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Do You Want Easy, Or The Truth? A Wake Up Call About Document Management.

By Ken Stewart on April 7, 2009

Staples_easy_button Everyone of us has used an office automation suite. Perhaps you live in some flavor of Microsoft Office, others love Google Docs (still in beta, really?), or maybe you are an OpenOffice or iWorks nut. They all have their various strengths and weaknesses – and all have their valid uses and supporters. What is impressive is the pure productivity enhancements such software has ushered in; Can you imagine not having a word processor, spreadsheet or presentation application?

All of us who have been around a little while saw the fits and starts of office productivity suites before they were really productive, right? But no matter how far they have come and how slick the template wizards are – they don’t write your sales proposal, create your pivot table, or tell you what to say to your customer in that big meeting – do they?

In a word – nope.

So why would it come as a shock to you that your electronic document management system would solve all of your business process issues with a few simple clicks of next, next, and finish? Such a system, can’t folks.

An electronic document management system is just like a hammer or drill. It is designed with a specific purpose. For instance, I can decide to use a hammer to drive a screw into a piece of wood, but at what cost? Will I damage the wood, break the head off of the screw, and blacken my thumb in the process?

Take a step back to your line of business applications. Your ERP system runs your business and CRM/SFA application drives your sales, right? Hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions traverse the complex interactions between user interfaces and database, enforcing your business rules and enhancing your business processes (when/if things are done correctly). When used correctly, any software tool will enhance your business processes, but without overlaying solid business process as the foundation to your solution it will crumble and fall like a proverbial house on the sand. Electronic document management is no different.

Before you start asking why you aren’t getting the return on your investment and rush off to drop your fist on the big red easy button - get up, walk to the bathroom and take a long, hard look in the mirror.

Ken Stewart’s website, ChangeForge, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology in an information-centric world. Ken is also the founder of Seeking the Son. He is always interested in connecting; To discover the many ways you may connect with him, visit him at DandyID.


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Ken Stewart

People-focused, business-minded, technology-savvy leader who likes to ask: "Why?"

  • Great Point - good read.

    I like to call and EDM (or any new software system) a 'magnifying glass' - it makes the good processes better and the bad ones worse.
  • Thanks, Greg... I like the bit about the magnifying glass. I might just steal (uhmmmm) borrow that ;-)
  • Michael_Josefowicz
    Well said. I've always found that the way to get buy in on the ground is to translate tech into easy for any particular player in the organization. It took me years to stop trying to either explain or educate. Once I realized that hardly anyone wants either an explanation or to be educated, it was much faster to get people to do things they haven't already done.

    People at the top usually want to believe in easy. People on the ground know that anything new is going to be hard. If the sale is made from the ground up it's much easier to manage going forward.
  • Michael, I think that is perhaps one of the best things I've ever heard. I have been trying to wrap my brain around this same concept... and I honestly wonder if this is the little piece of perception I might have been missing?
  • Michael_Josefowicz
    Ken,
    if I've stumbled on something useful, it's probably because now that I'm retired I have some time to think and I've probably made every mistake at least 5 or 6 times on the ground.

    After years in the trenches I see a huge opportunity for independent MPS. They have the motivation, incentives and are in exactly the right position to lead a really big change. If they can learn from the mistakes of the commercial print industry, their future might be really bright.
  • Excellent points Ken. I have been in Document Management and Business Process Management (BPM) for 20 years and have seen many companies, big and small, have the perception that all they have to do is install the document management software and all of their problems are solved.

    There are times when problems need to be corrected before you apply the technology. With BPM projects, the problems usually stem from having never defined or documented your business process in the first place. Rules, and exceptions to rules, are then created in a workflow because of an issue that arose while implementing a process.

    As the years pass and employee's positions change, the new team members are following a process without understanding why rules were created, and do not question why it can't be changed.

    It’s important to learn how the Document Management solutions can work for you before you try to build something. Some tools are easier to use, but you still have to learn how to use them.
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