By Rob Gray, Product and Marketing Manager - Google Enterprise
September 29, 2010 - 5:23 AM
A few weeks ago, the AIIM trade community met in London. This is a group made up largely of ECM vendors, both specialised/niche players and some of the big boys (EMC Microsoft etc.) - the niche guys especially have a vested interest in things like records management and document management systems
I was on a panel with Oscar Berg and Craig Hepburn - and one of our topics for debate was around "systems of engagement" vs "systems of control"...
One of the biggest problems with "systems of control" such as most records management systems, is that they have been designed for records managers, not end users. The end result is that people don't use them, so you end up with no records to manage. The advent of social media tools and cloud computing offerings mean that it is easier than ever for the end user to just "get things done" by using whatever tool they wish to use, outside of the control of IT.
IT teams need to realise that they are now competing against the outside world. It is imperative to ensure that the tools provided to staff are as engaging as those that they use in their "consumer lives". There is a great user expectation that is generated by the fantastic usability we see delivered by some of the next generation tools that are now available to use, easily consumed via the web.
Too often we focus on "control" as the starting point, where we should actually be focusing on "engagement" as the starting point. Control needs to happen in the background without the user being aware of it.
People are going to use whatever they can in order to get their jobs done more easily and more quickly. It's up to technology teams (and vendors) to make sure that our systems are firstly engaging and useful, and also offer the appropriate controls.
In closing I recommend reading Oscar's post about designing for adoption.
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This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International
