Web Governance Strategy

Knowing how to turn the contents of your digital landfill into a knowledge asset presents a huge challenge for any business. In today’s world, most organizations do not realize the actual volume of data living and breathing on their corporate web properties, document management systems and file shares; it is estimated that around 80% of corporate data exists in unstructured forms. There are however a number of steps that can be taken in order to capture, share and retain that knowledge, allowing you to build business advantage.

1) Define Knowledge and Deliver it

In order for companies to create a competitive business advantage it is essential that they have content knowledge, as this is the building blocks for differentiation. To obtain the most relevant information from your content stores you must first define what knowledge is. Knowledge must be up to date, relevant and map onto your prime business objectives. It also must be aligned with the mode of operation of your business; in a distributed, technologically advanced enterprise, there is often no need to produce paper-based information, with all the associated challenges of change control, and inherent costs. Within more traditional, slower moving environments the use of electronic media alone may involve a level of culture change that is unnecessary due to the prevalence of paper based manuals, such as in field based applications of within engineering workshops.  The reality is that knowledge should be independent from the channel through which it is delivered. It should be fit for purpose, and ideally operate across all communications channels within the business.

2) Adopt Industry Standard Classification Schemes where Possible

Now that the knowledge has been defined it is essential that it is understood how value will be extracted from it. To achieve this, a flexible classification process is required. You should identify all business content within your company and then associate those pieces with an industry or corporate standard classification, thus creating a data map to valuable knowledge.

3) Embrace Long-Term Standards

Industry-wide standard object based classification will provide your business with a flexible organizational solution. If there is organizational change, you can modify your content taxonomy (that is, change the way in which the relationships exist between the objects) rather than having to physically re-classify every object to reflect the changed taxonomic requirements of your organization.  This will help to ensure the knowledge assets are of use and will continue to be valuable going forward as the business changes.

4) Apply Consistency to Your Existing Content to Reduce the Noise

Inconsistent nomenclature, patchy classification, duplicate and near duplicate content creates a significant amount of static noise within your organisations proper information. This noise makes it hard to find anything – normally because you don’t have the tools or techniques to pinpoint a relevant subject area, or because your information is stored in functional silos – in department-specific storage areas, for example.  It is therefore important to reduce the noise within your organization by applying standard classification to your existing content and ensure content compliance standards are in place.










Get to grips with your organization's 'digital landfill', by discovering the five steps to achieving insight into all of your unstructured content, including information on usage, metadata management and storage. Find out what you need to know to make your content management system truly effective.