Web technologies for information management. (Cover Story).

The Computer Industry Almanac reports that, as of December 2000, there were 551 million personal computers in use and 299 million Internet users worldwide. Governments and businesses are working at break-neck speed to deliver information, products, and services to these users. To accomplish this, back-end systems must be linked together with Web content front-ends to deliver virtual records. These virtual records are created instantly, used, then discarded. The information behind virtual records, however, must be properly managed.

This is where the records and information manager proves vital. Knowing what these back and front-end systems are, the terminology related to these systems, how they fit together for the benefit of the customer, and how to apply recordkeeping principles is key to the success of future records and information managers.

Useful Document Management Applications

Electronic document management systems (EDMS) should be quite familiar to the records and information management professional. These systems are a client/server application designed to capture, version, route, and organize corporate documents. In addition, these systems provide collaboration, secure access, and distribution.

EDMS systems are very robust but do require extensive customization to meet business rules. These systems are also very expensive, so they are generally used in larger corporate and government institutions. They do include a lifecycle (retention) component, but these components are not as robust as records management applications, and it is evident that the RIM profession was not consulted in their creation.

The benefits of EDMS are well documented: more secure creation and access to information, versioning, information audit trails (especially good for highly regulated industries), approval paths, secured distribution, and workflow and collaboration automation. The major drawback to EDMS is software and implementation costs. These systems initially can cost millions of dollars, then one must budget for contractors to customize each business use of the product. A good estimate for customization is 75 percent of the initial software cost although customization cost depends on an organization's specific business rules and needs.

Due to the explosion of the Internet and World Wide Web for business use, these systems are now offering a Web interface. This offers a simple look and feel, less user training, and can grant access to certain information by suppliers, vendors, and customers.

Lower cost EDMS systems are now coming to market. These systems are not as robust as the major market players but do allow smaller organizations to benefit from document management. In addition, some records management application (RMA) vendors are building EDMS systems.

Records management applications (RMA) are client/server applications designed to apply records management principles to electronic and paper records. These systems offer secured electronic records storage and access, cross platform inventories, user-transparent retention enforcement, rapid litigation support, audit trails, and global batch disposition. In addition, they have the capability to manage records in any media type. These systems work well alone but can greatly enhance an organization's overall information strategy if integrated with an EDMS system.

RMA's cost is significantly less than EDMS, and they are not designed to manage to the document level, reducing the high-level functionality to the management of the official record copy. The United States Department of Defense (US DoD) has issued the 5012.5 Standard for Records Management Applications. The private sector has made this a defacto standard for RMAs, and most large corporations have used this standard in software assessments.

Enterprise content management (CM), sometimes called Web content management, includes systems designed to provide high-speed content assembly and publishing for Web environments. These systems manage Web code as well as information bites that are viewed by Web users. They can be customized to allow the content provider to publish content without needing to have Web design or HTML-coding knowledge.

Similar to EDMS, these systems can include approval routing and versioning of content. In fact, some EDMS systems are now including CM as an integral part of their product.

CM systems allow Web sites to stay current because the content is managed by the content owner, not by a central Webmaster. In addition, versioning can allow special promotions or announcements to be republished periodically without the need to totally recreate the information.

CM systems seem to be a very scaled down RMA for Web files and are good at publishing but lack batch processing support features, such as retention, disposition, and litigation of an RMA.

At present, no RMA vendors have integration with CM systems or viceversa; however, if utilizing an EDMS system for Web content management, several EDMS and RMA systems offer integration that could be applied to the CM component. CM systems are not inexpensive, and pricing can be even higher with customization and components.

Technology Architecture

Technology tools used in managing an organization's information should be tailored for the types of information managed. Technology architecture should be looked at to successfully implement these tools.

In the Web technology era, providing instant information takes months of planning, designing, developing, and testing before the tools are successfully launched. A series of servers and applications are set up in at least three layers: development, test, and production. Many entities also have a layer between test and production called staging; in three-layer structures, test and staging are combined.

In the development environment, all coding and customization is completed. The system is moved to test, where the code is tested for speed, errors, integration with other applications, and functionality. In staging, a sample user group is brought in to test user-friendliness, look and feel, and reliability. Functionality is further tested here. When all bugs are corrected and the sample user group approves, the system is moved into production where the system is fully utilized.

Web Technology Systems

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a very complex suite of applications that automate finance, human resources, and manufacturing processes for organizational efficiency. These systems are very expensive and usually require organizations to redesign their processes to fit the system.

ERP systems allow for streamlined business processes, clean data sharing between business units, inventory management, human resources automation, and faster order processing. The cost, however, prohibits these packages from being used by smaller organizations and have usually been reserved for large corporations due to their cost.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems allow organizations to capture information on customers and prospects to improve business performance. These systems identify the most profitable customers and prospects, then tailor products and services to satisfy them. In addition, the least profitable clients are actually discouraged from doing business with the company in some cases. From a business perspective, sales and marketing resource optimization, superior customer relationships, and service excellence are the key goals of CRM. The system helps to achieve these goals.

CRM systems allow for sales force automation, contact management, call center management, information exchange between customers and business (B2C), and customer personalization. These systems can integrate with EDMS and CM systems for a full corporate-to-customer information experience.

CRM systems actually have a wide range in cost. Small businesses can invest in small CRM systems (mainly the contact management component), while large corporations can spend millions.

E-procurement is the ability of an organization to purchase products and services, as well as interact with those suppliers, securely via the World Wide Web. E-marketplaces are the tools to make e-procurement happen.

E-marketplaces are secure central, online centers for buyers and suppliers to conduct transactions. The marketplaces are usually hosted by e-marketplace vendors who charge a fee to the buyer and/or seller for marketplace use. These fees can be billed monthly or per transaction.

Their benefits are numerous: reduced transaction costs, greater visibility to inventories, real-time order processing, and the control of "maverick" spending -- in which each department buys the same product from multiple sources without controls -- by offering a single procurement tunnel for everything from paperclips to jet engines.

Enterprise application integration (EAI), or middleware, is a method of linking information from different enterprise computer systems with a single bridge. EAI may serve as the link between ERP, CRM, EDMS, and legacy systems, or mainframes.

EAI avoids the need for very expensive and inflexible custom-built, point-to-point bridges. This reduces costs and extends the life of the legacy systems by extending them into Web-oriented business processes. It also gives organizations the ability to choose best-of-breed solutions without incurring the expense of hand-built integration.

Although EAI systems can cost into the millions, their cost overall is about one-tenth of what it would be building point-to-point. This is its biggest justification. Another benefit is its ability to interface with multiple platforms, and by its implementation the allowance of users to have a single access point to multiple corporate information repositories.

The portal concept was launched to the Web in 1998. Portals are a "hub," joining structured and unstructured information, applications, and business services from various back-end sources into a personalized context that supports various user activities. Vortals are a "vertical portal" that focus on a specific topic.

Portal applications provide the front-end, taking advantage of the EAI in the middle to join EDMS, CRM, ERP, and legacy information to the user. Portal software is available for organizations to customize information for users and can be used for Internet, intranet, or extranet portals.

Web Technology Integration

How do all of these technologies integrate to make a total information solution for an organization? How does the records and information management professional manage these systems?

Begin with the portal. Customers (B2C), suppliers (B2B), or employees (B2E) use their version of the portal as an entry point to access multiple information repositories on the back-end. These individuals do not know or care where the information is stored as long as they have it at the click of a button. The CM system insures that the most current content is viewed in the appropriate pages of the portals.

Suppliers use their portal to transact business in the e-marketplace. The EAI serves the marketplace by linking the supplier's order with the ERP system. If a contract must be renegotiated and signed, contract collaboration and routing are handled with the EDMS system. The RMA then manages the final, signed contract through its lifecycle.

Customers use their portal to purchase products and services, research those products and services, learn about the company, and possibly apply for employment. The EAI serves to attach the e-commerce engine to the ERP system. The CRM system tracks the customers preferences on the site, the buying habits, and other information to build a profile for providing that customer with better service. The CM system provides the most appropriate content, possibly pulling some of the information from the EDMS system, including product specs and company history.

Employees use their portal to more efficiently carry out their work, learn more about their company, and handle benefit services. The portal gives them a personalized page that provides job-specific information. To access the portal, the employee must enter an ID and password. This ID is matched to the employee data in the ERP. The current information is displayed via the CM system but was created in the EDMS system. The RMA manages the official record copy of the employee and business information.

How RIM Professionals Can Contribute

Records and information management professionals should learn more about these systems and how they are applied to solve business issues. The RMA will assist in managing much of the record copy information; however, some of these systems cannot be reached by the RMA. In addition, some information with Web technology is created, used temporarily, then destroyed. Learning to integrate RIM principles with content management tools is the key.

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES:

* applications for managing virtual records

* Web technology systems for handling virtual records, including enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management

* the use of portals in managing these systems

Tiers Within Server and Application Layers

Within each layer, there are a series of tiers that house servers: the first-tier or front-end, middle tier, and third tier or back-end. These tiers and their servers have a distinct function for the system and are separated mainly for performance and security reasons.

* Front-end: This houses the Web server and serves the HTML code and graphical user interface (GUI).

* Middle tier: The "meat" of the system, this contains the application server, which holds the application(s) that provide the business logic for the system.

* Third tier: Also known as the back-end, this is the database server. The server holds data and executes transactions with the other two-tiers and is the largest server or set of servers.

Each tier and layer is separated by firewalls, which are security programs that allow certain users to access the servers while preventing unauthorized users on other networks from accessing the servers.

This infrastructure configuration is used for systems that are Web-based or have a Web-based front-end. This configuration is not appropriate in a pure client-server environment. The infrastructure unit within each organization can provide detail as to its infrastructure configuration.

REFERENCES

Keen, Peter and Mark McDonald, The eProcess Edge: Creating Customer Value and Business Wealth in the Internet Era. Berkeley, California: Osborne/McGraw-Hill. 2000.

Lane, Richard M. and Nicole Pleasants Lane, The Essential E-Procurement Guide for Executives. Norcross, Georgia: CoreHarbor Inc. 2000.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John P. Frost, CRM, is Senior Project Manager for American Airlines. He can be reached at John.Frost.aa.com