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Interview : Atle Skjekkeland, VicePresident at AIIM International.
Hello readers!Today is the day for a new interview !Remember : The subjects I focus on for these interviews are1. Introducing men and women playing a role in ECM environment2. Discovering the ECM community3. Exploring ECM Solutions4. To learn more about technologies and content management practice.Today I am delighted to interview
Atle Skjekkeland, Vice President atAIIMInternational.Hello Atle !First of all, many thanks for your time you are affording to answer this interview and toshare your knowledge about ECM with us.So Atle, can you tell us more about AIIM ? What exactly is AIIM ? A trainingInstitute ? a federation of ECM company’s ? A standardization organization ? Aconsulting company ... both of them ?
AIIM is a non-profit industry association that provides education, research, and best practices to help organizations find, control, and optimize their information. We are run byour members for our members.
In a few words, what has the evolution/history of AIIM been like ?
AIIM was founded in 1943 as the National Microfilm Association and in 1969,changed our name to the National Micrographics Association. In 1983, due to the introductionof computers and document imaging systems (!), we changed our name and focus to theAssociation for Information and Image Management. Approximately 8 years ago, werepositioned again and refocused on Enterprise Content Management, - even though very few people knew what ECM meant 5-8 years ago. Today we are focused on helping organizationsfind, control and optimize their information assets more intelligently.
What kind of services does AIIM offer nowadays?
AIIM is international in scope remaining independent, implementation-focused, and,the representative of the entire ECM industry - including users, suppliers, and the channel -acting as the industry's intermediary. We provide education through webinars and events, and professional development programs leading to Certificates and designations as an AIIMPractitioner, Specialist, and Master in several practices; industry advocacy with research and press releases; and industry networking with local chapter events and our online community – www.InformationZen.org.
Interview : Atle Skjekkeland, VicePresident at AIIM International.
Do you have any statistics about AIIM Members (geographic distribution, number of Integrators, number of editor,...) ? Is there a difference between U.S and EuropeMembers ? Furthermore, Is there a difference between AIIM US and Europe ?
AIIM was started in the US, and therefore still has a strong presence in NorthAmerica. But we have, in the last 5-10 years, focused on expanding our community throughour European presence and increasing the number of partners across the world. We currentlyhave education partners in Hong Kong, Nigeria, South Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil, andassociation partners across the world. We have over 65,000 Associate and Professionalmembers, with approximately 60% being users or buyers of content managementtechnologies; 1/3 are information and records management professionals, 1/3 are IT staff, and1/3 are business people.
And you, Atle, what's your role in this organization? What are you doing day after day?
I am responsible for all education and research offerings, which means that a lot of theday is spent doing administration and management tasks in addition to promoting the industryand the association. This means doing regular webcasts, attending meetings, presenting atevents, interviews, etc. But I also enjoy teaching some of our 4 day Master classes everymonth, which means that I can spend almost an entire week discussing existing and emergingtechnologies and best practices with industry professionals.
What was your previous position and what was your educational and professionalbackground?
I started working for AIIM in early 2004 as Managing Director for our Europeanoperation when our strongest presence in Europe was the UK and Ireland. I usually joke that Imust have done something wrong the first year since I was “promoted” to the USheadquarters in mid 2005. Before AIIM I spent time working as a document managementconsultant in a company I started with two partners back home in Oslo, Norway.
Have you always been working in the ECM World? How did you discover ContentManagement?
My first exposure to content management must have been in 1991 when I startedworking for a small system integrator in the southern part of Norway. They were justintroducing Electronic Records Management (ERM) solutions for doctors in the region, aDOS based system that we installed on Victor or IBM desktops. Some offices were still usingthe system almost 10 years later according to my brother who is a doctor working in the sameregion.
Now let's talk about ECM. What's the "official" definition of ECM ?
AIIM defines ECM as the strategies, methods, and tools used to capture, store,manage, preserve, and deliver content in support of business processes. This means that ECMis usually a group of aligned systems supporting organizations manage unstructured contentlike office documents, emails, and images.
Interview : Atle Skjekkeland, VicePresident at AIIM International.
It's really easy to understand... But why is it so generic ? Can you give us your definitionto explain it more precisely?
You get at least 10 different definitions when asking 10 consultants to define ECM…Why? A definition of ECM will depend on the content and context, - what are you trying tomanage, for what purpose, for what users, etc. I also like to explain ECM this way; Anorganization often has 3 types of assets,- you need ERP systems to manage money, you needHR systems to manage people, and you need ECM systems to manage your informationassets!So technologies aren't very important in ECM. The main problem is what we want todo with it and how to link business process with our "new" content management.
To resolve this, is there a standardized methodology to implement and use ECM?
No, but AIIM over the last several years has been promoting a 12 step model for implementing ECM. This model should not replace your project management methodology, but compliment it, and the AIIM ECM Specialist course educates you in best practices for implementing ECM using AIIM’s 12 step program. I am also eager to see if the Mike2 openmethodology for information management evolves into a standard model for implementingECM.
What do you think about the recent announcement of the Content ManagementInteroperability Services (CMIS) specification
?I think this is great step in the right direction, but people also need to remember thevalue of standard metadata schemes and vocabularies. Interoperability has been a challengefor years, and I am delighted to see the momentum CMIS is getting. In fact, the FederalAviation Agency started this project several years ago with AIIM, under the working name of iECM, or Interoperable ECM.
To conclude, is it possible to have more information about InformationZen.org ? What'sthe purpose of this site ? Can we call it the "ECM Facebook" ?
Networking has been important to AIIM member for many years, and we havecurrently 35 chapters across the US. But many people do not have time to attend local events,or lack a local chapter. We decided therefore, to introduce this online community to allow people to share, discuss and learn best practices, existing and emerging technologies. It isopen to all, - you do not have to be a member. Initially, we actually thought about calling itECM Facebook instead of InformationZen…
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