Enterprise Collaboration Via ECM

Electronic Document Collaboration Streamlines Group Projects and Reduces E-mail and Paper

Document collaboration is something companies do every day, albeit not in the most effective ways. Think of the documents you’ve passed to and received from members of your team and other departments, or e-mails you’ve sent to and received from colleagues in other locations, asking for feedback. These methods provide you with the input you need, but not in an organized, cohesive manner. Electronic document collaboration, as part of an ECM system, can provide this cohesion.

DOCUMENT COLLABORATION HAS EVOLVED

The document collaboration landscape has gone through much evolution. Collaboration was focused internally in the 1990s, with colleagues working within firewalls. Enterprises were just developing network infrastructures, and collaborative ‘point solutions’ evolved to support specific interactions on these networks.

The new millennium made it clear that the value for electronic document collaboration is not only within the enterprise but also from the network across and between organizations. Technologies evolved from targeted point solutions to pieces of an enterprise infrastructure that could be leveraged. In this way, electronic document collaboration has evolved to become part of the enterprise infrastructure.

Electronic document collaboration involves a central repository or Web portal where documents and files are stored, accessed, and edited securely and with an audit trail. Electronic document collaboration capabilities are components of an ECM system. To successfully implement electronic document collaboration, though, you need to be aware of a few things.

ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT COLLABORATION IS NOT E-MAIL OR MESSAGING

There are some document collaboration solutions that involve messaging and e-mailing. The content is sent with e-mail messages as attachments or with URL links, opening companies up for problems: Attachments often get caught in spam filters, they can carry viruses, and some users can’t see the content if they don’t have the programs.

Optimal electronic document collaboration solutions involve a central repository where content is stored and accessed by appropriate users. The central location enables all authorized users to view the changes made by everyone and accommodates access control. Central repositories enable companies to store large, complex documents and files, which is not possible with e-mailing.

A manager working in a life insurance company investigated the reasons for the issues that occurred as employees used e-mail to exchange information. The manager found that company IT policies had placed 10 MB limits on attachments and 200 MB limits on mailboxes; e-mail wasn’t working as an appropriate medium of exchange. Knowledge and information transfer was limited by the messaging architecture, as were team interactions and collaboration. The company built a virtual team space for file sharing and content exchange, saving $1.2 million annually.

Companies with distributed offices can benefit most from electronic document collaboration. You should know the difference, however, between collaboration on documents and access to them. For instance, most banks have distributed offices, and persons in different offices or departments need to view loan documentation. This happens more frequently when access is needed, not collaboration, because the loan documents rarely change once they’re in the enterprise. Employees need to access them to make decisions, but they’re static documents.
Instances such as this are not always a fit for electronic document collaboration and can be accommodated by general repositories in ECM systems. Other verticals with needs such as these include financial services and healthcare. There are a lot of design requirements in manufacturing companies, which require constant input. Any company with engineering resources can benefit from electronic document collaboration because of the need for real-time input.

- Excerpts From Integrated Solutions, May 2007
Written by: Khristen Chapin