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Sheila Keller, Marketing Strategist

Why document management fails

We have written many times about why you should look at document management and lean office in the workplace.  Today I decided to write about why it doesn’t work and why in some cases the project totally fails.
There are many reasons why a document management project can fail but here are a few issues that I have seen that might help you avoid a few headaches:
  1. No Advocate.  As with any big project you need to have someone to champion your document management project.  Often times an organization will buy a ECM software package and not fully implement it.  You need someone that will see the project through to the end.
  2. Information Silos.  Organizations often want to tackle scanning in one department at a time.  “We only want to look at HR for the time being.”  Often this leads to a solution that is not scalable across the organization.  We see information end up in silos when the whole goal of the content management project was to increase collaboration across the enterprise.  As Stephen Covey would say, “Begin with the end in mind.”
  3. Unwillingness to Change.  I know that culture is a huge hurdle in all organizations, but document management is not the future.  Document management is now.  Get the process owners to take an honest look at the way they do things.  Let us help with a process map.  It can be eye opening.
  4. Choosing the Cheapest Partner.  This goes hand in hand with all the challenges.  A document management solution that increases collaboration, is easy to use and is scalable across the enterprise is the way to go.  Unless you have a very basic electronic storage need I would recommend looking at the added return on investment more advanced solutions can bring.  They may cost a little more, but you won’t be stuck in the long run.
Hopefully this list is helpful.