Introduction
I am going start out this paper with an assertion that you may have come across by now; SharePoint 2010 includes features enabling ECM for the masses. The obvious next question becomes “So what is in it for me for me?” It is quite possible one might have come across this term when reading through the plethora of new features that Microsoft added to the 2010 version of SharePoint. Some other questions that come to mind are: a) how is Enterprise Content Management different than Document management or web content management or records management?, b) Are all these content management concepts somehow related?, and c) What are the new features in SharePoint 2010 that support these content management concepts? These questions and more related subjects are the main topic of this paper. Besides providing a high level overview of how these concepts are related, the paper will provide an overview of the different features in SharePoint 2010 and also provide some strategic considerations for successfully implementing ECM solutions within the enterprise.
A detailed analysis of each new feature in SharePoint 2010 is beyond the scope of this paper – there are entire books written to that topic. To better understand some of the different content management concepts, please review the articles referred to in the “Suggested Reading” section.
Enterprise Content Management and its Subsets
To explain the relationship between ECM, document management, records management, and web content management, let’s “borrow” a diagram (Fig 1.0) from the SharePoint datasheet the Microsoft publishes. If you are curious to read the datasheet , here it is http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9690856 . As the diagram below depicts, web content management, records management, and document management are all subsets of features of the bigger umbrella - Enterprise Content Management.
As the diagram suggests, Microsoft went beyond just records management, document management or records management, to providing rich media management and enhanced workflows as part of the new feature set in SharePoint 2010. Rich media management refers to digital asset lifecycle management which includes tracking, archiving, searching, storing and retrieving digital assets such as photographs, corporate brand images, videos etc. In the workflow category, SharePoint 2010 introduces new ways of developing workflows, such as through Visio, while also creating new workflows types such as the site workflow. These new capabilities greatly enhance the overall workflow functionality within SharePoint 2010 framework.
Metadata
Now that we have sorted through different types of content management concepts, let’s get to the bottom of what is critical to efficiently managing content: a) content and the more important one b) content about content or should we say data about data or in one word metadata. With respect to management of content, be it office documents, digital assets, or corporate records, the least common denominator for efficient management is metadata. SharePoint 2010 provides many new features of capturing metadata and connecting it to the underlying content. Metadata forms the basis of enhanced search, content organization, filtering, navigation, archival / retrieval and many other content management features. SharePoint 2010 has new features for capturing and organizing metadata while also new features that use the captured metadata to perform actions depending upon the values of the metadata columns.
It is important to understand the benefits of proper use metadata within SharePoint. Well-organized and efficient use of metadata will result in productivity boost, which is one of the core ROI factors for SharePoint. Inefficient and inaccurate metadata may make things worse. This follows a simple rule “Garbage in Garbage out”. While defining metadata fields and creating the metadata hierarchy a few strategic key elements need to be kept in mind:
a) People – Do the users of the system understand the importance of accurate metadata? Understand the audience level - their technical savvy’ness, their understanding of the business process, their willingness to adopt new systems; these are important elements to identify how people view the importance of metadata, and thus will help in designing the adoption program for the system.
b) Business Process – Before defining the metadata, it is essential to define the complete business process and then translated to SharePoint specific components. The process of defining appropriate metadata is made easier by identifying different types / formats of metadata, the stage of the business process when the metadata is populated and used and also who and how users will use the metadata. Any additional complexity such as workflows, or regulatory / compliance requirements, auditing may require the information management policy features of SharePoint .
c) Technology – Users of the system should understand the high level technological concepts behind the scene to better appreciate and utilize the metadata features to its full potential. It is essential to enlighten users on the “here is how it benefits” factor, besides the “here is how you do it” part. Technological solutions always have limitations and thus, besides understanding how to make effective use of the technology, it is equally important to recognize the boundaries. In simple term technology solutions are not mind readers, they need to be used per the rules to harness its benefits.
Here are some considerations while designing metadata:
a) Automation – SharePoint 2010 has a feature using which, based on the location / library of the content, default values can be specified for certain metadata fields.
b) Reuse - Many business processes across the organization may use the same content metadata, but for different purposes and in different ways. For example metadata defining an RFP would have some base attributes such as the project name, budget, duration etc. Different departments may add on to these metadata fields. Thus it may be beneficial for teams to identify these common elements and combine them into reusable content types.
c) Minimal / Less frequent Changes – Constantly changing or revising metadata structures can cause confusions – user level as well as the content that has been previously stored using that metadata. The point here is to take the time to understand the complete process and its elements instead of taking the approach of “evolve as things change”. SharePoint 2010 definitely has capabilities that make changing metadata easier, but these features should be used with considerations to the user, to the process and to the existing content.
Key SharePoint 2010 Content Management Features
Here are some key SharePoint 2010’s content management features that support the collection of metadata and also features that use the metadata to provide various types of functionality:
- Managed Metadata Service: This feature allows definition of content types that can be reused across site collections and sites, which is a major enhancement over its predecessor, SharePoint 2007’s functionality. Using the flexibility of the service application architecture organizations can create multiple managed metadata services allowing for isolation and management. Managed metadata service also serves as the container for term store, a collection of hierarchical terms, that could be used as metadata fields within libraries. The following diagram, again borrowed, this time from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424403.aspx , provides a high level overview of the managed metadata service
Fig 2. Managed Metadata Service Architecture (adapted from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee424403.aspx)
- Document Sets: This feature allows managing multiple documents within a site collection, irrespective of its location within the site collection, as a single entity. So for example if a project has multiple documents as part of its deliverable, all these different documents could be considered as part of a “document set” which can be managed as a single entity within SharePoint.
- Document ID Service: A site collection level feature within SharePoint 2010, this feature assigns an ID to a document and uses the ID to keep track of the location of the document. If the document is moved within libraries in the site collection, the ID ensures that SharePoint can locate the document irrespective of its location. Further this feature can be applied to the document sets, wherein, each document within the document set is tagged with an ID to keep track of the entire set of document as a single entity.
- Content Organizer : A new feature in SharePoint 2010, the content organizer automatically routes documents to appropriate libraries based on the metadata values. The feature works on the basis of a drop off library, from where the content organizer would automatically relocate the document based on the metadata provided.
- Location based metadata: This feature applies default values to metadata fields to content based on the location. The values are set at the library level and when content is uploaded to the library, SharePoint automatically applies these values to the specified metadata fields.
- Metadata driven Navigation: This is a feature that allows users to navigate a library based on managed metadata. This feature is enabled within a library and uses the structure of the managed metadata structure to navigate documents.
- InPlace records management: A feature that allows for treating content as a record, without moving it into an explicit records center. Declaring content as a record allows applying different types of policies, such as retention and restrictions. In the previous version, a Records Center was an explicit template where records management features were available. SharePoint 2010 makes this feature available to any template through a feature.
Summary
This paper provided a high level overview of how SharePoint 2010 is making “ECM for the masses” a reality. SharePoint achieves this mission through various new features oriented towards two main capabilities: a) to define and capture metadata, and b) to use the metadata to provide navigation, content organization, content filtering, search and data archival / retrieval. While designing a metadata based solution it is important to take into consideration the people, the process as well as the technological elements. Combinations of the different features in SharePoint 2010 provide many content management features out of the box. Further readings into these subjects are provided in the suggested reading section of this paper.
Suggested Reading:
What is Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?: http://www.aiim.org/What-is-ECM-Enterprise-Content-Management.aspx
Introducing Enterprise Metadata Management (SharePoint 2010): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2010/06/22/introducing-enterprise-metadata-management.aspx
Introducing Web Content Management (SharePoint 2010): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2010/03/12/introducing-web-content-management-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx
Introducing Document Management (SharePoint 2010): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2010/02/15/introducing-document-management-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx
Introducing Records Management (SharePoint 2010): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ecm/archive/2010/02/13/introducing-records-management-in-sharepoint-2010.aspx
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