It’s no secret that knowledge work automation (KWA) is key to many companies’ success. This kind of automation saves time, boosts profits, and increases both employee and customer satisfaction. Knowing this, many businesses have knowledge work automation as a priority. But defining a goal and reaching it are very different things!
Before you can achieve true knowledge work automation, you need to first evaluate where your company’s strengths and weaknesses are in this area—as well as how you compare to your competitors in terms of your overall level of automation.
If you’re unsure where to start in evaluating your company, M-Files has you covered. In this blog, we’ll go over M-Files’ Knowledge Work Automation Capability Maturity Model. That’s a bit of a mouthful, but essentially, it’s an evaluative system that defines five levels of process maturity in five areas of KWA. We’re going to go over each of the five areas as well as the levels of maturity that companies span in each of those areas. Where does your company fit in?
Information Strategy
As with most business endeavors, KWA starts with strategy. Company leaders must be committed to enhancing KWA and articulate a clear vision to all departments. When evaluating your company’s level in this area, ask, “To what extent does the company think about content as a strategic asset?”
- Level 1: There isn’t a content strategy. Company leaders are focusing only on short-term, day-to-day goals instead of looking at the bigger picture of content management.
- Level 2: The company may have an IT department with a specific content strategy. However, this strategy is not communicated well across the entire business, leading to other departments making conflicting or duplicate investments in software.
- Level 3: Leaders have defined an information strategy across the business, but it has not been fully implemented. There are still places with overlapping systems, information silos, and overspending. Enterprise-level software may not yet be implemented at these companies.
- Level 4: Leaders have aligned all departments with a common content strategy, and this content strategy has been implemented. IT and other departments communicate regularly with each other and with leadership about any changes that may be needed in the strategy.
- Level 5: The company has a fully implemented content strategy and is actively looking for ways to invest in it and improve it. The strategy has clear KPIs that can be evaluated across the entire business. Company leadership regularly reviews the strategy and understands the significant competitive advantages that come with superb information strategy.
Governance/Resourcing
Governance and resourcing are crucial to KWA implementation, since without careful analysis and investment, any initiative will fail. When evaluating your company’s level in this area, ask, “How is the content strategy governed and enforced?”
- Level 1: There is no content governance. No one invests in or attempts to standardize any governance practices.
- Level 2: IT has an inventory of systems that involve content. Employees do the bare minimum to comply with regulatory documentation needs such as GDPR.
- Level 3: There are specific employees tasked with creating and enforcing information management policies. These employees are also responsible for preparing for and responding to audit processes.
- Level 4: Software systems enforce regulatory documentation needs and governance strategy automatically. Compliance is handled by the software, not by individual employees. Preparation for audits is smooth.
- Level 5: The company has harnessed AI to apply governance policies across all company content, even legacy content. The business is well on its way to bringing historical content up to the same governance standard as current data.
Technology/IT Infrastructure
This area of KWA is all about the actual technological systems that your company has implemented. You also need to consider the level of integration and data flow across the entire business. When evaluating your company’s level in this area, ask, “How does the technology stack support content strategy and governance?”
- Level 1: Different departments have different content software solutions. No thought is given to integrating these solutions. Employees must deal with multiple different software systems per day in order to accomplish their tasks.
- Level 2: There are still many different content systems, but they are generally integrated with each other. Employees have an easier time finding the information they need, but they still must use multiple different systems.
- Level 3: The company has a unified content management system across all departments. However, this system may not allow for automation.
- Level 4: A unified content management system allows for automation and standardization without too much trouble.
- Level 5: The unified content management system can employ AI to recommend optimizations and to help employees find and create content.
Level of Automation
It’s possible for companies to have an advanced technology infrastructure without using that technology to its fullest extent. Once you have a powerful unified content management system, it’s time to put it to work. When evaluating your company’s level in this area, ask, “How well are we taking advantage of our technology’s capabilities?”
- Level 1: All content processes are manual—every step requires intervention by employees. Managing information becomes more and more onerous as the business grows.
- Level 2: Content naming and structure are automated. There may be some metadata that is automatically created for each document.
- Level 3: Some workflows are automated. Permissions automatically follow defined company policies. Compliance requirements are also automated.
- Level 4: Not only are internal processes automated, but external processes are, too. Content rarely leaves the company software, even when it’s shared with external stakeholders.
- Level 5: AI recommends additional steps to take on top of all the automation that’s already been implemented.
End-User Capabilities
Lastly, it’s vital to value the digital experience of your employees, as that’s a huge part of employee productivity and satisfaction. When evaluating your company’s level in this area, ask, “How well do our content capabilities support our end-users?”
- Level 1: Employees are dissatisfied with their digital experience. The dissatisfaction may be due to frustrating tasks, lack of training, lack of support, or slow processes. All employees have the same digital capabilities, regardless of role or department.
- Level 2: Teams or departments have some special capabilities. There are some onboarding and training materials available. There is some technological support available for some tasks.
- Level 3: Templates, processes, and more are optimized to industry-specific guidelines. Employees feel largely satisfied with their digital experience and feel empowered to accomplish their tasks with relative ease.
- Level 4: The content management system allows for some personalization on an individual basis. Employees are satisfied with their digital experience.
- Level 5: AI shapes the content management system to each employee’s preferences. Employees are delighted with their digital experience.
Ready to Level Up?
If you’re ready to level up your company in any of these areas, you can find more information and recommendations in this M-Files whitepaper. If your current software is holding you back, we’re here to help! We can implement, integrate, and customize your M-Files solution in order to meet your company’s unique needs. Even if you already have M-Files implemented, there’s always room to grow! We can help with that, too. Contact us today to get started—we can’t wait to partner with you.
