eCollaboration and Enterprise Content Management

eCollaboration and Enterprise Content Management IS 904 Tero Päivärinta University of Agder 10.9.2010

Agenda • Possibility to log-in 8.15 for those needing practice in ”How to read an academic article in 15 minutes” • ”Wheel of collaboration tools” • Purpose – to learn think & discuss critically about a ”framework” • A thinking task • Discussion • Lifecycles of ECM / eCollaboration architectural elements • Purpose – to realize why is this field so challenging? (one explanation) • and how to put it into pieces of management efforts & relate them to each other • A thinking task • Discussion • Starting to work with objectives – ”making a business case” • & Checking the status of group works & starting to work with the objectives in them! • Concrete agreement for next steps, possible supervision meetings.

Working with academic literature A lot of materials -> need for a technique to read/utilize it effectively In General: Focus on the whole / main point(s) instead of details! • DON’T read each article from beginning to end, but have an overview first • The most scientific articles are built according to a standard structure: • abstract, introduction, theory, method, findings, analysis, discussion, summary/conclusion • use this as the starting point to ”chew” the materials • Look for similarities/relations and contrasts/differences of the article at hand in comparison to other articles • Be critical – look for possible shortcomings in method, data basis, context (is this about particular type of technology, organization, culture, etc. – does it claim to be ”universal”…)

Checklist for reading an academic article • What type of publication is this? Academic, practical, section from a textbook, consulting literature?... • When and where is it published? (Conference, magazine, journal, etc.?) • What is the main theme / focus in the article (Use the title, abstract/summary, and introduction) • How is it structured? - see the end of Introduction, if not there, have an overview of the subtitles • What type of study is this? (Empirical, conceptual, review, etc.?) • What is the research question which the paper gives answer(s) to? (Abstract & introduction) • What type of research approach and data was chosen? • what are the consequences of those for the conclusions? (often explicitly mentioned in a part of summary/conclusions) • What are the most important conclusions? (Abstract, Conclusions) • What can I learn from the paper relevant for the course/myself? • How does this relate to the rest of the course / the other issues of my interest?

And… now we practice this • Take Peppard et al. 2007 • Now, use 15 minutes to write down brief answers to the checklist questions to read the paper. • (that is – if you have 3 papers to read & understand per week -> it is 1 hour work reading)

Think (15 min) Locate the communication ”model” and tools used in this course into the framework Do we cover everything – even more? To whom would may this kind of framework be useful? Does anything lack (in light of your current idea of e-collaboration)? …and discuss. WHEEL OF COLLABORATION TOOLS, STATOIL

Understanding what needs to be changed

Examples of conceptualizations

Another picture: The ”Diamond” of ECM Environment: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE ENTERPRISE GOALS (OBJECTIVES) PEOPLE Socio- organizational ROLES (STRUCTURE) PROCESSES (TASK) metadata DOCUMENT INFORMATION CONTENT metadata GENRE REPERTOIRE GENRE SYSTEM GENRE CONTEXT DATA metadata INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IN CONTEXT) Techn(olog)ical Environment: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (OPPORTUNITIES)

… remarks about the framework • Change in one part affects the others • a need for holistic understanding of ECM/eCollab • Development can start from any viewpoint –> demarcation of the problem! • … but it should sooner or later discuss the others as well (more than 1 component needed to define an ECM problem properly) • All components (and understanding of them) change along time • need for enterprise coordination and continuous development over time, it is not any one-time project

… and why it is so challenging to develop wide ECM/eCollaboration over time? T1 T2 Tn….. Different elements have life-cycles of their own, seldom (never) ”perfectly synchronized”! -> ALWAYS problems/challenges in contemporary ECM/eColl system somewhere in big enterprises

Theory: Problems & challenges = gaps in the equilibrium of the elements • (Leavitt, 1965, Lyytinen & Newman, forthcoming): • development outcomes can be explained how well different components of the target system (goal, task, structure, information, technology, people) are aligned / in an equilibrium • change in one (or more) element(s) may cause the equilibrium to ”punctuate” • -> and a problem is experienced.

Example: conceptualizing ECM / e-Collaboration problems through this ”Class Fronter is not so useful for serving the students who want to join from outside UiA from day 1” New Objective(s): ? Use 5-10 minutes to think about this issue in light of the framework. Task(s): Content & comm: Roles: Vs. Existing situation? Where can we identify possible gaps? Where might we need change in relation to current practices? Infrastructure: Fronter?

Example: conceptualizing ECM / e-Collaboration problems through this ”Class Fronter is not so useful for serving the students outside UiA from day 1” Objective(s): involve people from industry to courses (EVU) Task(s): market the course, register, start the course, … Content & comm: course details, article materials Roles: Campus student, industry student?, lecturer, administration Vs. ? Objective 2 (from before) (Serve (mainly) students inside UiA, Standardize IT solution) Where can we identify possible gaps? Where might we need change in relation to current practices? Infrastructure: Fronter, …?

Starting to work with objectives: Why? 60-80% of ECM / eCollaboration development efforts needs to be done around socio-organizational issues.

Starting to work with the objectives:Business case –> Benefits management -> Benefits realization • Benefits management (Peppard et al., 07) • THE Mindset for realizing benefits through IT • ”IT has no inherent value” • ”Benefits arise when IT enables people to do things differently” • benefits emerge only when individuals or groups in and between organizations & stakeholders perform their roles in more efficient and effective ways • ”Only business managers and users can release business benefits” • i.e., NOT IT / project managers • ”All IT projects have outcomes, but not all outcomes are benefits” • ”Benefits must be actively managed to be obtained” • Problem- vs. innovation-driven interventions. • Discussion: how has benefits realization taken into account in your previous projects around ECM / eCollaboration/etc.? • Who has really taken care of that? • …back to the 60-80% statement of ECM / eCollab being socio-organizational…

Ward (2002), Chapter 9, Page 445 Benefit Dependency Network

Ward (2002), Chapter 9, Page 449 Benefit Dependency NetworkExample - Sales and Marketing System

Developing a ”benefits dependency network” • The (Business) Problem-driven way • Identify performance improvement targets & potential benefits • objectives -> benefits • > combinations of IT enablers and business changes which would achieve each of the potential benefits • -> desired business changes-> enabling changes -> IT enablers • Iterations to decide the most cost-effective and low-risk ways to do IT and business changes to achieve the performance improvement targets & benefits

Developing a ”benefits dependency network” (2) • The ”IT”-oriented –innovation way • New capabilities provided by IT? • IT enablers -> • What changes needed to ways-of-working? • Enabling changes -> Business changes • What Benefits can be realized, which objectives achieved • -> Benefits -> (Investment) Objectives -> Business Drivers

Note! • the LINE ORGANIZATION / USER ORGANIZATION / MANAGEMENT needs to ”own” each benefit • > i.e., line organization needs to own the benefits realization process (not the IT project manager, IT infrastructure manager, or CIO..)

Exercise 1 • Make (a very quick) ”IT-oriented” innovation-based benefits dependency path/network of the problem: • how to use our existing eCollaboration tools better? • name at least one ”IT enabler” • name at least one enabling change needed • name at least one business change made possible • name at least one benefit to be realized from the business change • Name a person in line org. / top management who wants to make sure that this is to be realized • name at least one investment objective (strategic objective) to which the named benefit contributes to • Who would / should own this problem?

Exercise 2 • Name one business problem/objective to be responded by ECM / eColl / (Social computing) • define that objective based on strategy of UiA etc. organization of your interest • Define a benefit to be reached which contribute to that objective • ..and a person in line organization / top management who is interested personally to make sure that this objective is reached • Define a business change required to realize that benefit • Define an enabling change required to realize the business change • Define an IT enabler to make the enabling/business change possible in a better way. • Who would / should own this objective / problem?

…Starting the group work • Make (the first version) of your ”business case” for your group work • i.e. objectives made clear! • recognize the ”benefits owner” -> strategy how to anchor this to the organization? • …start from the starting point which is most ”natural” to your group / problem! • either technical opportunity or org. goal • …2-3 foils which your group could be able to present the next week?

eCollaboration and Enterprise Content Management