Is 'Compliance' Still King?

My friend @cherylmckinnon has poked at me for a couple of years about blogging. As you can see from the 4 or 5 post here, I haven't been too diligent in keeping up posts. Like many people I know I've been on the fence about blogging as an effective medium. Don't get me wrong, I understand and value its place and effectiveness, but I've just never thought it is the right medium for me. Personally, I',m a face to face meeting kind of guy. I like to look my audience in the eye and engage with them....plus there's that instant feedback/gratification thing. That said, Cheryl finally convinced me a year or so ago to dip my toe in the Twitter pool and I actually kind of liked it. So, I thought maybe I'll give blogging another try and see if I can stay more on top of it.

On my way, yesterday, to have a nice face to face with 200 or so customers, I read the following tweet from Cheryl:

"RM is the foundation for KM" - a message often lost in this era of noxious Compliance FUD. http://cli.gs/Q6WZn6"

To which I responded:

@CherylMcKinnon Completely agree that RM is foundation of KM, but implying that compliance is FUD is a bit extreme IMO

And, so I ask, is compliance still king of the business drivers for ECM? From my point of view, I hope it is or at least a crowned prince. There's no question that times have changed, that the market demands have matured and expanded almost simultaneously. But, the implication that compliance is FUD is...well...extreme. To me, compliance is more than ensuring that I keep certain types of content a certain period of time as defined by a certain external law or governing body for fear of penalty. Compliance also extends to an enterprise's self imposed guidelines or best practices. I talk to so many customers today who are concerned about the loss of knowledge as the older portion of their workforce enters retirement. Unfortunately, many of them are scrambling around now and trying to find 'easy' tools that will help capture and retain said knowledge before it's gone. Well, hindsight is always 20/20 but I would argue that had the organization had a solid knowledge management program earlier, and been compliant with it, they may not be facing an issue as big as it is today.

Organizations embarking on their first ECM journeys today must include compliance as part of their total ECM strategy. Is it the only driver, no, certainly not. Years ago a financial institution may have told its employees, 'you are required to store your documents in this software system whether you like it or not because if you don't we'll get fined by the SEC and then we'll fire you.' As President Obama outlines his plans for derivatives reform in NYC today, that may still be the case for my FinServ peeps, but that type of compliance statement only holds water for a narrow portion of the ECM market today. The compliance question that almost every customer I meet with is asking is, 'how do I give my team the content tools they want and need and maintain the standards of security, privacy, and control set forth by my firm?' I had this exact conversation this week with an AMLaw 200 firm in NYC who's looking to bring the E2.0 tools their young lawyers are looking for into practice. To me, they are getting it right. They have their eyes open to what their users are asking for in terms of content mgmt. They have a traditional DM platform in place (not mine I'm sad to say). And, they are bringing in vendors to talk about things like social workplaces for collaboration, email management, and mobility. Most importantly, they want to know how/if these technologies can help them comply with their standards, those of the State Bar, and their clients.

A complete ECM strategy must at least include compliance as an equal to knowledge sharing and knowledge preservation. As Cheryl said, 'RM is the foundation for KM,' and there is a reason for that....compliance is important whether you're complying with the FRCP or the NFL's Code of Conduct. Maybe if the NFL had a solid content management and sharing platform in place, young Mr. Roethlisberger wouldn't be worried about his job in Pittsburgh (sorry, NFL draft tonight couldn't resist the reference...GO PATS!)