SDA India is an online resource for Software, Development,IT, Architecture, Open Source, Mobile, Security, Databases, Delphi, C, OS, Asp, .Net, Php, Xml, Java
ECM and BPM Cannot Be Purely IT-led Initiatives
The core benefits of implementing a unified BPM and ECM solution revolve around the elements of improving an organisation’s operational efficiency, customer service levels, and adherence to regulatory and compliance standards. Most organizations are looking for a specific ROI or business benefit from an ECM/BPM solution. For example...
SDA: What are the benefits of implementing enterprise content and business process management systems? Also can you tell us about its drawbacks?
Hugh Sutherland (HS): The core benefits of implementing a unified BPM and ECM solution revolve around the elements of improving an organisation’s operational efficiency, customer service levels, and adherence to regulatory and compliance standards.
Most organizations are looking for a specific ROI or business benefit from an ECM/BPM solution. For example, they wish to reduce the frequency of processing errors in a lending process, or expedite the processing of case without making investments in more personnel. Or, the business problem can be as basic as providing all the documentation for a customer record to the customer service representatives in electronic format, so they can serve the customer in a single call rather than having to search and retrieve paper docs.
The only drawback here is that ECM and BPM cannot be purely IT-led initiatives. If there isn’t a solid business case for the solution, implementing ECM/BPM as an IT-only project will be challenging. There are many examples of organizations that have deployed electronic records management systems whose usage was discontinued because the business departments saw no benefit.
SDA: How is e-governance different from the traditional approaches to content management? Can you tell us how it works?
HS: Traditional approaches to content management tended to reflect the hierarchical structure of government organizations. So typically content management was aligned to sub-functions of pre-existing government process. E-Governance pushes the transformation of government to be network based and cross agency in nature. One of the key differentiators in e-governance is the prevalence of multiple channels of communication between government and its constituents; unlike the private sector, government can’t shutdown channels of communication. Phone, letters, e-mail, blogs, XML, RSS feeds, Web pages, over the counter, and telephone are examples of the multiple channels that need to be supported.
E-Governance also raises the expectation of service levels therefore emphasizing response time. In the past, government’s hierarchical structure would slow response time. E-governance’s deployment of content management needs to support multiple forms of incoming content then utilize a robust, flexible business process engine in order to integrate across government agencies and IT systems. And lastly records management as an integral component of content management needs to be integrated to any e-governance project therefore mitigating risk associated with communicating with the citizenery.
SDA: How do you think the introduction of e-governance will change the face of Public Administration reform across the globe? What is its future potential and how can it contribute to the development of a country in terms of building relationships and bridging gaps between citizens and its government?
HS: e-governance is about transparency to constituents; therefore policy analysis, reform and creation will be integrated into the actual e-governance programs and projects. e-governance breaks down hierarchical structures and process. The key transformation that enterprise content management brings to public sector is to further align IT to Lines of Business functions. Compounded by integrated business process management and collaboration you see a further alignment with policy and Lines of Business. This has been the major stumbling block to move to e-governance; policy analysis and creation has always been separated from the functional needs of the Lines of Business of government.
If you can closely align legislative change, policy creation, program requirements and e-government project to the constituent, then you will be successful.
SDA: What top five questions should customers ask a vendor before selecting an e-governance solution?
HS: They would be the following:
- Do you have an integrated technology that can support everything from policy to project level?
- What is your experience with different types of e-governance projects at the central, regional and local government levels.
- Does your solution provide business process management capability vs. workflow?
- Do you adhere to industry standards for information exchange?
- Do you have a modular approach for your products to integrate but also provide a complete e-governance solution?
SDA: FileNet deals with a number of financial, insurance and banking companies. Can you tell us about the security risks of online e-governance; what are your offerings to protect a company’s data from security threats?
HS: We do have a large number of financial, insurance and banking companies; interestingly enough government departments are looking to them for experience in the area you are asking about. These industries which to a large degree are highly regulated have aligned with FileNet for multiple reasons: security being one of them.
In the public sector space on a global basis we are ensuring that our solutions meet stringent security requirements such as Dodd 5015.2 for records management. The product utilizes a robust roles based access control approach which can provide a highly restrictive security model on who sees what and also what objects can see other content based objects.
Being an organization that has many customers in financial, insurance and banking, we take security very seriously.
From the e-governance perspective security, access and privacy all come down to a factor of trust, and giving citizens that level of trust is a government issue and not necessarily a technical one. Trust becomes more of a cultural and marketing issue for the e-governance program.
SDA: Hugh, what do you think is the growth opportunity for e-governance in Asia? Last year FileNet lost an e-governance project commissioned by the Philippines' Securities & Exchange Commission and Bureau of Internal Revenues to a small Indian software company called Newgen Software? Tell us about your strategies to tap the Asian market among emerging competitions from global leaders as well as the local players?
HS: FileNet is seeing tremendous success in Asia Pacific, and is active in most, but not all markets, and at different price points. We have 9 offices in 6 countries in Asia Pacific, 300 customers and more than 50 installation and development partners throughout the region, plus a FileNet community greater than 500 people. We have over 350 certified FileNet Professionals in the region. FileNet Asia Pacific grew considerably in 2005, and we expect that to continue, particularly in the countries and markets where we focus.
The ECM /BPM market is consolidating and more customers are looking for the integrated platform approach that FileNet offers. Product leadership, matched with strong local presence, domain knowledge and support differentiate us from most of our competitors.
SDA: Asia being a developing continent, what are the challenges and hurdles you face in terms of larger computer illiterate population, compared with America, Europe or Australia and what are your strategies to approach this issue? Also tell us about other major challenges faced in implementing e-governance in Asia?
HS: FileNet is active in most but not all countries, and focus on opportunities where there are some awareness of the benefits derived from ECM and BPM. We also actively participate in numerous events, continuing to educate local IT purchasers.
SDA: In India, e-governance was introduced to enable citizens’ direct interaction with the government, but without much success. Please comment and tell us how do you plan to make it a success story?
HS: This question is too Indian-centric and I would have to check with our office in India for more information. However, due to the deadline for this email interview, I am unable to quantify at this point.
SDA: Most companies are now opting for electronic records management and integrated document archive and retrieval systems. What are the major challenges customers and FileNet face in terms of implementing this shift from the traditional ways of maintaining records to your advanced technology?
HS: As mentioned, these initiatives cannot be viewed as IT-led projects. Another challenge is that end users do not generally appreciate 'losing control' of their electronic documents when they are checked into an electronic records management repository. So, FileNet advocates that records management solutions be implemented in the context of a business process, and leverage the workflow software to automate records declaration and classification into the repository. This way, organizations are less reliant on people making the decision of which documents to declare into the repository.
The same goes for email. More and more organizations are realizing that a lot of “business” is transacted in email: customer quotations, exception approvals, etc. These decisions, in the form of email content, should be automatically declared into an ECM repository leveraging rules such as the subject line, who sent the message, text within the email copy, attachments, etc.
SDA: Your acquisition of Yaletown Technology Group has given the company Email Manager and Records Crawler. Where does Yaletown fit into FileNet’s long term growth strategy and bringing out new products in the future?
HS: Yaletown is typical of FileNet’s strategic acquisitions. While FileNet itself spends more on R&D than any other in our industry [averaging 20% of annual revenues], FileNet also makes strategic acquisitions to add best-of-breed capability to extend our product suite. Yaletown offered advanced capabilities in Records Management for email and for searching large repositories. But at FileNet, new features, whether developed or acquired, MUST integrate with the overall P8 product suite before we release to the market. This is what has happened with Yaletown. Again, Record Crawler is an essential tool when customers have mega-repositories; and the growth of email records is explosive. FileNet retains its eminent position as market leader.
SDA: Campbell, can you tell us about the new initiatives and product launches in the near future. Where does the company stand in relation to its competitors, especially in terms of bringing out more innovative, user friendly and technologically advanced products for the future? (government solutions)
HS: In relation to our competitors we are viewed by all major analyst firms (Such as Gartner) as being the leader in Enterprise Content Management, Business Process Management and Business Process Analytics. This means that we have the ability to innovate but also to work on our core competencies. Our clear focus with subject matter experts and depth of technical history gives us a competitive advantage in that niche players do not understand the ECM markets and industries as well as FileNet and the major technology vendors do not have the depth of technology nor do they understand ECM enough to apply them to markets such as government.
As for new initiatives we are identifying repeatable solutions across public sectors: now the challenge is that public sector is multiple industries in one; you have a spectrum of needs from academic research facilities all the way to defense organization that blow things up. So you will see a focused effort by FileNet and our strategic partners to provide relevant solutions and initiatives at the central, regional and local levels of government as well as into specific areas of health and human services, taxation, defense, intelligence, etc.
SDA: Hugh, what expansion strategies do you have in mind for the Asian market in the coming years? What will be your next step to gain a strong foothold in the Asia Pacific region?
HS: FileNet has been in the Asia Pacific region for more than 10 years, where we have continued to grow and strengthen our business operations to meet the rapid expansion and demands in the region. We are committed to this region and to ensuring that we have the expertise and technology in place to continue to provide best in-class solutions for our customers. We will continue to lead in our chosen markets – Banking, Insurance and Government, and will expand to cover Manufacturing and Telco. One of our ongoing development for Asia Pacific is our channel strategy is continue to grow and empower our partners to broader and deeper reach in the growing markets of China, India and South East Asia.
Finally, we have a heavy investment in support and R & D in Asia Pacific (in both India and China) and I expect that investment to increase.
