ECM: What’s your angle?

If you still think that an enterprise content management (ECM) system is a repository of documents and an interface through which to access them, it’s time to update your image. Like many things in life, ECM is what you make of it. In some cases, the mission-critical function is workflow, in others it’s change management, and in still others, it’s collaboration. ECM can take on many roles, and is increasingly able to be tailored to meet users’ requirements.

Cengage Learning, which publishes educational and reference material for academic, library and professional markets, is using ECM to improve its workflow. One of its brands is the well-known Gale series of reference books, among them a 17-volume encyclopedia called Grzimek’s Animal Life. Originally published in Germany in 1967 with Bernard Grzimek as editor, the encyclopedia covers more than 4,000 species of animals. In 2003, Gale published the first revised and updated version, and in 2009, the first digital version.

Publishing workflow

Each new entry is carefully reviewed by a subject matter expert and a series of editors. Up until several years ago, entries were routed in electronic form to reviewers via e-mail. However, the process was still manual, and significant resources were required to track the progress of each entry from the subject matter expert to the subject matter editors and then to the managing editor.

In 2009, Cengage Learning began using Nuxeo to manage the review process for entries planned for inclusion in Grzimek’s. Nuxeo is an open source ECM platform designed for enterprise applications. “We are using Nuxeo’s workflow to automate the process of routing excerpts to the subject matter experts and to the editors,” says Michael Seiler, eCMS architect. “We have 60 experts who curate the content that is submitted by authors, and Nuxeo is configured to route the content to reviewers according to their area of expertise.” In addition, Cengage uses Nuxeo for versioning, security and access control.

For most subject areas, the entry can be reviewed by one of several experts. The first individual to download the entry from the queue takes on the review. However, if the reviewer does not complete the process within a specified amount of time, the entry is placed back into the queue. Reviewers are also limited in the number of entries they may have out at one time.

To Continue Reading: Click Here
-----------------------------------------------
Source: kmworld.com
By: Judith Lamont, Ph.D.