CIO.com Virtual Roundtable: Exploring the Role of Microsoft 365 as Content Management Integration Point for On-Prem and Cloud-based Enterprise Applications

Executives noted how the rise of heterogeneous infrastructures that increasingly feature far-flung on-prem and cloud-based resources complicated enterprise information management.

Sprawling silos of information repositories have made it challenging to automate critical processes and document sharing operations that affect customer interactions and go-to-market initiatives.
The key to success revolves around striking the right balance between governance and flexibility, as stringent attempts to manage sprawl can lead to over-governance that can inhibit collaborative creativity.

As organizations accelerate the implementation of business transformation and technology modernization initiatives, business leaders are exploring the impact these changes will have on enterprise content management and its associated workflows. A growing number of organizations are exploring the role that collaboration platforms -- such as Microsoft 365 -- can play in streamlining content management from significant enterprise applications.

Integrating content management from multiple systems has emerged as an increasingly urgent issue as solutions originally designed for on-premises deployment -- such as SAP, Oracle -- co-exist with cloud-based Software-as-a-Service offerings -- such as ServiceNow, SuccessFactors, and Salesforce.

Over a dozen executives gathered for a recent CIO.com Chatham House Rule virtual roundtable discussion co-hosted by Matthew Pearson of OpenText -- a leading enterprise information management solutions provider.

Here is what they had to say:

Executives in the room noted how the rise of heterogeneous infrastructures that increasingly feature far-flung on-prem and cloud-based resources complicated enterprise information management. This makes it difficult to keep track of current data, documents, and workflows, hindering meaningful collaboration. The timing could not be worse, as many in the room described major business transformation and technology modernization initiatives that are introducing new processes, governance principles, and management strategies that require effective coordination across the enterprise.

Beyond collaboration, sprawling silos of information repositories have made it challenging to automate critical processes and document sharing operations that affect customer interactions and go-to-market initiatives. Recent research from the Association of Intelligent Information Management found that 55% of successful process automation efforts are tied to organizational performance and customer experience. Document automation is most effective when applied to core production processes, which is why 60% of survey respondents say they address repetitive activities and use a standard operating procedure. For many, the most significant benefits are gained by automating common activities that are traditionally paper-intensive, like human resources, accounts payable, or case management. Two-thirds (66%) of organizations say their most significant content challenge is content in silos scattered across different applications and repositories. A full
70% of organizations believe their line-of-business applications provide inadequate content functionality, but they use them anyway for managing content.
That said, several executives noted the challenges associated with maintaining enterprise-wide discipline to ensure work products that emerge from collaboration sessions are captured for use by different parts of the organization. The answer to this challenge, many agreed, revolves around creating enforceable governance structures. The key to success, however, revolves around striking the right balance between governance and flexibility. Stringent attempts to manage sprawl can lead to over-governance that can inhibit collaborative creativity. As one executive put it: “The goal should be to encourage collaboration without putting governance on everything. Too much governance can kill innovation and inspiration. Adding insult to injury, employees may succumb to the temptation of using alternative -- ungoverned -- platforms to get their work done.
This raised essential security issues. “One of the challenges we face is just securing content across organizations and figuring out what's the best model for authentication. We are investing time and resources to develop a cross-organizational approach to creating accounts within our own environment as well as with our external collaborators,” noted one participant.
Intelligent, user-friendly technology can come to the rescue by automating -- and streamlining -- the ability to initiate and terminate collaboration teams. “We are exploring how to make compliance with governance easy by supporting the automatic creation of these teams -- and then, of course, the automatic retirement of teams when they're not needed.”
Matt, from OpenText, described how Microsoft 365 is increasingly seen as a platform that enables and automates a massive amount of collaboration across increasingly heterogeneous enterprise environments. “One of the untapped opportunities of Teams, as we see it, is the ability for that team space to be a single pane of glass for not only collaborating on transient files but also providing ready access to content in other on-premises legacy systems.”

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