Information Management Filter

May 30, 2008 9:57 AM

I work in group that really needs good knowlege management and I'd like to drive things in that direction. The powers that be have decided that we will be using Open Text's Live Link.

Is this a good thing?

Assuming the advice isn't "Run Away!" - where should I go for information on how to customize this thing to our ends? Books? Websites? I've had one to many inscrutable black box dropped in my lap by some IT guy who then vanishes, and I'd like to avoid it in this go 'round.

posted by Kid Charlemagne to Computers & Internet (1 answer total)

One of the keys to succeeding and prospering with knowledge management products, is to resist, at every turn, the desire to customize them. That's because the underpinnings of these systems change over time; security components change, printing mechanisms change, database schema change, and you may find that rolling your customizations forward is enough of a pain that it severely compromises your organization's ability to stay current with product improvements and new releases.

Whether Live Link is for you, or not, seems to have been decided. If that's the case, your job seems mainly to consist of making the best initial implementation decisions that you can, and documenting those for later reference. The business case (payback potential) for these systems is often a product of one or two functions, so that it is not expected by senior management that every facet of the system will ever be turned up. Maybe your organization is just looking to become iron clad in terms of records retention policies as a means of minimizing litigation exposure. Maybe, instead, the driving concern is the need to force out some tightly held data silos in your organization, for access by many other parties. Maybe this system is to become a workflow pilot for a much larger eventual systems implementation. Whatever the motivations for installing the product, your job as an implementation lead are to discover those goals from the people paying for the system, and deliver them as quantifiable benefits, at the earliest date. Do that, and nothing else, and you'll be fine.

Understand the product thoroughly, before you begin implementation. This means attending as much vendor training as your organization can afford. Lobby for this, early and often, if you get nothing else. It may also mean pursuing, on your own, if necessary, additional exposure to product implementation resources in user groups for the product, and in site visits to other users. Having a core group of people, or even just an implementation lead, who thoroughly understands a software system product, is, in my experience, the hallmark of an organization that is successful in implementation. I've never seen an organization that skimped on training schedule or expense be completely successful, otherwise.
posted by paulsc at 1:38 PM on May 30, 2008