Enterprise Content Governance

IT governance primarily includes decision-making i.e. who has the authority to make certain decisions. The goal is to generate greater results of common IT investments.

Without governance there is no formal way to discuss strategic development issues, make decisions about funding, prioritize between different initiatives etc.

The same applies for Enterprise Content Governance. The following key areas should be addressed:

• Propositions and principles: Describe the role and value of content in the business and IT
• Products and portfolios: Plan and prioritize content initiatives based on business requirements and significance
• People and platforms: Determine the delivery of shared and enabling content and services
• Processes and performance: Ensure efficient operations and follow-up on business objectives and agreements

Depending on different corporate management styles these areas can be handled in a multitude of ways. The most frequent styles are distributed, centralized or federal.

People that prefer a decentralised style often argue for creativity and faster decision-cycles. A centralised style is often suitable when cost synergies, consolidation, compliance etc are of importance.

The federal style can be seen as a combination of the centralized and distributed models, trying to balance the different perspectives. The federal style is often implemented as one or more councils with representatives from business units, shared service and enterprise staff.

The experience of realizing and running content governance at an enterprise level will be part of upcoming posting.