Allison Consultancy White Paper

Human Factors for Successful EDM Implementation

Electronic Document Management (EDM) has matured as a technology over the last decade. There is now a wide choice of systems on the market able to deliver the desired results at an affordable price. However, there are still many EDM projects that fail to reach their promised benefits. This can be due to a failure to manage one or more of the following aspects:

• Technical issues
• Commercial issues
• Strategic issues
• Records management issues
• Human factors issues

This bulletin concentrates on human factors. In order to help chart the areas where human factors need to be taken into account, we need to consider both the parties involved and the stages that need to be passed through from initial concept to final successful implementation.

People

People at all levels in the organisation need to be considered:

Senior Management

Senior management are responsible for both the day-to-day and long term direction of the company. They are presented with challenges and decisions on a daily basis. Anything that is perceived to add to this burden rather than relieve it will not be welcomed. New technologies such as EDM must be presented to them in such a way that they can perceive the risks and benefit areas, and make an informed judgement of the applicability to their organisation.

Middle Management

Middle management is responsible for the short and long term direction of a part of the organisation. One of their key roles is to act as a two-way information filter between senior management and operational staff: Company policies are passed down to operational levels through Middle management, and operational data is summarised and passed up to Senior management. IT, including EDM, is reducing the need for this function, which can lead to 'de-layering' of Middle management. Care must be taken to ensure that asking for Middle management support for EDM is not like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

Junior Management/Supervisors

Junior management and supervisors are responsible for the day-to-day operation of an individual part of the organisation. They are under increasing pressures to reduce costs/headcount and yet improve efficiency and effectiveness. They can often see the benefits that EDM could bring, but sometimes need support in making a business case for their management.

Clerical Staff

These are the people who perform the routine day-to-day operations of the organisation. They are frequently under pressure to improve productivity, but often are not given the tools or training to help them achieve improvements. In structured environments where forms are handled, EDM can give productivity improvements of more than 30%. This often leads to staff reductions, which are very stressful for those who leave, but can also be stressful for those who remain.

Support Staff

These include IT and Records Management staff. They are often given the job of implementing and supporting EDM systems. Management usually assume that IT staff will be fully familiar with EDM technology and issues, as it is an IT technology. However, this is rarely the case, and IT staff need to be trained and supported to gain knowledge and expertise.

Another issue that can arise between the IT and Records Management departments. Document management has traditionally been the responsibility of the Records Management department. However, EDM is usually seen as an IT issue, and given to the IT department.

In many organisations, support staff are regarded as 'different' from staff in end-user departments. To be fair, support staff are often the principal cause of this problem and moves towards outsourcing exacerbate this issue. Successful implementation of EDM, or any other IT-based technique for that matter, depends on close teamwork between all members. Everyone should be and feel equally valued.

Stages for Successful Implementation

There are a number of stages that most organisations pass through in implementing EDM. These are described below, along with the particular human factors issues that often arise:

Education & Awareness

This is the first, and most important step in successfully implementing EDM. The initiator of the idea will usually be:

• A manager who hears about the technique and asks his/her staff to investigate
• A staff member who hears about the technique and decides to try to interest his/her management in the idea
• An EDM system salesperson who makes a 'cold call' to try to interest the organisation in the technique.

In all three cases, the initiator has to ensure a receptive audience for the idea. It is like a farmer preparing the soil by ploughing the field before planting the seed. As with the farming analogy, failure to prepare the organisation will lead to the idea withering before it has had a chance to germinate. EDM is still relatively novel for many people and they need to become aware of the benefits and risks involved. In particular:

Senior Management will perceive many risks - technical, organisational, financial, commercial, and personal. Unless they are given a true perspective on these risks, and an awareness of the potential benefits, they will naturally see the risks outweighing the rewards and be unreceptive. This is particularly so for enterprise-wide systems which allow business process re-engineering (BPR). The potential risks and rewards for the organisation are enormous.

Middle Management will feel vulnerable if techniques such as EDM are suggested. The concept of EDM must be conveyed to them carefully to avoid negative feelings. The potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their departments must be emphasised.

Junior Management and Supervisors are often receptive to the idea of EDM as a way of improving the efficiency of their sections and job satisfaction in the tasks to be performed. However, they must be given involvement in the whole project to allow them to develop a feeling of ownership and a sense of a degree of control over their own destiny.

Clerical Staff will be nervous about the prospects for redundancies, and disruption to their work. They must be given a realistic picture of the likely outcome of the implementation of EDM and a chance to see a demonstration to realise it will look familiar. They should be involved in the design process to let them know they are valued, and a sense of ownership. The whole subject needs to be de-mystified to avoid fears about coping with the unknown.

Support Staff will often be given the task of implementing EDM. They must be see that the managers realise they cannot become instant experts in this new technology, and that training and support is available to help them.

Information Management Strategy

Documentation is the physical manifestation of business processes. Any implementation of EDM must be based on an information management strategy which:

• serves and supports the business strategy
• integrates with the IT strategy

Many manual documentation procedures have evolved piecemeal over a long period of time, and are often no longer optimal. In addition, EDM offers techniques for carrying out many business processes more efficiently and effectively (which is its main raison d'être). Organisations have a natural resistance to change, which must be managed properly to ensure that the optimum benefits are obtained, whilst minimising disruption and resistance. The staff who developed manual systems will have a sense of ownership, which should be transferred to the EDM system through consultation and involvement.

Senior Management must be reassured that EDM will serve their business needs, and not vice versa. At the same time, they must be encouraged to take a step back and envisage how the technology might be used to improve the business through a more radical change to working practices (BPR).

Middle Management have similar needs and concerns to Senior Management, except that they are concerned with only one part of the organisation. In addition they will wish to ensure that any initiative that they undertake will not leave them out of step with their colleagues in other departments and unable to communicate effectively via IT or traditionally.

Junior Management and Supervisors will need to be helped to understand how their part of the organisation fits in to the corporate picture. They must also be involved in the decision making process, and understand that they are not going to be 'steam-rollered' into something that is not good for their section.

Clerical Staff will be largely unaffected by this stage of the process. However, they should be kept informed of progress and given reassurance.

Support Staff will be very heavily involved in producing the strategy. They will be expected to consider all the implications of various options. They must be given expert assistance to help them perform this task effectively. Any external consultants should work closely with the internal support staff, and ensure that they are not seen to take the initiative away from them, but rather to transfer expertise which will remain with the organisation.

Feasibility Study

If the idea for EDM started life as a general belief that the organisation should investigate the technology, it is important to choose the first project with care. If EDM has been chosen for a specific application, this stage is less important.

Senior Management will make the decision over which area to choose for the first trial of EDM. They need to be given support to ensure that they are fully aware of the factors affecting their decision, and comfortable with the choice.

Middle Management will need support during the process of choosing which department will host the first project. Managers may wish to host the first project in order to gain prestige, or conversely, they may try to avoid hosting it in order to avoid potential disruption and failure. Either sentiment, although understandable, is not the best way forward and could affect future roll-out.

Junior Management and Supervisors will have the same feelings as Middle Management during this process.

Clerical Staff will not be actively involved in this phase, although one success criterion for choosing the first project is willing and receptive end users. For this reason, the clerical staff should be involved in the decision making process.

Support Staff will play a supporting role in choosing the first project, making input on the IT and support issues. Where the support staff are devolved to the departments, rather than being central, similar feelings will be experienced to Middle and Junior Management in terms of desire to host the first project.

User Requirement Specification

Senior Management and Middle Management will not be actively involved with the user requirement specification stage, and hence there are no significant issues.

Junior Management and Supervisors will be actively involved in the user requirement specification. The detailed analysis requires them to examine their existing practices objectively. As these usually evolve gradually over a period of time, there are often inconsistencies and illogicalities. It is important that people are not given a sense of failure or inadequacy when these shortcomings are identified. Junior Management and Supervisors will also be expected to envisage how the business will operate using EDM. This will be stressful, as they will have no experience of this way of working.

Clerical Staff are often ignored during this stage. However, this is unwise as they have detailed hands-on experience of day-to-day issues and what is practical. They should be consulted for their input. This also has the benefit of keeping them informed and involved, and ensures their commitment to the system. It is important that they are listened to - not just asked then ignored which is de-motivating. They may need 1:1 sessions to empower them to contribute although carefully tailored workshops have, in our experience, been very effective in preparing people at all levels to make their contribution.

Support Staff will be very actively involved in this stage - often having the responsibility of producing the specification. As EDM will probably be unfamiliar to them, it is essential to provide high quality, experienced training and support. They may well need the back-up of experienced advice to ensure the specification is both realistic and compliant with appropriate regulatory requirements. EDM makes quite high demands on the IT infrastructure, and the temptation to minimise this impact, rather than maximise business benefit must be avoided.

Make the Business Case

Senior Management will need to approve the strategic decision to use EDM within the organisation. They may also be asked to subsidise the cost of the first project, as it is a learning experience for the organisation. Provided that the initial education and awareness stages have been successfully carried out, there should be no significant problems. A common mistake is to wait until the business case stage to perform the education and awareness exercise. This means that the senior management is hit with the idea cold, and asked to approve a reasonably large expenditure in one go. Not surprisingly, this often meets with resistance and suspicion.

Middle Management is often the budget holder who will be asked to meet the cost of the system. As with senior management above, prior education and awareness will help ensure a positive reception for the proposal.

Junior Management and Clerical Staff will not be actively involved in making the business case, and there are thus no significant issues.

Support Staff will be actively involved, often having to make the presentation to Management. For the initial project, the presentation of the business case will be a high profile activity. The presenter must be comfortable about the business case and have sufficient confidence and knowledge to answer questions. This may require training in presentation skills as well as the technology to do this justice.

Procurement

Senior Management, Junior Management, and Clerical Staff will not be actively involved in the Invitation to Tender (ITT) and Vendor Selection stages, and so there are no significant issues.

Middle Management and Support Staff will normally carry out the procurement stage. Usually, the support staff will include people from Contracts and Purchasing. A structured methodology should be used to help the decision-making process. Visits to vendors' premises, and existing customer sites will provide a high degree of understanding of real-world issues for management and potential users alike. It is advisable to obtain assistance from consultants during this phase. The consultant should provide a methodology, industry experience, and advice, including helping to make the ITT unequivocal for the potential suppliers, thus simplifying the task of comparing the resulting submissions. However, (s)he should not make the decision about which supplier to use. It is very important that the end customer should be empowered to make the decision. This ensures buy-in, commitment, and 'pride of ownership'.

Installation & Initial Operation

Along with the initial education and awareness phase, this is the most stressful phase of the whole process and pro-active support should be given to manage the human factors issues that will inevitably arise.

Experimentation should be encouraged and a 'no-blame' culture established. The inevitable mistakes and blind alleys should be put down to the learning experience and not punished. This process has to be actively managed - mere words and assurances from management are not enough.

Senior Management will usually have little involvement with this stage, apart from keeping a watching brief.

Middle Management will be monitoring the progress of the implementation and will be anxious to ensure success. They will not feel comfortable unless they understand all the issues involved and which management 'levers' they need to pull in order to manage the project. To achieve this, they must be properly educated and the system must be designed to be manageable.

Junior Management and Supervisors have the immediate responsibility for ensuring that the system operates successfully at the detailed level. The initial operation will inevitably lead to extra workload. This needs to be built into people's expectations and resources should be made available to cope with it. There will also be major changes to working methods and responsibilities. These must be sensitively handled.

Clerical Staff will also have an increased work-load burden placed upon them initially. There will also be very large changes in their working methods. In a structured 'back office' environment the efficiency savings may lead to a high level of redundancies. This all adds up to a very stressful period for clerical staff. It is vital that management provides positive, sympathetic support during this period - for those who stay as well as those who have to go. One important factor is obtaining feedback from clerical staff on the progress of the pilot and suggestions for improvement. These should be formally documented and implemented if possible. It is vital to manage expectations.

Support Staff will be actively involved in the pilot phase. There will be many technical issues to resolve. A large proportion of these will be unexpected, and could not have been predicted in advance. It is important that support staff's efforts to resolve these issues should be regarded in a positive light, rather than blaming them for allowing the problem to exist in the first place. They also need time available to devote to the learning, which will inevitably accompany dealing with the issues that arise.

Post-Project Review

The purpose of a post-project review is to assess the lessons learnt from the initial operation and to decide on the future operation and development path. As discussed above, it is vital that this is carried out in a positive, 'no-blame' way. There should be no witch-hunts.

Senior Management will want reassurance that their support for EDM was justified. They will want an objective assessment of whether issues encountered were teething problems, or a more serious indication of ongoing difficulties. The usual consequence of successful initial operation is a wider roll-out of EDM which will require the outlay of significant funds and higher risks of disruption to business operation. Senior Management must feel comfortable before they will make this commitment. It is important that the responsibility, and accountability, for successful ongoing operation and development of EDM be given to an identified senior manager.

Middle Management will face many of the same issues as Senior Management. In addition, if the initial operation has not been successful, they will face negative pressures from Senior Management and their peers. There will also be issues if the initial operation is successful and it is decided to spread the use of EDM to other departments. The manager in the first area may feel protective of his 'baby' and not wish to share his success with others. He may also seek to retain undue influence over the long-term development, because he was the first to implement the technology.

Junior Management, Supervisors and Clerical Staff should be empowered to give feedback on the initial operation and suggest improvements. They should be encouraged to share the successes and be informed of progress.

Support Staff should also be encouraged to share the successes and have their contribution recognised. The ongoing relationship between the client departments and the supporting services will need to be established. Ownership of the system, in its broadest sense, should rest with the client department(s), not with supporting services because the owner of the problem should own the solution.

The Human Factors Matrix

The following table gives an overall picture of where the human factors input is most needed during the various stages of implementation. The more '!'s, the greater the potential for human factors problems.

About Allison Consultancy

Allison Consultancy is an independent organisation specialising in all aspects of EDM strategy, implementation and training and maintains links with all the suppliers in the EDM market. Through a network of experienced associates, we offer clients the skills of a consultant familiar with implementing EDM in similar situations to their own. We are pleased to work with clients at all stages from an initial feasibility study through building the business case, needs analysis and definition, procurement and implementation support and post project review.

Please call Dik or Joy Allison for further information: Tel 01777 871506 or e-mail info@allicon.com.

© Allison Consultancy, Egmanton, 2005. This paper may be used for personal research purposes only. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Allison Consultancy.