Putting enterprise content where people work

Underwriting content is similarly embedded in software for sales quotes and renewals. Content integration is customized by job role so that guidance is based on the specific role and workflow in question. The integration points provide a fast track to relevant resources, ensuring that employees benefit from collective knowledge even if they’re in the middle of a quote or speaking with a customer.

Provide anywhere access with mobile apps

The other key to putting content into the flow of work is making sure people can access that content when they’re working, even if they’re not in a traditional office environment (and let’s face it, many aren’t these days). APQC has been watching the rise of mobile KM for a while, but we were impressed that nearly all the best-practice organizations provide native mobile applications enabling access to enterprise content, regardless of location (Download Figure 3 also on page 9 April KMWorld, Vol. 24 Issue 4). According to the KM teams we talked to, those apps are significantly more effective than mobile browsers, which are how most organizations currently provide access to content—if they support mobile at all.

For the most part, the best-practice organizations’ content apps offer the same search and filtering capabilities available on desktop computers, which means employees have similar experiences in both contexts. Some apps are read-only, but others let people upload data or comments. Regardless of the specific functionality provided, the best-practice organizations agree that mobile access increases engagement and makes it more likely that employees will access content at the moment of need. Below are details on some of the most impressive apps we saw during the study.

Enterprise content apps

At chemicals supplier Nalco, the main audience for enterprise content consists of 3,500 field sales and service employees who spend most of their time on the road or at customer sites. Because mobile access is so critical to its content strategy, the organization designed a custom app that allows employees to search and download technical content to their smartphones. The app supports keyword search and advanced sorting and filtering; after downloading a piece, users can read, e-mail, post or airdrop it just like any other item stored on their phones. The app can be accessed via Wi-Fi or 3G so content is available anywhere an employee has a network connection.

Nalco’s KM team believes that the search application has significantly affected how employees deal with questions that come up in the course of their work. Prior to launching the app, if field engineers wanted to access technical content, they had to retrieve their laptops, boot them up and connect to a Wi-Fi network. But with the introduction of the app, they can access technical content from anywhere, which helps them solve problems and deliver answers to customers more quickly and accurately.

MWH Global’s business also requires significant fieldwork, so mobile capabilities are equally essential to its content model. However, instead of focusing on content in repositories, the organization provides mobile access to editable tools and templates for remote data collection. Proprietary mTOOLS and AutoForm software allow employees at client sites to download forms and checklists into which content and best practices have been embedded. Employees use tablets to gather data directly in the apps and then push that data to a collaborative website where it is immediately available to the rest of the project team. In this way, the apps standardize field data capture, speed processing and analysis, and supply field staff with the latest information and templates.

Mobile security

Of course, when you start putting enterprise IP and data on smartphones and tablets, security becomes a concern. The best-practice organizations have thought a lot about protecting content in the mobile environment, and each has its own strategy. At tax and audit firm EY, for example, employees who want to work on their mobile devices must use a solution provisioned or approved by corporate IT, and all applications are accessed through a secure firewall that requires EY login credentials.

For Nalco’s mobile content search app, employees have a 15-minute window to search and download documents before they must reauthenticate their credentials. Each time a user authenticates, the app deletes any content stored on the phone from previous sessions, which prevents employees from keeping company IP on their phones.

But despite the challenges, the best-practice organizations agree that mobile access is the wave of the future. Firms can’t ignore the risks, but they shouldn’t put their heads in the sand either. Smartphone-obsessed workers expect to interact with enterprise information from their devices, and employers must deliver anywhere access if they want to reap the full benefit of their content.

Next up

As the examples suggest, the best-practice organizations do everything in their power to ensure that relevant content is delivered directly to employees in the course of their work. However, those organizations understand that sometimes people—not tools—are the best sources to connect employees with the information they need.

In our second article on this research, we’ll explain the role of communities and social networks in content management, including how the best-practice organizations leverage social channels throughout the content lifecycle. In the meantime, you can learn more about the research and download the full report at apqc.org/CP2C.