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It’s time to put mobility on your ECM roadmap

Is mobility a part of your enterprise content management strategy? If not, it should be, writes Alan Weintraub.
Written by Alan Weintraub, Contributor

Mobile access to information has increased its importance in your work environment.  Consider that two-thirds of your US and European workforce works remotely at least part time.  Accessing email, surfing the net, collaborating with a colleague, or posting Tweets from your mobile device is the norm and no longer a luxury. But can this mobile elite access your most valuable information assets?

If you’re like me, you want to be able to access your work information from any of your many devices, i.e. laptop, iPad and iPhone.  Wouldn’t it be ideal if that access would be transparent across all the devices, picking up where we left off as we move from device to device?  While mobile computing has matured in many areas, the ability to access and manage documents on a mobile device lags far behind many other capabilities, such as email and collaboration.   What I want to see in a mobile ECM application is same type of capability that we see in Twitter applications.  I can send and receive tweets from any device with the same functionality and experience.

The vendors that have a mobile application are either delivering an early release or have limited the number of devices they are supporting.  Most ECM vendors deliver some form of mobile access to their ECM solution.    Those that don’t have a mobile application provide reduced functionality through a mobile web browser.    So does that mean that all you need to do to create a mobile ECM strategy is to wait for your ECM vendor to provide an application?  The answer is no, since I contend that technology is always the simplest piece of an ECM implementation.

A successful rollout of a mobile ECM strategy involves many more dimensions besides technology.  You must also consider the people and process aspects.  Here are some the questions I plan to answer at our upcoming forum:

  • Does your governance program cover the added complexity of access and possibly storing content on an unmanaged, untethered device?
  • Have you insured that your processes are mobile ready; can the device and/or access method support the required processes?
  • Do your users understand their responsibilities?
  • Are your content formats supported on all devices?
  • Does your process require any special functionality such as digital signatures?

Developing a mobile ECM strategy is not a simple task, but one I feel you cannot avoid.  Join me at the Content and Collaboration Forum on September 23rd to further discuss the best approach to implementing an ECM mobile solution and the best ways to insure that your users get the maximum value from the mobile solution.

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