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Top Ten Tips to Leverage the Web
- Understand the problem that you're trying to solve
ECM platforms are an enabler for your business strategy. To get the most from your ECM platform the process of selecting, implementing and managing system should reflect the core business problem that you're trying solve, not its technical symptoms.
- Ask the right questions
Business requirements are not the same thing as product selection criteria. Many products will offer similar functionality, so use your selection criteria to identify the technical products which will satisfy needs that are unique to your business.
- Adoption is the key
Your CMS platform should free up your IT staff while enabling your business staff in a controlled content environment. If business users do not leverage the platform to 'own' their web content, then the key benefits of the project are lost before you've begun.
- Garbage in, garbage out
No matter how flexible your platform is, how tightly controlled your workflow is, or how detailed your web reporting mechanisms; you must have good content. Customers will buy more, refer their friends and be loyal to your brand, but only if they value their web experience.
- Map compliance to your existing business
The temptation when configuring workflow systems for a new ECM platform is to over-complicate the process. You can always introduce additional steps later if required, but a complicated process for content approval will quickly get your users wishing they had the old system back again.
- Measure your performance
If you are not collecting and reviewing website activity data, how do you know what you are doing well and what you could be doing better? Web analytics packages such as Omniture and Google Analytics allow you to track the real-time performance of your site against your business drivers.
- Let your customers do what they want to do
More and more businesses are allowing their customers access to internal systems through their ECM platform. Checking balances online, changing memberships, updating personal information and submitting claims can all now be done quickly and cost effectively online. Providing customers the ability to perform simple business transactions online will increase customer loyalty and decrease your customer service costs.
- Social software and social networking
Social software is the hottest thing in ECM right now and interest in the technologies does not seem to be waning. Correctly executed, a good social strategy can deepen your relationships, provide valuable information to your customers and deliver to your bottom line. Gartner believes it's better to adopt a social strategy now, since community adoption will be harder the longer you wait.
- Listen to the crowd
If you are not providing a forum for your customers to tell you directly what they think, many will say it anyway outside the confines of your platform. An effective eMarketing strategy will include at least participating on other social sites such as Twitter and Facebook to learn what your customers are saying about you.
- ECM is a living strategy
Many organisations pool resources to implement an ECM platform, then put their strategy back on the shelf once the project is completed, then wonder how they ended up with a clunky system just two years later. Your ECM strategy should at its core include a practice of constant evaluation and improvement to get the most from it.
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