claims made in the Southeast regionduring the week of March 12, and enablesa customer to retrieve and compare theelectric bill from December 1999 and theone from December 2000.

Presenting Web content means trans-forming it, if necessary, and displaying itin a Web browser. Different applicationsrequire different types of Web present-ment. For example, for an electronicbill/statement presentment application,you might parse the document, extractingonly the data elements needed to displayon a formatted Web page. You might evenneed to integrate values from multiple doc-uments into a single Web page. This flexi-ble content presentment allows you todefine what information should be extract-ed and where and how it should be placedon your Web page.

Automatic content presentment convertsthe entire document into a Web-ready for-mat such as HTML or SVG (scalable vec-tor graphics) and displays it in the browser.This form of presentment preserves the dis-play characteristics of the original docu-ment and would be used, for example, togive a customer service representative adisplay that is an exact replica of the paperdocument, facilitating communication withthe customer.

These services bridge the gap betweenback-office information and Web contentthat can be deployed to support a widerange of front-office applications includingcustomer relationship management, e-pre-sentment and payment, customer self-serv-ice and more. With an effective strategy formanaging and presenting enterprise con-tent, you will be able to fully exploit yourinformation assets. ❚

Bridging the Back-Office/Front-Office Gap

“As competition continues to grow viathe e-economy and as customer/partnerrelationship management becomes moresophisticated, the need for organizations toleverage the wealth of information in doc-uments, images and reports will increase.”(Meta Group, September 1999)

“How effectively organizations dealwith mission-critical information andexpose it as usable content to supportemployees, partners and consumers isbecoming a recognized differentiator.”(Meta Group, January 2001)

With 75% of your organization’s infor-mation contained in unstructured (non-database) format—documents, reportsand images—can you transform it into“usable content” to support your e-busi-ness initiatives? According to AMRResearch, the problem that e-businessexposes most often is inadequate integra-tion. In other words, the vital informationabout customers, products and transac-tions produced by back-office systemssuch as enterprise resource planning(ERP) often isn’t available as Web con-tent or at Web speed to employees, cus-tomers and suppliers.

The challenge for the enterprise is tomanage, Web-enable and Web-presentcontent in multiple formats from multiplesources. Documents and reports requiredfor presentation in customer-facing appli-cations may be generated by ERP or otherback-office applications, or may be con-verted from paper to electronic format byscanning. These documents will be ofmany different types—bills, statements,purchase orders, invoices, remittances,output reports, e-mail, policies, correspon-dence and more. And they will be in many

By Mitchell Gross, CEO and President, Mobius Management Systems, Inc.

Since co-founding MobiusManagement Systems, Inc. in1981, Mitchell Gross has becomewidely regarded as a leadingauthority on software solutionsthat help corporations worldwidemanage huge volumes ofinformation, often in the form ofdocuments, reports and images.Under his direction, Mobius hasdelivered software used to build e-business and customer service

solutions for nearly 1,300 major organizations worldwide, includingmore than half of the Fortune 100. Mr. Gross holds an M.B.A. inFinance from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and aB.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University School ofEngineering and Applied Science.

Mitchell Gross

CEO and President

tailoring new product releases to count-er Apple’s efforts.

◆ Valuation loss: In summer 2000, a falsepress release, issued by a newswireintern, stated that Emulex was restatingits earnings and firing its CEO. Emulexwatched as $2.5 billion dollars wasknocked off its market cap in the courseof one morning, with most of the dam-age done in the first half an hour afterrelease. Likewise, Oracle’s stock plungedlast year after false rumors of ownerLarry Ellison’s death surfaced andcaught on fire in chat rooms. Oraclebecame the most heavily traded stock ofthat day, losing as much as 30% beforesnuffing out the rumor.

What is Web Intelligence?Companies like these have learned that

having access to rapid online contentbefore it reaches traditional news venuescan effectively make or break a compa-ny’s competitive positioning. This “WebIntelligence” includes the vast amount oftransient digital information—news, rumor,speculation, and public commentary—that can have a significant impact on acompany’s reputation, sales strength andultimately its stock price. Access to Webintelligence is most valuable to a compa-ny within the first few hours that itappears online. In this vulnerable windowof opportunity, strategic planners can takeadvantage of breaking competitor news orsquash a potentially dangerous rumor.

To fill this critical information gap,Moreover uses dynamic database technol-ogy to deliver relevant Web Intelligence tocompanies from over 2400 online sources—including major news sites, niche sites, com-plaint sites, Web logs, discussion boards, andmessage groups. Near real-time updates

posted to company intranets allow employ-ees company-wide to respond to informa-tion while it is still within action range.Instead of being forced into a reactionarystance, companies wield Web Intelligenceto maintain a competitive edge and planaccordingly.

According to Aberdeen Group researchdirector Guy Creese, many companies canbenefit from adding Web Intelligence totheir information arsenal. “Information-intensive industries ... need to comple-ment their traditional news services withWeb-based intelligence in order to quick-ly act on new developments,” said Creese.“Moreover takes the labor out of beingWeb-aware by automatically pointing tothe up-to-date, Web-sourced informationthat these types of companies need toremain competitive.”

Internal departments that stand to bene-fit from Web Intelligence include sales,marketing, knowledge management, andPR, as well as CIOs, intranet and extranetmanagers and corporate librarians. For onecompany, spotting earnings speculation ona CBS Marketwatch discussion boardenabled the marketing team to respondimmediately, restoring confidence andkeeping the rumor from making Monday’smorning paper. Another company found anindustry-first opportunity for the sales teamin an update from the Korea Post.

The difference between the Web ascurse and the Web as blessing for corporatecommunications lies in the ability to findand identify critical information early. WebIntelligence, in all its forms, gives compa-nies a chance to create an environment ofaction and strategy, where bad news maybe managed quickly, and good news con-verted into profit. ❚


The Rise of WebIntelligenceHow rumors, leaks, and news online have transformed

the Internet’s impact on business

We live in a market of instant informa-tion, where perception and image areincreasingly linked to stock prices, and thebest strategic plans can be undermined inthe course of a morning. With 56% of thepopulation online, gossip spreads likewildfire—from thousands of sources thatlie beyond the reach of search engines andtraditional information services.

As a handful of high-profile cases inthe past seven years have shown, compa-nies pay a heavy price for gossip initiatedonline. Perhaps most distressing for com-panies is the way gossip—whether true orfalse—can move from the Web to theBusiness section of print news in the mat-ter of one day. Consider:◆ Over the past seven years, the proliferation

of gossip online—from uncontrolled leaksto quickly spreading rumors—has signifi-cantly impacted the success of companiesnationwide. In a climate where 60% ofprint journalists would report an onlinerumor with one confirmation and almost20% would report a rumor directly from amajor online source, the risks incurred bystaying out of the loop are high (RossReport on Cybermedia, May 2000).

◆ Data leaks: In 1999 the online siteBlueOvalNews.com posted confiden-tial Ford documents that underminedthe automobile maker’s lobbying effortsagainst tighter emissions and fuel-economy regulations. The negativepublicity exposed a contradiction inFord’s policy and caused an ensuingloss of credibility.

◆ Product secrets: In spring 2000, Yahoochat rooms were buzzing with unre-leased information about new Applemouses and duel-processor PowerMacs.Apple sued Yahoo, as Apple competitorsprofited from the secret information by

May 2001S12

By Nick Denton, CEO, Moreover

Nick Denton, formerly areporter with The FinancialTimes and The Economist, isCEO of Moreover. Moreoversearches thousands of newssites, message boards, andother quickly changing Websources every 15 minutes,delivering business-qualitycontent to Web sites, portalsand intranets.The companycounts among its customers

and licensees Hoovers, Wells Fargo and Ernst & Young, andoffers its Business Intelligence solutions through partnershipswith Inktomi, Epicentric, Microsoft, and others.Moreover was recently named “Best Specialty Search Engine”by Search Engine Watch. Prior to founding Moreover, Dentonfounded First Tuesday. He is also co-author of All ThatGlitters, an account of the collapse of Barings bank, short-listed for the Global Business Book Awards.

Nick Denton

May 2001Special Supplement to S13

ware resource files, and database stringswith XML tagging? Translation is a lin-guistic task. But localization involves engi-neering and creative disciplines to preservedesign values in the new language. To giveyou long-term flexibility, the platform youchoose should be sufficiently versatile tohandle any and all formats.

4) Where does the content originateand where will the localized versionreside? The multilingual knowledge man-agement system you implement must beable to detect, extract, and route new orchanged content whether it originates in anapplication repository, file system or data-base. It needs to automatically route thiscontent through the localization processand various approval stages, then insert itto a target location. Quality control anddata security must be maintained at everystage of the publishing process.

5) Who will be responsible for handlingcontent? Accountability is key. Otherduties may impede in-house staff fromcompleting translation assignments in atimely manner. A string of freelancers maymake it difficult to maintain quality stan-dards. To improve accountability on sched-uling and quality issues, establish an ongo-ing partnership with one external supplier.Maintain sufficient in-house staff to man-age the partner relationship.

Selecting the Best Globalization Platform

Implementing a multilingual knowledgemanagement system is a complex process.Here are four ways to ensure that you investin the right platform.

1) Choose the right vendor. Get off to agood start by selecting a business partnerwith the expertise and global presence tohelp you make it work. This partner shouldnot only have consulting experience in theIT infrastructure of global companies but

expertise in critical areas such as internation-alization engineering, translation engines,workflow management, and content local-ization as well.

2) Choose a platform with the rightconnectivity. Make sure that the globaliza-tion platform you adopt is capable of con-necting diverse and distributed contentrepositories to an automated multilingualworkflow. The workflow itself should fol-low a rigorous discipline—from preparingfiles for translation to routing contentbetween editors and publishers, to easyincorporation of verification and compli-ance reviews.

3) Choose a platform with intelligentlanguage processing. The language pro-cessing technology needs to include twokey components: translation memory andterminology management. Translation mem-ory ensures that once any sentence or para-graph has been translated and stored, thesetext strings can be reused time and again.This not only eliminates redundant transla-tion, but speeds translation turnaround—saving time and money. A terminologymanagement system ensures that transla-tion teams consistently employ key wordsand phrases.

4) Choose a platform that provides proj-ect transparency and a detailed audit trail.To maintain process efficiency and controlcosts, implement a solution that allows youto track the whereabouts of each translationunit through every step of the workflow.Real-time visibility helps you avoid bottle-necks and delays. Detailed reporting notonly helps you manage budgets and turn-around, but also enables you to audit costsand system performance over time.

Empowering eBusiness in a Global Economy

Whether your initiative is eLearning,eSupport, or eCommerce, the right globaliza-tion platform dramatically improves the waycolleagues, customers, suppliers and part-ners communicate and collaborate aroundthe world. A multilingual knowledge man-agement system both increases revenue cap-ture and reduces operating costs to empowereBusiness growth in a global economy. ❚

For additional white papers on the techni-cal aspects and ROI of multilingual knowl-edge management, log onto www.lionbridge.com/KM.

About LionbridgeLionbridge Technologies, Inc. integrates data repository connec-

tivity with language management technology and global workflowsystems to create and maintain Web-based products and dynamicdatabases in multiple languages and cultural formats. Based inWaltham, MA, Lionbridge operates sites in Canada, Ireland, theNetherlands, France, Germany, China, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan,Brazil, and the United States.

Multilingual KnowledgeManagement Empowers Global eBusiness

With the wholesale penetration of Internettechnologies into global business opera-tions, employees at every level of an organ-ization are collaborating across multiplegeographies. But with no common language,knowledge workers—be they colleagues,customers, suppliers or partners—face a newchallenge in communicating ideas and sharinginformation effectively.

To bridge this linguistic gap, global com-panies are adopting knowledge managementand globalization platforms that supportongoing translation and dissemination ofmultilingual content. Whether content repos-itories include file systems, databases, Web-based applications or all of these, achievingthe critical transformation of eBusinessinformation into multilingual eBusinessknowledge requires astute planning androbust localization management tools.

Five Critical Questions Before You StartThere are five factors that must be

considered before embarking on anyglobalization initiative because they willdirectly impact the design of your knowl-edge management system.

1) What languages will your con-stituents require? Success in supporting asecond language invariably spawns pres-sure to add others. The key is to adopt aglobalization platform that can easilyaccommodate additional languages, asneed demands.

2) How quickly must content be trans-lated? A multilingual knowledge manage-ment system needs to be optimized for thevelocity of new information coming into therepositories and the criticality of informationgoing out. Virus warnings necessitate turn-around in hours. Technical manual updatesrequire a longer, more intricate workflow.

3) What data formats will be handled?Are you looking strictly at HTML pages?Or will you need to handle other formatslike Word documents, QuarkXPress, soft-

By Benjamin B. Sargent, Lionbridge Technologies,a provider of multilingual content management software

and services to the technology, telecommunications,life sciences and financial services industries.

Enterprise Profiling strategy is comprised ofthree components: (1) an underlying businessmodel, (2) a Web-based technology tool, and(3) an integrated project methodology.

The Business ModelThe underlying business model captures

the common elements of document life-cycleapplications and processes enterprise-wide.This model, the Enterprise Usage Model, isvalid across the organization regardless ofapplication type, document life-cycle require-ments, and document usage patterns. It estab-lishes standard operating models for work-flow (document organizing and processing),repositories (document storage and retrieval),publishing (document distribution and pub-lishing), retention (document archiving anddestruction), and security (document usergroups, permissions, and administration). Inaddition, the Enterprise Usage Model incor-porates enterprise rules relating to each of theoperating models. The enterprise rules define‘universal’ requirements of any documentmanagement solution and are applied basedon specific document usage patterns. TheEnterprise Usage Model allows any work-group in an organization to ‘map’ their specif-ic operational requirements and determine theenterprise standards and rules that apply.

The Technology ToolIn order to define the unique character-

istics of a specific document life-cycleapplication or process, it is necessary togather and analyze a significant amount ofinformation. ‘EDMS Profiler’ is a Web-based technology tool designed to automatedata collection and analysis. EDMS Profileris an application that consists of a struc-tured, on-line interview questionnaire thatrespondents (end users) complete. Thequestionnaire gathers information about thegeneral document management application,specific document and records managementrequirements, and the information technol-ogy environment. EDMS Profiler analyzesthe questionnaire data collected and pro-duces multiple output reports—or Profiles.

These profiles include: a General ApplicationProfile, Document Life Cycle Profile,Electronic Document Management System(EDMS) Requirements Profile, UniqueUsage Model Profile, and an InformationTechnology Profile.

The Project MethodologyProject activities and deliverables spe-

cific to the creation and analysis of EDMSProfiler output reports are integrated into astandard IT project methodology. Profileinformation can be used to develop func-tional and technical specifications andguide vendor/solution selection. Profileinformation can also be used to defineimprovement opportunities, identify spe-cific operating characteristics, and estab-lish the basis for project recommendationsearly in a project life cycle. From an enter-prise perspective, the profile informationcan be aggregated to ‘view’ workgroupsolutions, develop knowledge of sharedenterprise requirements, establish ‘com-mon profiles’, and build the business casefor resource requirements and allocation.

ConclusionEnterprise Profiling is not more technolo-

gy—it is a structured business strategy. Itapplies to organizations that are shiftingfrom departmental implementations to acommon framework for document andrecords management. It helps project teamsexpand their reach and range to support theneeds of the organization. EnterpriseProfiling allows organizations of any sizein any industry, operating in single or mul-tiple locations, to implement ‘true’ enter-prise solutions—those based on consistentbusiness models, operating environments,and enterprise rules.

Organizations that embrace the Enter-prise Profiling approach will realize moreproductive document technology imple-mentations. They will be able to effective-ly manage e-business content in electronicdocument formats as an enterprise issue—now and in the future. ❚


Enterprise ProfilingA Strategy for Enterprise Document and Records Management

Documents play a vital role in EnterpriseContent Management. Business docu-ments—in all forms and formats—repre-sent a source of content that is vital to thesuccess of e-business applications. Unlikeother content sources, ‘document’ creationand capture can occur at every desktop, inevery process, and by every on-line appli-cation. The management of e-businesscontent in electronic document formats isan enterprise issue.

An enterprise document managementperspective recognizes the value of sharingdocument-based information (content)—internally and externally. A business caseexists for the consistent application of tech-nologies to ensure the access and protectionof document-based information assets. Thechallenge is that every document manage-ment application has specific requirementsfor organizing, processing, storing, retriev-ing, distributing, publishing, securing, andarchiving documents. As a result, the typi-cal approach is the implementation of com-partmentalized workgroup, application, ordepartmental solutions that fall short as‘enterprise’ solutions.

More technology is not the answer.Traditional document technologies such asdocument imaging, workflow, COLD/Enterprise Reports Management, and elec-tronic document management have beenintegrated with tools for content searching,Web access/publishing, and collaborativework management. These technologies canbe implemented departmentally and scaledto enterprise levels. With this approach,however, the technology drives the enter-prise solution.

Enterprise Profiling: A New Strategy

The answer to the problem is a newapproach for enterprise document manage-ment: a strategy that recognizes the uniquedocument management needs of individualbusiness areas while capturing the value ofuniversal document sharing. This strategy,called Enterprise Profiling, establishes acommon organization-wide framework fordocument and records management. The

May 2001S14

By Karen Strong, President, Clarity

Karen V. Strong is president ofClarity, Inc. and the ClarityDocument ManagementInstitute (Clarity DMI), anAustin-based consulting andeducation firm specializing ininnovative approaches toenterprise document contentmanagement. Ms. Strongdeveloped the EnterpriseProfiling strategy and led thedesign of the EDMS Profiler

application. Clarity is currently working with several firms,including multi-national organizations, to implement enterprisedocument and records management solutions based on theEnterprise Profiling strategy. Karen Strong can be reached at 512-346-6300, fax 425-952-1215, [email protected], www.claritydmi.com.

Karen Strong


based on rules specific for each organiza-tion. Knowledge workers must also beallowed to search, retrieve, and manage thelife cycle of email within a secure envi-ronment that allows true collaborationbetween all. A comprehensive structuredemail management system provides manybenefits including reduced IT costs, reduceddowntime and improved ROI of the mes-saging infrastructure, and reduced legalcosts. By capturing email and organizingit into corporate knowledge maps, emailcontent is accessible to authorized usersthus allowing for better and faster deci-sion making, efficient implementation andexecution of business processes, andimproved knowledge worker satisfaction.Organizations will have better control overtheir information (measure of work per-formed) and knowledge (ability to executework planned) assets.

When implementing an email manage-ment solution, organizations should avoidthe following shortcomings during theirselection process:◆ When email-based knowledge is not

captured, the organization abdicates itslegitimate right to be the custodian of itsknowledge.

◆ Relying on users to make decisionsabout which email message is a recordwill result in the loss of important emailsthat are corporate records.

◆ The complete random purging of emailleads to knowledge drain.

◆ The blanket purging of email leads to theloss of email-based documents, records,and ultimately evidentiary records.

◆ Email-based documents and records arenot organized in the corporate file planclassification, with one potential problembeing that the process of legal discoverybecomes very difficult and expensive.

◆ Email records are not subject to the cor-porate life-cycle retention rules.

◆ The storage requirements of the person-al email workspaces swell.

◆ The content duplication problem (cc/bcc/forward) is not addressed.

◆ Retention of convenience copies extendsthe organization’s risks.Technologies that address the challenges

associated with structured email manage-ment are just beginning to emerge. One of themost challenging technologies to develop,that is expected to continue to evolve andmature, deals with the automatic classifica-tion of email and electronic documents. Toachieve accurate auto-classification there is aneed to implement several technologies inconcert; including the implementation ofrules based on the organization’s businessrequirements and auto-categorization basedon content analysis.

The eManage solution is a leaderamong the solutions presently available forstructured email management. It organizesand manages email, along with its metada-ta and attachments. eManage allows organ-izations to implement a secure and struc-tured knowledge map to link and under-stand the relationship between informationand knowledge holdings. It provides a sin-gle point of access to corporate knowledgeregardless of storage location or format.Knowledge objects (word documents,spreadsheets, images, email, web content,etc.) are organized in a logical hierarchythat features compound folders and sub-folders. These folders contain documents(and virtual documents) that are locatedwithin multiple repositories. eManage canbe configured to automatically monitor andcapture knowledge objects from varioussources and to automatically classify themwithin its knowledge map. Its built-inrules-based engine allows users to set “cap-ture rules” defining how objects are auto-matically captured and classified.

By capturing messaging-based knowl-edge, organizing it into a dynamic corpo-rate file classification, and making thisknowledge accessible from other applica-tions, eManage ensures compliance withlegal and industry regulations and stan-dards. As the percentage of email-basedbusiness documents increases, implement-ing a structured email management solu-tion leverages the investment in ebusinessand ecommerce applications. Organizationswithout structured email managementsolutions will lag behind as their competi-tors surge ahead, armed with better controlover their email records and profiting fromtrue collaboration between their knowl-edge workers. ❚

eManage Inc. is a leading provider of Structured EmailManagement, KM and RM solutions. Its award winning product,eManage, is DoD 5015.2 certified and SEC 17a-4 compliant.

Managing EmailContent—Challengesand BenefitsThe absence of structured email management can increase costs in IT

infrastructure, cause lost productivity and lead to decreased efficiency

As more organizations embrace email astheir primary method of communication,the majority overlook the fact that emailcontent contains evidence of business deci-sions, actions and transactions. Theseemail messages become documents andrecords with the same legal requirements,restrictions and standards as any otherrecord produced in any form or medium.Public and private organizations are quick-ly discovering that, in connection with thetransaction of business, they have an obli-gation to apply the appropriate retentionfor email created or received, and an equalobligation to provide access to the email.

While email management is a large andrapidly growing industry sector, organiza-tions have been slow to adopt this technol-ogy due to both the complexities involvedin properly managing emails as docu-ments, and the sudden explosion in the use of this method of communication.Organizations in both the public and pri-vate sectors are increasingly faced withissues related to compliance with industry,legal and government regulations and standards (i.e., GRS 20, DoD 5015.2,SEC 17a-4, etc.) relating to the manage-ment of email documents and records. Inmost organizations today, email manage-ment is either non-existent or is done usingexisting technologies such as email deliv-ery software, document management sys-tems, and/or records management systems.Many organizations are realizing thatemail management requires specializedcapabilities not presently found in existingproducts.

The evolution in the way organizationsare conducting business highlights theneed to automatically capture and classifyemail content in its entirety and nativeform within the corporate file structure

By Bisher Abaza, President & CEO, eManage Inc.

For more information on any of the companies who contributed to this white paper, visit their website or contact them directly:

AccuSoft Corporation71 Lyman StreetNorthborough MA 01532Phone: 508-351-9092 Fax: 508-351-9086E-mail: [email protected]: www.accusoft.com/km

IBM CorporationE-mail: [email protected]: www.ibm.com/software/data/cm

InfoImage4000 N Central Ave, #2300Phoenix AZ 85012Phone: 602-234-6900Fax: 602-234-6950E-mail: [email protected]: www.infoimage.com

Lionbridge Technologies950 Winter StreetWaltham MA 02451Phone: 781-434-6157Fax: 781-434-6034E-mail: [email protected]: www.lionbridge.com/KM

Mobius Management Systems, Inc.120 Old Post RoadRye NY 10580Phone: 914-921-7200Fax: 914-921-1360E-mail: [email protected]: www.mobius.com

Moreover, Inc.330 Pine StreetSan Francisco CA 94104Phone: 415-989-0600Fax: 415-707-2005

8th Floor, Charter House2 Farringdon RoadLondon EC1M 3HP Phone: 44-207-253-5003Fax: 44-207-681-3280E-mail: [email protected]: www.moreover.com/ecm

eManage Inc.Suite 502, 1565 Carling AveOttawa, Ontario K1Z 8R1Phone: 613-728-5977Fax: 613-728-8566E-mail: [email protected]: www.emanagecorp.com

Clarity Document Management Institutea Division of Clarity, Inc.9430 Research Blvd, Echelon IV, Ste 400Austin TX 78759Phone: 512-346-6300Fax: 425-952-1215E-Mail: [email protected]: www.claritydmi.com

FileNET Corporation3565 Harbor BlvdCosta Mesa CA 92626Phone: 800-FILENETFax: 714-327-3490Web: www.filenet.com

Produced by:

KMWorld MagazineSpecialty Publishing Team

Compaq Computer Corporation20555 SH 249, MS 140601Houston TX 77070Phone: 281-514-7414Fax: 281-514-7073E-mail: [email protected]:www.compaq.com/solutions/messaging/km_index.html

For information on participating in the next white paper in the “Best Practices” series,contact [email protected]

Kathryn Rogals Paul Rosenlund Andy Moore207-338-9870 207-338-9870 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]