Enterprise Content Management: Taming Complexity

From KMWorld
By: Paul Farnsworth, Vice President, Technology,
SafeHarbor Technology Corporation

May 1, 2006

From a logical standpoint, enterprise content management should be simple. Information is generated, stored and shared—and technologies help us keep it all straight. But that's not reality. There are so many variables that influence knowledgebase content that the design and execution of a simple sharing and delivery system—one that works for all contributors and audiences—is a very complex problem.

Every enterprise has unique information needs and uses. Your content management system should be uniquely designed to fit your company's structure, culture, goals, and existing technology, and with your customers' needs at the core. While reference content may account for a large portion of your knowledgebase, customer self-support content creates the biggest management challenge. With cross-channel support delivery the norm—and new channels emerging—content management has never been more critical to your success.

But keep in mind: It is one thing to drive customers to lower cost self-service options; it is quite another to deliver a self-service experience that meets or exceeds their expectations while getting your key messages across and securing their future business. Managing your content system from the customer point of view increases self-service adoption because customers are more likely to be satisfied with the service. How do you know? Through analytics that inform an active content management system—which must include people and resources.

Challenge Overview

There are logistical, cultural and technological elements to building a content management system that delivers. Let's look first at content development problem areas. Do knowledge article templates exist? If not, what is the existing convention for creating them? What styles do your content authors employ? What are your content approval and retirement processes? Is content owned separately by various departments or functions and who owns any shared content? Is it unnecessarily duplicated across the knowledgebase? Do you have too much content? What kind of feedback loops exist between user groups (product and marketing groups, call center, etc.)? Does your evaluation system challenge assumptions and detect mistakes?

There are also potential roadblocks on the technology side. Many enterprises are still using Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF documents to build knowledge articles. Each article, then, has to be structured so the knowledge base can interface with delivery applications. Some enterprises use different knowledgebase tools for different user groups, limiting the availability of content to other locations.

One solution to the knowledge article mobility problem is the formatting language, knowledge article XML (KAXML), which facilitates the exchange of articles between different knowledge management applications. Developed for open use by SafeHarbor, KAXML removes the need to individually translate the elements that underlie knowledge articles when moving content between different customer interaction applications. The result? Significant cost savings, particularly for organizations that rely on multiple applications within their customer-facing Web self-service infrastructure.

Taming the Complexity

Your content management strategy should be driven by well-defined organizational goals, such as enhancing consumer relationships, lowering support costs and integrating information for agents' internal use. The system's design should create pathways for content creation and maintenance that enable routine changes, communication among key information stakeholders and examination of technology needs based on customer response and need.

Measuring customer satisfaction with knowledge articles and the overall self-service experience is critical. And so are other metrics that reveal how customers navigate, through which channels and why. Expect and learn from mistakes. Use your analysis to drive content and system revisions.

Here's a suggestion for the bold: once your system is in place, turn off all the nonconfidential resources to your agents and have them use the customer knowledge base. You'll quickly find out where your content gaps are.

And, consider the costs associated with integrating any new technologies with existing knowledge and delivery systems. Look for solutions that let your content flow freely between the applications where they are needed.

Well-managed customer support content and delivery breeds accuracy, consistency and relevancy, leading to increased self-service adoption by customers. It can also result in better interdepartmental cooperation and adoption of similar initiatives in other critical enterprise content areas. By keeping the customer at the center of these processes, the enterprise is sure to benefit—by lowering support costs and retaining customers.

Paul Farnsworth, vice president of technology for SafeHarbor Technology Corporation, oversees the company's technology strategy and development. Farnsworth has more than 10 years of experience as an international IT executive, driving and delivering enterprise goals. Prior to SafeHarbor, Farnsworth was vice president of information technology at Qwest Communications, Inc., where he drove the transformation of Qwest IT and oversaw large technology changes and deployments involving key Qwest partners. Previous experience included working for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein as the global head of investment banking information technology, where he was responsible for the global investment banking IT team and investor relations business units.

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