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Web 2.0 sites have changed the way content is being accessed around the globe by remote workers, requiring easier access points through tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. The clunky and traditionally expensive enterprise content management (ECM) methods no longer apply, as budgets are tightening and workers are requiring more user-friendly Web 2.0 tools on the go.
In order to make the most out of Web 2.0 investments, organizations need ECM solutions to be economical, simple and able to handle a large amount of content. At the same time, these ECM solutions need to allow companies the freedom to choose to use tools based on the changing needs of their organization. Open-source ECM enables organizations to more easily and cost-effectively manage content, projects and people using both internal and external Web 2.0 sites to create a better collaborative working environment.
The following are five best practices for making Web 2.0 work within the enterprise using open-source ECM:
Best practice No. 1: Focus on the creative knowledge workers
To make knowledge workers more effective, enterprises need to focus efforts on supporting free-form, informal and social processes for project and personal collaboration. As knowledge workers utilize both internal and external content, enterprises need to consider how to implement open-source ECM to support the type of Web 2.0 environments they are familiar with outside of the enterprise (such as YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook).
Best practice No. 2: Build the community
Web 2.0 is all about the communities they create and open source is all about enhancing that community. By embracing product-driven Web 2.0 community microsites, stronger brands can be created by providing an interactive community to test messages, solicit feedback and create buzz and company evangelists.
Best practice No. 3: Incorporate content, projects and people
For enterprises to embrace Web 2.0, next-generation open-source ECM must manage content, projects and people. This means managing content that is created both internally and externally and managing the people, colleagues and experts within the enterprise. It also means identifying their knowledge areas, as well as collaboratively managing the range of different projects that individuals manage, drive or touch in some way.
Increase Cost-Effective Web 2.0 Scalability
Best practice No. 4: Increase cost-effective Web 2.0 scalability
To make Web 2.0 work within the enterprise, companies need to increase scalability and there are a number of best practices to achieve this. First, enterprises can scale out over a number of smaller machines in a clustered environment, or they can leverage low-cost, high-availability through a Web farm architecture.
Second, enterprises need to look for tools that separate and partition content to manage different types of content or code-for example, internally-deployed content or user-generated content (UGC). Lastly, enterprises can replicate for scalability across different offices or geographies.
Best practice No. 5: Engage customers in their channel of choice
Just as employees have their own preference on how they like to work and access information, so do customers. The Web offers multiple content platforms, but open-source ECM enables enterprises to publish and access content in the tools their customers are using (for example, using Facebook to engage customers through social interaction instead of direct mail).
By using open-source ECM solutions to manage Web 2.0 sites, corporations can now get more out of their current tools and open up the rest to participation. With open-source ECM, employees will have the liberty to use Web 2.0’s freedom of speech to provide valuable feedback for the business, as well as have the ability to assemble teams with customers without interference.
In return, with this approach, customers will become part of the decision-making process and allow software vendors to design the most imaginative products and services based on direct feedback.
John Newton is Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Alfresco. John is no newbie to the market, as he has had one of the longest and most influential careers in content management. Considered by many to be the father of enterprise content management, John is credited with inventing many of the concepts widely used in the industry today. In 1990, John co-founded, designed and led the development of Documentum, which became the leader in content management and was acquired by EMC. In 2005, he co-founded Alfresco. He can be reached at John.Newton@alfresco.com.