They work in wildly different industries with disparate titles. They are male and female, and they work at far-flung offices across the nation—some in “Business Operations and others in “Information Technology.”

They boast eclectic and impressive resumes and experience which enable them to see business and content from many different angles.

They are business executives who have seized control of enterprise content management (ECM) within their organizations and positioned it at a strategic level, maximizing their investment in technology, increasing collaboration and knowledge exchange, while minimizing risk and maximizing compliance.

Who are they? They are Those Who Get It, and each has had an “Ah-hah! moment”: A point in time when they experienced a true epiphany and henceforth “Got It”. Whether it was evolutionary or revolutionary, they have crossed over, and, for each, there is no going back. They are champions of ECM, because they understand its full role and potential in today’s enterprise.

Why should you read about them? Because across the globe, ECM is playing an increasingly significant role in shaping the way organizations conduct business. But the technology behind ECM only goes so far. The source of differentiation is in the way it is deployed and leveraged.

Our cover story players are the ones that put their organizations at a competitive advantage by making better use of content—the currency of the information age.

Organizations that have “someone who gets it” are ahead of the curve. Those Who Get It do not all refer to the functionality and processes they use to create, store, manage, and leverage content the same way. For them, labels do not matter. What does is the establishment of policies, procedures, and practices to strategically manage and leverage content effectively and ubiquitously across the enterprise, in much the same way that most organizations manage and leverage personnel.

Those Who Get It are pioneers of adaptive business models that exploit technology to organize and lend clarity to data so that ultimately human beings can work smarter and harder and add to the bottom line. This is a hallmark.

In addition, our leaders are naturally inquisitive, always asking why, how, and “What if?” They have vision and foresight and are not afraid to ask tough questions, smart questions, or ones so seemingly banal that others never even thought—or had the courage—to ask.

They see emerging technology and ask, “Why can’t we change our business practices to leverage this capability, and be better off for it?” They see existing technology and ask, “Why can’t we do this as well?” Yet they are pragmatic and do not pursue technology for technology’s sake.

Those Who Get It understand the people side of ECM. They do not all work in receptive organizations. While they know only too well that a corporate culture conducive to leveraging ECM technologies is a huge asset, they are able to succeed in spite of it, as you will read.

They worry about issues such as absorption rate, political impacts, and compliance. They look for best practices and how to leverage them on behalf of the entire organization. They are change managers—doing whatever it takes to move business in step with IT and IT in step with business.

Those Who Get It do not work in ivory towers; they are workers who get down and dirty, metaphorically speaking, right into the very trenches of business processes and information architectures and rip things apart. What they do feeds right into the front-line battle troops: the legions of admins and the clerks who feed documents into scanners and push buttons on machines.

They see their role as a mix. Time spent in business versus IT may vary, but it is always a healthy mix. They take the time to study and understand the intricacies and nuances of their business and their IT departments.

They are politicians, diplomats, and matchmakers, bridging the gaps between IT and business communities, ensuring that all get something from changes they make, and that the community is comfortable with where it is being led.

They are tightrope walkers and jugglers who can maintain a balance between content, access, and collaboration to drive new business opportunities, content security, and content control to maintain compliance and minimize risk.

Yet, they are also risk takers, willing to challenge the rules and the status quo if necessary to move their companies forward through smarter application of ECM. For them, “It’s the way we’ve always done things around here” is not an acceptable answer.

They strive to make ECM technology and practices transparent, a behind-the-business platform that supports any and all business strategies. For them, ECM is the backbone of the organization.

Above all, they are people with credibility and the trust of those around them, attributes they have earned and continue to earn every day through honesty, intelligence, and an ever-lengthening track record.

Now: prepare to meet Four Who Get It: champions and leaders of your professional community.

Do you get it?

--Carl Frappaolo (cfrappaolo@aiim.org) is vice president of market intelligence at AIIM. Read his blog, “Taking AIIM,” at www.takingaiim.com.