Executing the Document Strategy Framework

By Allison Lloyd

One of the most complex strategies to build, execute and sustain is an enterprise-wide document strategy. It is easy to see why when the challenges in our corporate culture persist today, such as organizational siloes, competing priorities, unclear vision of the strategy, lack of governance and fear of actually measuring our failures. To that end, it seems only the most mature and forward-thinking organizations even consider the concept of such a strategy, but shouldn’t many more of us begin to pave this road as well? When we consider that the business content we create, store, manage, use, distribute and preserve every day is the lifeblood of our organizations, it is clear that the strategic care of this content is the foundation to achieving our business goals.

This is the very reason we collected a group of business leaders at the DOCUMENT Strategy Forum back in May as part of a peer working group to tackle the document strategy. As a result of their work, along with concentrated vetting by our 2016 DOCUMENT Strategy Forum Advisory Board, we are proud to present our official framework for executing the document strategy, the very first of its kind and 100% produced by a group of your peers. I’m a very strong believer in the power of shared experiences by like-minded business professionals to advance the maturity of our organizational strategies. We believe that this framework is only the beginning in harnessing and executing on such strategies.

Our framework is a high-level overview of the document strategy and considers the objectives of the strategy, best practices in building the strategy, life cycle of business content, dimensions and sub-dimensions of the strategy and common challenges and best practices in the execution of the document strategy. In it, we define the document strategy as:

“A set of actions for the overall management of business content using effective messaging, planning, monitoring, measurements and execution. This framework defines “content” as any information that is intended for business stakeholders, from customers and partners to internal business users. For the purpose of this framework, the high-level strategy considers business content as a whole, regardless of delivery mechanism of content (e.g., mobile, web, email, video, mail, etc.).”

Define your vision and strategy
The above framework outlines the key objectives when building the strategy and best practices for achieving said objectives. This framework approaches the building blocks of an enterprise-wide strategy from a very high level, and as such, we believe it’s highly applicable to many other strategies within the organization. However, with any strategic transformation, defining your organization’s vision of the strategy is vital to your planning phase. Tailoring and modifying the definition of your strategy, terms used in execution and the scope of all impacted areas must be done in accordance with individual organizational goals and structure. As these are highly variable from organization to organization, this framework does not apply such parameters and only defines its application to business content as a whole. Therefore, modifications will need to be applied to the framework dependent on these components. Nevertheless, you must articulate the organization’s overarching goal, how the strategy supports this mission, your current state and how you will reach the desired end state.
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Build upon the four core strategy dimensions
We view strategic maturity as an optimized state, with cyclical, ongoing improvements and continual measurements and revisions as needed. Due to this, the framework positions the strategy dimensions and sub-dimensions along the content life cycle, as improvements will remain continuous. We define the four core dimensions of the strategy as (1) People, (2) Process, (3) Technology and (4) Governance. Within each of these core dimensions, we define the sub-dimensions aligned to specific life cycle stage in which most emphasis and priority should be given to stated sub-dimension. As you can see, sub-dimensions fall in more than one life cycle stage. Depending on the stage of maturity and duration of strategy, sub-dimensions will be prioritized differently. We recommend reviewing strategy dimensions and modifying accordingly along the phases of implementation.

The framework dimensions are all underlined by organizational alignment—the key to strategic execution and optimal performance. It is important to ask: Is your strategy aligned to the organizational vision and mission? Is it aligned to your people and technology? Furthermore, not enough emphasis can be placed on governance and defining ownership of the strategy. Without these controls and defined roles and responsibilities, your strategy will stall, undermined by confusion and unreliable metrics of progress.

Key challenges and best practices
As with any change, let alone one that is enterprise-wide, there are key barriers to successful execution and sustainable progress. Clearly understanding your organizational alignment, communicating a concrete return of investment (ROI), measuring quantitative performance indicators and regularly reviewing progress are best practices to overcome these challenges. We especially recommend the below best practices:

Obtain high-level buy-in: Executive leadership support is driven by practical benefits and/or business priorities. Demonstrate concrete ROI with measurable performance indicators. If possible, create a demonstration or pilot program that shows how this strategy will positively impact the company.
Create consensus: On the flip side, securing buy-in from all stakeholders impacted by the strategy is equally important as high-level sponsorship. Understand all individual business areas, communicate commonality and tightly connect departmental priorities to overall strategy. Use data, surveys and analytics to set priorities.
Phase implementation and review regularly: Balancing expansive changes amidst normal business operations—as well as the effort required by your people—can be challenging. Phasing implementation can avoid a depletion of your resources, enable obtainable goals and provide concrete ROI for funding, if executive sponsorship is lacking. Additionally, it will promote regular reviews of the progress after each phase so modifications can be made accordingly.

Contributors to Executing the Document Strategy Framework
Mark Blazek, USAA
Jackson Chin, Wells Fargo
Michael Coffman, Unum
Hope Correll, USAA
Michelle Debus, T. Rowe Price
Deanna Dorsey, Grange Insurance
Gerald Edwards, EmblemHealth
Nancy Green, MetLife
Claudia Guzman, USAA
Jessica Harman, Phillips 66
Christopher Kalna, The Carlyle Group
Fred Kam, UBS Financial Services Inc.
James Kennedy, Tallgrass Energy
Mike Kramer, USAA
Noam Lazarus, USAA
Lisa McQuade, USAA
DuPree W. Potter Sr., TIAA-CREF
David Schroeder, American Funds Service Company
Connie Schumacher, Purdue Pharma LP
Lynnette Sorensen, State Farm
April Speers, CUNA Mutual Group
Bob Traeger, Pershing

We’d like to thank Holly Muscolino, research vice president of document solutions at IDC, for her on-site facilitation of the working group at the DOCUMENT Strategy Forum and for her dedicated reviews of the framework. Our framework is truly a representation of the industry’s peer group and is a live document, which will be continually revised and updated. To download our framework, click here. For more information on the DOCUMENT Strategy Forum, visit www.documentstrategyforum.com.

Allison Lloyd serves as the editor of DOCUMENT Strategy Media. She delivers thought leadership on strategic and plan-based solutions for managing the entire document, communication and information process.