This project plan outlines the development, testing, training, and deployment of an enterprise content management (ECM) portal for Aquarius Marketing. The plan addresses client concerns about report turnaround time, analytical depth, and competitive pricing by proposing a SaaS-based portal platform built on IBM WebSphere. It defines four design objectives, applies Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as the development framework, identifies key stakeholders, specifies deliverables, and presents a cost breakdown totaling $90,000. The plan also addresses quality assurance, risk mitigation, ethical and legal considerations, and the change management strategies required to ensure user adoption and long-term organizational success.
The intent of this project plan is to comprehensively define the development process, testing, training, and introduction of an enterprise-class portal and series of enterprise content management (ECM) applications that will significantly increase the level of efficiency and collaboration within Aquarius Marketing. Because Aquarius' business model is primarily focused on generating market reports containing insights and analyses based on content, developing an enterprise-class portal platform that includes a series of ECM applications makes the most sense for the firm. The proposed system is specifically designed to provide Aquarius Marketing with both the applications and underlying processes needed to better serve their clients. Clients have identified three main areas of concern: the time taken by Aquarius Marketing team members to produce marketing reports, the depth of analysis in those reports, and fees charged by Aquarius Marketing that are significantly higher than those of competitors. The proposed ECM system and portal will therefore focus specifically on more efficient access to research and greater levels of integration across content repositories and processes.
The primary design objective of the ECM system is to provide flexibility in how market analysis reports are authored, edited, produced, posted, downloaded, commented on, and synchronized with clients. The proposed enterprise system will rely heavily on portal platform technologies and ECM applications that can be quickly aligned with research, publication, and all customer-facing processes critical to the firm's business model. An analysis of Aquarius' process workflows and manually based approach to producing analysis reports makes it clear that a portal platform allowing for greater collaboration between Marketing Associates will deliver significant improvements to workflow efficiency and productivity. ECM applications have business process management (BPM) workflow tools integrated within them, which further supports the recommendation to create an enterprise-wide content repository that is agile enough to align with existing workflows yet integrated enough to increase efficiency and performance.
In keeping with the firm's objective of having the system operational within eight weeks, a portal platform also aligns well with this requirement. Both licensed and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery models of portal platforms from leading ECM software vendors could be operational within eight weeks. Given this relatively short implementation timeline, it is advisable to rely on a SaaS platform.
A second design objective focuses specifically on quantifying improvements in customer responsiveness, greater tailoring of existing research to customers' needs, and the development of entirely new processes for bringing more efficiency and accuracy to serving customer requests. In order to measure these performance gains, it is advisable that the portal platform include an analytics application or dedicated analytics layer in the portal architecture to track performance over time and report it in a dashboard (Kefi et al.).
A third design objective, drawing on the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) approach, concentrates on more advanced portal features including personalization agents definable by clients, administration-based applications such as a web page builder, newsletter engine, and report generation and management application — all integrated into the portal architecture. 128-bit security will also be built directly into the enterprise content management platform, ensuring all applications have layered security protection against external threats from the Internet.
A fourth design objective is to deliver user-level applications that can be selectively deployed by Aquarius Marketing as supporting processes or marketing and business development campaigns are created. The proposed portal architecture must also include authentication of logins, advanced search features, and the creation of mini-sites for larger clients who need to host Aquarius' published research on their corporate intranets. A Communications section will include an interactive forum, web mail for customers and prospects who opt in for free research support, instant messaging for clients, and blog sections for both employees and customers. These user sections will generate significant amounts of stored content, which creates the need to set a migration path to a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). The decision to begin with an ECM system represents Phase 1 of moving toward a broader SOA as portal traffic grows and the need to integrate with a greater number of systems increases.
Taken together, these objectives constitute the information systems requirements for the planned portal and ECM application. The technical issues center on aligning proposed system components with internal processes, while the most critical non-technical issue is providing adequate training and developing change management strategies to ensure the system's success.
1. To provide Aquarius Marketing with a state-of-the-art portal specifically designed with an enterprise content management platform that can scale to the needs of its clients, employees, and prospects.
2. To create administrative tools that provide Aquarius Marketing website managers with the necessary functionality to create, update, modify, and delete entire sections of the portal in a minimum amount of time — including the ability to create and update web pages, post research and define which clients may download it, create and edit newsletters and email them, and generate reports to monitor site traffic.
3. To create a client section flexible enough to allow for quick additions to content repositories for each client, yet structured enough to allow clients to navigate the site intuitively for new information. In addition to secure logins, the client section will include alert functions, advanced search functionality, downloadable research, and a comprehensive communications section to enrich the online experience.
The scope of this document includes the structural definition of an enterprise content management portal with significant user and administrative functionality. Within scope for this project is the uploading, management, and deletion of research within the portal from internal user, administrative, and client perspectives.
The following are commonly used definitions in the development of enterprise content management portals:
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) — The strategy of making all content available throughout an organization regardless of the database it resides in or its physical location.
Repositories — Where content is stored; this typically refers to a grouping of databases or data warehouses together within a division of a larger organization.
Schema — The foundational structure of database records within a database.
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) — An enterprise-level approach to defining how system components integrate with one another to allow for maximum system configuration and functionality. ECM is the first step in creating an SOA platform for Aquarius Marketing so its future growth can evolve quickly.
Structured content — Content specifically created using databases and structured programming, organized into a hierarchical database.
Taxonomy — Defines the approach an organization takes in organizing its content.
Unstructured content — Freeform content, such as responses to open-ended questionnaire fields.
The following standards will be adhered to in the development of this portal: AJAX Programming Standards; Java Virtual Machine (JVM); and IBM WebSphere for the portal technology, as it can be extended into a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) platform quickly as Aquarius Marketing portal traffic increases. WebSphere can also be implemented entirely through a SaaS architecture.
The objectives of this project share common requirements: user authentication including single sign-on; personalization; unifying and aggregating content; integrating content and knowledge management databases; building out an enterprise-wide portal strategy focused on creating, organizing, and distributing content; and examining common processes for creating, organizing, managing, and publishing content across the portal. Murphy and Columbus (7) have completed research on how portals can be made more effective by streamlining content management strategies, serving as the first step in adopting a Service-Oriented Architecture. Their landmark report includes a methodology for organizing content first by information type intersected by point in the information or task process, and includes vendor evaluations.
Once a portal strategy has been defined, the specific requirements of each application can be tailored to the needs of both internal and external users. Murphy and Columbus (6–7) advocate starting small, focusing first on critical needs, then expanding portals to more complex requirements. Specific steps needed to accomplish the objectives of this project are as follows:
1. Map out and organize common processes across all areas of the project and look for ways to trim redundancies before applying any technology. This is critical for accomplishing the first design objective — ensuring higher levels of responsiveness to customers.
2. Migrate off any individualized content management systems and processes not integrated into a single portal platform, for greater cost and time savings in administration. Olson (32) provides an excellent case study on how universities are making use of open source portal applications on IBM WebSphere to alleviate redundant and often conflicting data across multiple portals.
3. Define and build out a portal development plan encompassing all shared processes across project areas.
4. As Murphy and Columbus state, reorganize content by the context of each dominant workflow — beginning with larger, more complex projects as defined by Aquarius Marketing — then align to customer-facing processes to ensure the highest levels of efficiency and responsiveness.
5. Develop a portal roadmap that allows for an eventual move to web services based on a Service Oriented Architecture, giving Aquarius Marketing greater scalability than a single stand-alone application would provide.
The Content Contributor role — which will be filled by the Web Administrator for Aquarius Marketing — carries responsibilities encompassing both knowledge and content management in the creation, organization, and deployment of content throughout the portal. The secondary stakeholder is the client, who navigates, searches, and customizes the portal to their specific requirements (Wilkinson, pp. 458–465). These are the two dominant stakeholders. The focus must be on balancing the role of internal contributors with the needs and requirements of clients. A process flow diagram maps how Aquarius Marketing Associates functioning as content contributors and client visitors interact with one another.
The following are key deliverables throughout this development project:
— Portal Development Project Plan
— Portal Development Roadmap for ECM-to-SOA Migration
— Project Cost Estimates and Weekly Budget Updates
— Quality Assurance Plan
— Aquarius Marketing Portal Launch Plan, including a change management program for training users on the new system
— Work Breakdown Structure
The Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used for the development of the Aquarius Marketing ECM platform and portal. SSM has become a central component of rapid application development (RAD) strategies in enterprise software (Molineux & Haslett, p. 477). It is well established in the software industry that 70% or more of IT projects fail — and that even when information about an application is abundant, projects still fail due to a lack of accumulated knowledge applied to the development process. This problem is compounded by the need to create applications that blend core concepts from computing, programming, and — most importantly — business process redefinition as it applies to line-of-business users' needs.
A secondary benefit of adopting the SSM model is that the process allows for early identification of technical and management issues, disclosure of all life-cycle costs to guide business decisions, and the fostering of realistic expectations about what systems will and will not provide (Winter, pp. 802–812). The model also enables the measurement of initial software development progress and ensuing quality levels, and leads to greater alignment of application features with customer requirements. Each of the following SSM stages is to be addressed during the planning, systems analysis and design, implementation, and launch phases of the project:
Problem Situation Unstructured — This is evidenced by client requests for higher levels of responsiveness and customer service, as well as greater depth of insight in market reports. The unstructured problem also requires more intensive business process management (BPM) and business process re-engineering (BPR) to ensure that process changes remain aligned with the unmet needs of customers (Checkland & Winter, p. 1434).
Problem Situation Expressed — This involves translating customer requirements into design objectives and defining a portal platform architecture and ECM application components in response to those requirements. The discovery of customer-facing process workflows and their relative efficiency levels is also critical at this stage.
Relevant Systems & Root Definitions — The development of definitions for key portal and ECM system elements and application components, aligned with the process workflows for producing research reports and providing higher levels of client responsiveness.
Conceptual Models — Development of portal frameworks and integration models specifically focused on interlinking siloed or disconnected content repositories throughout Aquarius Marketing. The conceptual model of the portal and its reliance on BPM-based application layers is critical for redefining process workflows to make them more customer-centric.
Comparisons — Of primary concern to Aquarius Marketing is the definition of comparisons — overlaying the potential future state of the firm based on the system definition, complete with business process workflows. The use of value stream mapping for more complex customer-facing processes is also advisable to ensure the highest level of performance.
Debate about Change — As has often been stated, change must be systematically desirable and culturally feasible (Paucar-Caceres & Rodriguez-Ulloa, pp. 702–709). Critical at this stage is the development of implementation strategies that interlink pre-existing processes with newly defined ones to ensure the highest levels of efficiency (Starns & Odom, p. 186).
Action — The structural, procedural, policy, and attitudinal/cultural aspects of the SSM methodology require a synchronized series of strategies (Reisman & Oral, pp. 164–178) to ensure a cohesive systems strategy. The catalysts of change in SSM strategies specific to Aquarius Marketing center on getting Marketing Associates and Marketing Directors to change how they complete their daily processes and tasks. The greatest risk to the proposed system is insufficient internal coordination, training, and ownership to achieve a high level of user adoption.
In terms of resources and timescales, defining the critical path is imperative. Relying on operations research-based approaches to balance and optimize resources across all activities, the project management aspects of the implementation will center on completing process definition and re-engineering as necessary.
The development team for this project will need to comprise eight professionals: a project manager, five programmers, and two Java/AJAX web programmers. The team will be dedicated to the Aquarius Marketing project and will work on-site with the Marketing Directors and Marketing Associates for the duration of the project to facilitate communication, collaboration, and training. Previous project experience highlights the need for dedicated, exclusive team members at the client site to ensure successful training and system transfer. The Managing Director acts as the coordinator of firm resources, with the project manager having direct authority over all tasks on the timeline.
The following are the costs associated with the content management system components:
Portal Development: $25,000
ECM Application: $15,000
Legacy Systems Integration: $15,000
Professional Services: $35,000
Total Costs: $90,000
The biggest risk to the project is acceptance by the users it is meant to assist. Resistance to the portal must be minimized through the use of advisory councils and a strong focus on launching applications that users can quickly take ownership of. This is critical for Aquarius Marketing to accomplish early. Getting both internal and external stakeholders involved in advisory councils is essential for driving adoption and sustained use of the portal.
The following are the key ethical and legal aspects of this project:
1. Adherence to strict confidentiality on the part of the development staff when given internal data from Aquarius Marketing and its clients.
2. Thorough failure analysis and comprehensive testing of 128-bit encryption, and the development of platform-layered security to enforce strict security boundaries between clients' and Aquarius Marketing's data.
3. The creation of policies for capturing and using cookies, session data, email addresses, opt-in lists, and subscriber reports.
4. Rigorous login and password policies to ensure the development of robust security programs.
These steps ensure that data on the site and its applications will be protected from ethical lapses that could result in legal liability.
A critical part of the project is the creation and fulfillment of a Quality Assurance Plan encompassing testing at each major functional area of the program, including the following key testing areas:
1. Usability testing and verification.
2. Integration testing and validation with other systems, including adapter development, testing, rollout, and systems maintenance.
3. Consolidation of content management systems throughout Aquarius Marketing.
"Cost breakdown, risk mitigation, and legal compliance"
"Testing plan and organizational change strategies"
"Key recommendations for ECM portal implementation"
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