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Shown in the attachment are some of the example top-level functional group folders. As you dive into the functional group level folders, you will start to identify the following three types of sub-folders:

• Cross Functional
• Sub-Groups
• Group Level Specific

Let’s talk about Enterprise Level Information Modeling. By ‘Enterprise Level’, we mean the very top level of ECM Information Hierarchy. How should we organize the corporate information so that it makes sense to the general users? As opposed to adopting the Departmental Approach right away, it is always a good idea to think about whether we need to balance the Departmental Approach with Cross-functional Approach.

In the upcoming blogs, we will dive into the interesting subject: “How do we organize Corporate Information?” Shown below are example topics that we will cover during the next series of blogs:

• Enterprise Level Information Modeling
• Functional Group Level Information Modeling
• Departmental Approach? Cross-functional Approach?
• Folder Structure Driven? Metadata Driven?
• Document Naming Convention
• Folder Nesting & Naming Convention
• Information Modeling Best Practices for [Put Your Industry Here]

Most of the times, Business Problems and Need for ECM system are well identified prior to making the decision of investing in ECM system. Once the software and services are acquired, it is easy for the ECM team to get onto fast track mode. Before you get your hands on the detailed aspects of ECM implementation, it is always a good idea to define:

• Business Goals
• Business Problems
• ECM Vision Statement

Business Item Diagram captures the relationships and correlations among various business items. Here, business items can be products, manufacturing equipments, real estate properties, and anything that is related to daily business operation of a company. Well-run businesses normally have good definitions of these business items and people from various functional groups use the common terminology when they communicate to one another.

Shown in the attachment below is an example of a functional group diagram. This diagram captures the make-up of business functional groups and high-level flow of business operation. To be able to put this type of diagram together, you will first have to talk to various functional groups within the organization and ask what the roles and responsibilities are for those groups. It is also important to understand what the company does as a whole and what their core competencies are (How they generate profit).

When conducting Modeling activities for ECM (Enterprise Content Management) solution, it is critical that we understand the Business Model. A Business Model is the design or plan for operations that will offer a product or service of value to a defined set of customers in a way that is beneficial for customers, suppliers, investors, shareholders, and other parties involved. It is the totality of:

• How it will select, acquire, and manage its customers
• How it defines its products and other business items
• How it goes to the market
• How it organizes its workforce

Many times, I have seen how ECM implementation can go wrong and one of the most common mistakes is not having a designated ECM team in place. For a lot of companies, an ECM application is first deployed with a narrower focus of deploying to one specific department. During this initial phase, the manager of that department will take on the role of project manager and ECM team leader.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Solution aims to enhance the business productivity by leveraging unstructured data to effective business use. By structured data, we mean the data captured in database applications whilst unstructured data is captured in Word, Excel, PDF, and other types of electronic documents.