Despite all the hype about blogs and wikis, content management continues to a major driver of the corporate intranet. And productivity continues to be the principal driver for both intranet and content management.
Just this morning I had a client conference call with a Fortune 100 company and they reiterated that the number one issue or driver that will resonate with senior management’s acceptance and sponsorship of the intranet is ‘productivity’.
A recent study by IDC Canada, “The Push for Productivity: Provenance, Governance, and the Management of Content Assets” highlights that research continues to show that productivity remains the top issue for senior business management. The report provides the linkage to content management: “This focus on productivity provides a meaningful framework for content management objectives and activities.”
Furthermore it also highlights that content management is a business solution, not just a technology. “IT management needs to support information-based organizational agility and employee use.... to align IT activities with business objectives.”
Interestingly enough the study finds that only 42% of “general population” user organization generate all of their content internally.” The vast majority of most organizations with users (employees) that use (online) content have a combination of internal content and content from outside sources.
In other words, a lot of companies are buying content. Whether its news, or reports, data and analysis, content is a commodity.
Of course this issue of internal and external content probably sets off a lot of alarm bells for most as it does with me. Namely the key issues of security and governance. And there’s the rub: “Effective governance (policies, standards, ownership, etc.) will be critical to content-related success. The data suggests that content will continue to become more valuable, and that as it does, it is subject to unauthorized use by customers and business partners. Organization will need to take appropriate steps to safeguard content assets. At the same time, effective content management plays an essential role in enabling compliance with regulatory environments. There are multiple links between governance and content. There are multiple links between governance and content, which highlights the need for effective management in this area.”
Unfortunately, according to the study’s findings, only 13% of respondent companies have “formal enforceable policies applying to all content within their organization that govern the length of time that content can be stored.”