Province of British Columbia

Enterprise Content
Management Strategy
Defining the Government Content
Ecosystem

Version 2.0

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ECM Strategy

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Foreword
Driven by the need to control the content chaos that pervades local drives, file shares, email
systems and document stores, organizations large and small are looking to impose order
through Content Management. There are two types of content structured and unstructured.
Unstructured content includes: email, PowerPoint presentations, images, videos, audio
recordings, documents, records and other files. This document focuses on unstructured
content.
Up to 80% of an organizations information typically takes the form of unstructured content.
Managing this volume of unstructured content is challenging but necessary to comply with
regulatory requirements and having the potential for significant productivity gains. For example:
There are substantial risks and liabilities related to not being able to produce relevant
documents, or retaining documents that are no longer required, e.g. Carrier Lumber
Judgment against the province for $75 million.
White-collar workers will spend anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of their time this year
managing documents, up from 20 percent of their time in 1997. So using a count of 30,000
employees with an average $50,000 salary, a low end 30% time commitment would mean
that the province could be nominally investing $450 million annual to manage content.
There have been numerous Content Management (CM) efforts within the BC government but
they have been siloed, solving specific business needs but never allowing content to be found
and reused in other business areas.
Companies need to share content to help employees reuse instead of reinventing the
wheel, and to help them find information and knowledge locked inside different Content
Management systems across an enterprise. We must always leave the content free to flow
wherever workers need it.
Improved accessibility to business information is a must as labour costs for filing a
document, discovering a misfiled document, and reproducing a lost document have been
estimated to be $20, $120, and $220 respectively. 1
Even tradition ECM has not been successful within government because of the scope and
complexity. The one size fails all approach does not work for government because of the
increasing diversity of business requirements across the different business areas.
Significant advances in interoperability have enhanced ECM by enabling information exchange,
improving the scope and effectiveness of search, and eliminating the need for a one size fails
all strategy. Embracing and building on these advancements is a key factor in this strategy
enabling the ability of government to approach CM as a Content Ecosystem.

Association for Image and Information Management (AIIM)

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Executive Summary
The effective management of content is a very challenging endeavor. According to projections
from Gartner, white-collar workers will spend anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of their time this
year managing documents, up from 20 percent of their time in 1997. The increase can be
attributed to a variety of factors including exponentially rising storage volumes, more complex
information handling requirements, rapid change-over of staff and storage models (shared
drives) that were developed over 30 years ago.
Dealing with the complexities of finding relevant and reliable
information that match information needs is essential. Matching
reduces content management (CM) gaps i.e. enables the
finding of information to make informed decisions. CM gaps
represent enterprise liabilities with potentially profound impacts.

Experts estimate that up

to 80% of an
organizations information
typically takes the form of
unstructured content.

Enterprise CM (ECM)
Most organizations have undertaken some form of focused CM initiative. These initiatives have
struggled in the past to garner broader corporate uptake due to their overly narrow focus, siloed
service (e.g.: limited search), complexity, limited executive/enterprise commitment, inability to
demonstrate value, and other factors. Out of convenience, users are turning to Exchange email
to store terabytes of content, while the antiquated shared drive storage model developed in the
late 70s runs out of gas when faced with supporting transformed business models. Websites
present masses of documents that may or may not be secured in an offices corporate file
system. Organizations are looking to ECM to bring greater focus on these chronic, growing
headaches and manage the content chaos.
91% of enterprises that have
implemented a well thought out
ECM strategy have seen it as
"extremely important" or
important for the long term
success of their business.

Growing frustrations with managing and finding information

along with the overwhelming demands of information requests
is raising the need for an ECM strategy. There are new
requirements for e-discovery, e-disclosure, open data, and
storage. Significant advances in interoperability have improved
information exchange, the scope and effectiveness of search,
and have eliminated the need for a one size fails all strategy.

The Provincial Strategy

The BC Provincial ECM strategy has been developed
collaboratively with significant participation from each of
the provincial government sectors. It provides a
conceptual architecture (Content Ecosystem), to address
the development of standards, guidelines, best practices
and services to address the CM imperative.
The strategy has been broken into several key areas
(see figure 1) to help understand the complexity of the
challenge and clearly group business needs and relevant
technology responses.

1. Classification
2. Access
3. Discovery and
Sharing
4. Control
5. Protection
6. Storage
7. Authentication

Some key responses include:

Classification:

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Figure 1 Key Areas

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Establish consistent and reliable classification practices through metadata and

automation.
o Evolve the ECM-Content Metadata Standard and Content Metadata Model with
the help of the Business Workforce Transformation group.
Access:
o Establish CM Interoperability standards and services.
Discovery and sharing:
o Work with the Business Workforce Transformation group and Shared Services
BC (SSBC) to establish a Federated Search capability.
o Establish Natural Language Processes and Analytical search capabilities.
Control:
o Establish rules engines that control content based on the metadata classification.
Protect:
o Develop a Rights Management strategy including guidelines, and principles that
will guide Ministries on how to assess the risks for using and not using
Information Rights Management.
Storage:
o Develop best practices and/or policy to reduce dependency on email systems
(Exchange) as a CM system.
o Work with SSBC to develop plan to reduce dependency on File Shares.
o Develop a Tiered Storage strategy.
o

Enterprise Content Management directly addresses governments strategic goals for Business
Innovation and supports the Service Plan objectives of Information Sharing for Better
Outcomes, Service Transformation and, indirectly, Value for Money.
Enterprise Content Management, as part of the IM/IT Enablers strategy, enables greater
accountability, information sharing and transparency. It is an important component in Open
Data / Open Information and enables Ministries to work together more effectively by increasing
the ability to find, share and reuse information.

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Background
Purpose of Document
The purpose of this document is to articulate an Enterprise Content Management Strategy for
the Province of BC. Through the understanding of business challenges, technology enablers
and current IM/IT initiatives this document will enable flexible and efficient enterprise-wide
implementations of program specific Content Management (CM) systems. There is a go
forward section containing recommendations fundamental to managing the lifecycle of the
content Government holds, on behalf of the citizens of BC. This document supports the
corporate objectives of Information Sharing for Better Outcomes, Service Transformation and,
indirectly, Value for Money.

Document Overview
Section

Description

Executive Summary

Overview

Background

Consists of the reviewers, the intended audience and the purpose of this
strategy.

Introduction

Consists of the scope and the evolution of Content Management.

Approach

The approach taken to create this strategy

Business Drivers

Main business drivers of this strategy

ECM Challenges

7 key areas related to Enterprise Content Management Challenges

Strategy

The Strategy section is the Go Forward Plan listing the areas that must
be addressed to support the Content Ecosystem. The strategy section
identifies recommendations to address the business challenges that are
not being addressed today.

Conclusion

Conclusion

Appendix
Focus Group
Approach

The process used in developing this strategy

Business
Requirements

Identifies the governments daily business challenges.

Technology
Enablers

IM/IT Responds to the business challenges by identifying fundamental

solutions that will enable the resolution.

Detailed
Deliverables

Gives a detailed description of the recommendations/deliverables of this

strategy.

Audience
The target audience for this document is Ministry CIOs, architects, Ministry business planners,
Shared Services BC and other external entities.

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Table of Contents
FOREWORD .................................................................................................................................................III
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................IV
BACKGROUND ...........................................................................................................................................VI
PURPOSE OF DOCUMENT ............................................................................................................................ VI
DOCUMENT OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................... VI
AUDIENCE .................................................................................................................................................. VI
INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................................... 1
SCOPE ........................................................................................................................................................ 2
STRATEGY DOCUMENT CREATION APPROACH ................................................................................... 3
BUSINESS DRIVERS ................................................................................................................................... 4
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................................... 5
7 Key Areas from a Business Perspective ............................................................................................ 5
7 Key Areas from a Technology Perspective ........................................................................................ 5
ECM CHALLENGES .................................................................................................................................... 7
BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE .............................................................................................................................. 7
Business Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 8
ECM GOVERNANCE .................................................................................................................................... 8
TECHNOLOGY PERSPECTIVE ........................................................................................................................ 8
Technology Challenges ......................................................................................................................... 9
IM/IT INITIATIVES......................................................................................................................................... 9
INDUSTRY ADVANCEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ 11
Interoperability ..................................................................................................................................... 12
Social Media ........................................................................................................................................ 12
eDiscovery........................................................................................................................................... 13
Preservation ........................................................................................................................................ 13
Open Data ........................................................................................................................................... 13
STRATEGY ................................................................................................................................................. 15
Goals: .................................................................................................................................................. 15
Conceptual Architecture ...................................................................................................................... 15
Long Term Vision ................................................................................................................................ 16
Go Forward Plan ................................................................................................................................. 17
Key Actions Supporting the Strategy: ................................................................................................. 17
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 18
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................ 20
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS ........................................................................................................................... 20
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................. 25
THE CONTENT REFERENCE MODEL ............................................................................................................ 25

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Definitions ............................................................................................................................................ 25
THE FOCUS GROUP APPROACH ................................................................................................................. 25
Initiation ............................................................................................................................................... 25
Framework .......................................................................................................................................... 25
Focus group ........................................................................................................................................ 26
Process ............................................................................................................................................... 26
IN THE END THE HARD WORK AND TIME PAID OFF AS CONSENSUS WAS ACHIEVED AND ALL OF THE
RECOMMENDATIONS WERE SUPPORTED. ..................................................................................................... 27

Table of Figures
Figure 1 Key Areas ................................................................................................................. iv
Figure 2 Business Perspective ................................................................................................ 7
Figure 3 Business Challenges ................................................................................................. 8
Figure 4 Technology Challenges ............................................................................................. 9
Figure 5 IM/IT Initiatives .........................................................................................................10
Figure 6 Conceptual Architecture ...........................................................................................15

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Introduction
The first version of the BC Provincial Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Strategy was
published in January 2011. The direction and long term vision of ECM continue to align with
both government direction and industry trends.
The government 2.0 IMIT Enablers Strategy published after the ECM Strategy version 1.0
identified content management as a technology enabler. ECM is a corporate strategy
containing a set of solutions to create the Content Ecosystem, and is an integral component of
Information Management.
Industry continues to advance in this area:

Version 2.0 of Content Management Interoperability Specification (CMIS) is being

developed and products continue to align with this specification.
The social media revolution is forcing organizations to expand content management
architectures.
Open Data/Open Information is necessitating organizations to extend content
management capabilities for public consumption.
Mobility, users want to work with the new technologies.

This strategy is not about consolidating platforms or content technologies nor is it dictating
products, it is about identifying areas that need to be standardized or set as a common set of
practices to create interoperability and legislation compliancy. Technologies and platforms will
change over time but this common set of practices around classification and preservation, for
example, will persist.
There are 3 information management challenges before government:
1. Take control of the content. This is imperative as content continues to grow
exponentially. Governments biggest asset is information and 80% of that information is
content in the form of emails, video, audio, files and documents.
2. Manage and protect content by ensuring compliancy to legislation and government
policies.
3. Reuse or leverage content. Whether it is in the form of gathering business intelligence
or the ability to retain knowledge. Lets face it with the workforce changes happening it
is going to be imperative that we are able to retain the knowledge and leverage it in the
future.
A sometimes forgotten key point is that ECM forms the underlying foundation supporting many
of business applications; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship
Management (CRM), Employee Management and Case Management. These enterprise
applications are transactional based but manage significant content, content management is
something that needs to be done consistently on all of government content. This strategy sets
that consistency and continues to evolve with each new version.

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Scope
The scope of this document focuses on Document & Content Management; content in the form
of files, whether they are text, media and images or other formats, whether they are multiply
stored on a desktop, an email system or file share.
Government lives in a world of content chaos. This strategy identifies ways through
architecture, standards, guidelines, best practices and process models to manage this chaos
and help ensure content is being classified, managed, protected and stored consistently across
government.
This strategy identifies ways to create a Content Ecosystem creating accessible content
across all of government.

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Strategy Document Creation Approach

This strategy was developed through the ECM focus group which each of the sectors across
government, and a representative from Shared Services BC, OCIO Security Branch, Information
Access Operations (records management), and Business Workforce Transformation. This
group met every 3 weeks over a 7 month period for a presentation followed by a 2 hour
discussion. The presentations contained background materials around industry standards and
vendors view of the future, they were a means to get the discussion started. For full details
refer to the section in the appendix The Focus Group Approach.
A number of vendors were consulted, with a focus on capabilities and not on solutions. It was
important to focus on the content itself and not on the technology used to manage it, determine
ways to create content once and then reuse it in multiple channels of communication and
knowledge transfer.

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Business Drivers
The following business issues guided the development of the ECM strategy. Management and
security issues:
1. The need to establish improved management practice over the current deluge of data
(which is often replicated many times) in order to reduce risk
2. The need to manage the number of diverse CM systems and limit the number of
solutions.
3. The need to achieve cost savings through improved information management. This
includes more cost effective storage, more controlled information retention and disposal,
and the ability to reduce the costs associated with effectively finding the right
information.
Improved leveraging and exploitation information issues:
4. The need to improve content findability
5. The need to reuse content and use it in decision-making purposes.
6. The need to update our dated tools and practices, the paper approach is no longer
working. E.g. revolutionize government services the same way the ATM card did to
banking.
7. The need for improved public service through citizen engagement & open data
There have been a number of siloed approaches to Content Management over the years; some
have been very successful within their program areas while others have been less so. What
has been lacking is the complete enterprise wide view, the big picture if you will, of how all of
the pieces or siloed approaches and individual components fit together to achieve a Content
Ecosystem.
One solution or product will not meet the needs of every business area. But alternately there
must be control over the number of solutions chosen within government and a common base
line or practice adopted to ensure that each of these solutions or products can work within the
Enterprise Content Management environment. Interoperability, consistency, automation and
reuse are the main goals of this strategy, creating an environment where products chosen to
meet specific business needs work as seamlessly as possible to create a Content Ecosystem.
The alternative is to continue to isolate the information needed to provide better services to
citizens. Resources will be used to manage the content chaos rather than deriving value from
properly managed, findable and accessible content. An ECM strategy is needed to leverage the
investment in current information content and more importantly to avoid wasting scarce
resources on accumulating content without a means of accessing and using it effectively.

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Conceptual Framework
This document is based on an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) Conceptual Framework,
which describes 7 key areas from a business and technology perspective that must be
understood and addressed. These areas were identified as critical to the success of a Content
Ecosystem.

7 Key Areas from a Business Perspective

Understanding the conceptual framework from a business perspective will identify how a wellimplemented ECM initiative facilitates the following methods and benefits:
1. Classify the content business areas own or provide custodianship over;
2. Access - improve accessibility to business information to support the needs of the
business and its target groups;
3. Discover and share - the content reducing rework and encouraging reuse;
4. Control the content by establishing the business needs that support Information
Management within a content collection;
5. Protection - of the content both internally and externally through advanced information
security;
6. Storage - Control the rising cost of storage through smart use of layered storage
devices and;
7. Authorization - Ensure only authorized users access the content through the use of
IDIM.
Government program areas vary dramatically with respect to their CM needs. The ECM strategy
will provide the necessary structure for all organizations to establish a CM baseline to enable
interoperability between the different products, products chosen to meet specific business
needs.

7 Key Areas from a Technology Perspective

Understanding the conceptual framework from a technology response point of view will enable
program areas across Government to standardize the way in which they:
1. Classify - Ensure classification of the content so that the right security and management
constraints can be applied;
2. Accessibility - Ensure a decision-maker access to information quickly and efficiently
through the Web and Application layer;
3. Discover and Share - Enable federated search and information sharing via the
interoperability layer;
4. Control - Ensure the control of information based on the classification of the
information and the CM capability components;
5. Protection - Ensure the information is protected with the help of Information Rights
Management where merited based on the classification of the information;
6. Storage - Ensure tiered storage of information is addressed to enable archiving,
capacity and availability considerations, and performance considerations; and
7. Authorization - Ensure that only the authorized people can gain access to the
information with the help of IDIM.
To ensure a consistent technology understanding, the ECM strategy maintains or references the
latest implementation regarding Government corporate standards around:

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Trusted Identity - Identity Management (IDIM) initiative;

Improving Business Processes Business Automation initiative
Virtual Teams Communication and Collaboration
Insightfull Information Business Intelligence (BI)
integration and interoperability (CMIS and general interoperability infrastructure) usage
patterns;
CM components like electronic document and records management (i.e. the
government Enterprise Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) TRIM
(Total Records and Information Management)),

These and other technology considerations are essential to provisioning the effective capture,
management, storage, preservation, and delivery of any content and ensures the consistent
implementation of interoperability patterns across the B.C. public sector program areas. The
ECM strategy fosters greater:

developer productivity,
cross-system data standards,
cross-tool architectures,
cross-team design and
development synergies,

All of this will assure the integrity and lineage of the data as it travels across multiple
organizations and technology platforms.

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ECM Challenges
Business Perspective
There are two key challenges from a business perspective when dealing with content within
government today
1. searching, finding and then accessing content, and
2. ensuring compliance to legislation and policies around authorization, protection and
management so, for example, information breaches do not happen 2, nor unauthorized
disposition of information.
Referring to Figure 2:

Employees have information that

they want a target group to see.
That target group could be as
broad as the public or as narrow
as a handful of people due to the
confidentiality of the information.

There is a need to identify the

target groups that are permitted to
access the information.

Access Policies (enforced by

automated or manual rules) need
to be in place for the management
of the information.

It is necessary to classify the

content so that it can be retrieved
and managed accordingly.

Figure 2 Business Perspective

From a business user productivity perspective these details just add to the daily workload. A
system capable of automatically aligning policies and workflow would significantly reduce work
pressures.
The ECM strategy is based on establishing a federated and interoperability space, reducing the
content classification burden from the end user. Ensuring the end user has the tools needed to
interact with the content to perform their business tasks. Areas of overlap and challenges
include:

Establishing communications between the CM systems,

Developing consistent access processes so that content can be shared and discovered
across multiple CM systems, and
Ensuring legislation and policies are complied with across government

Ann Cavoukian , the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, called on governments to
radically change the way they police the sharing of personal information.

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This strategy helps business explore these concerns and position them to overcome a lot of the
challenges faced today through standards, architecture, guidelines, best practices and shared
services.

Business Challenges
Referring back to the conceptual
framework seven key aspects have
been identified that must be
addressed from a business point of
view and are shown in Figure 1.
These aspects are all interrelated, for
example classification includes
security requirements that dictate
access, authorization, protection and
storage requirements. What this
diagram is showing is these are the
areas that common baselines must be
realized to enable a Content
Ecosystem.
Refer to the Appendix Business
Requirement section to review the
service benefits/expectations and
conceptual requirements for each
area.

Classify:
What is the nature of my content and how do I
describe it?

Access:
How do I consistently get access to
all of my content?

Discovery and Sharing:

How do I find, move and
exchange content?

Control:
How do I need to control my
content within the system?

Authorization:
How do I ensure
that only the
authorized people
can gain access to
my content?

Protection:
How do I protect content both inside
and outside the organization?

Storage:
How do I control the rising cost of content
storage and still getting the access I need?

Figure 3 Business Challenges

ECM Governance
It is recognized that in order for a strategy of this magnitude to be realized there must be a
strong governance model guiding stakeholders to the required enterprise approach. ECM
governance contains universal baseline capabilities for all. In addition to the baseline
capabilities there are also specific and unique requirements. What becomes baseline (and
hence affects the entire government) and what remains unique (but manageable), requires
governance.
Specific roles and responsibilities related to unstructured content must be clearly articulated and
represented across government. Not only is this strategy going to address the business
challenges identified above it is going to address the components needed to support and build
the underlying and ongoing foundation.

Technology Perspective
The BC Government has been a leader in establishing corporate standards and shared
services. Despite this there are still many frustrations when it comes to managing/finding
content and the vast number of systems and repositories that exist today. Technology helps
enable government to respond to the business challenges. Standardization of the seven key

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technology aspects ensures an ecosystem will be obtainable. With common technology

practices coordination among data management disciplines become achievable. Improved
data quality, integrity, consistency, scalability, and architecture will be benefits realized.
Use technology to automate content classification and minimize the manual interaction. This
will reduce the inconsistence and human error and enable government to automatically act upon
this classification to protect and manage the content.
This strategy addresses these challenges through architectural standards, guidelines, best
practices, product standards,
awareness sessions and shared
services.

Technology Challenges

Classify - Metadata & Taxonomy Development:

Ensure content is classified so that the right security
and management constraints can be applied.

Referring back to the conceptual

framework seven key aspects have
been identified that must be
addressed from a technology point of
view and are shown in Figure 4.

Access - Interface Standards:

Standardize the interface to the content for
both the applications and user.

Discovery and Sharing Interoperability Standards:

Establish criteria for CM system
inter-connection.

The seven aspects can be addressed

through the use of specific
technologies. The application of these
technologies must be coordinated and
collaborative. Individual Ministries can
implement different technologies as
long as these technologies are in
accordance with government direction
and can be reconciled within the
ecosystem.
Refer to the Appendix Technology
Requirement section to get the
detailed requirements for each area.

Control - Content Lifecycle

Definition:
Establish core criteria for managing
content.

Authorization:
Ensure that only
the authorized
people are
gaining access

Protection - Rights Management:

Ensure the appropriate safeguards are
embedded or attached to the content.

Storage - Tiered Storage:

Address availability, performance, capacity and
archiving in a cost effective manner.

Figure 4 Technology Challenges

IM/IT Initiatives
Currently, there are a number of strategic IM/IT Content Management initiatives, projects and
services at varying maturity levels. The table bellow highlights these, the lead and the ECM
challenges they address or partially address:

Area

Lead

Open Data:

Workforce Planning
and Leadership

Data Management Roles and

Responsibilities Standard
.

Data Architecture
Advisory Council
(DAAC)

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Role

Citizen engagement, information

sharing for better outcomes.

Data roles and responsibilities

ECM challenges partially

addressed

Content Classification
Discovery and Sharing

Content Classification
Content Ownership and accountability
Content accessibility

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Information Security
Classification Policy

OCIO Security Branch

Security classification for content.

Enterprise Document and

Records Management System
(EDRMS), TRIM (Total Recorded
Information Management)

Information Access
Operations , SSBC

Document and records classification as

it relates to retention scheduling and
disposition
Corporate document repository,
accessed and managed via standard
metadata

Provides central FOI and records

management services to all ministries,
in fulfilling statutory and policy
requirements for the management of
records within the provincial
governments custody and/or control

Information Access Operations,

Shared Services BC

Enterprise
Document and
Records
Management
System
ARCS/ORCS

Business Workforce
Transformation

Shared Services BC (SSBC)

BC electronic
Identity (BCeID)
PSA designated as
the Authoritative
Source for
employee data

OCIO Architecture and Standards

Branch

Enterprise Content
Management
(ECM) Strategy
Identity Information
Management
(IDIM)
Information Access
Layer (IAL)
Business Process
Management
User Provisioning

Content security classification

Content accessibility
Content protection
IAO is working with OCIO Security on linking
security classifications to ARCS/ORCS and
EDRMS TRIM.
Content classification from records
management perspective
Content Ownership and accountability.
Content lifecycle management
Content accessibility
Content protection
Authorized disposition
IAO is working with OCIO Security on linking
security classifications to ARCS/ORCS and
EDRMS TRIM.
Develops mandatory government records
retention and disposition schedules: e.g.,
Administrative Records Classification
System (ARCS); Operational Records
Classification System (ORCS).
Provides central business management and
support for EDRMS/TRIM
IAO is working with OCIO Security on linking
security classifications to ARCS/ORCS and
EDRMS TRIM.
Develops and manages the Web Standards,
including metadata and taxonomy, for the
BC Government web content.

Manages the infrastructure for shared

and hosted CM systems, the Corporate
Search Engine and the Corporate Web
Analytics service.
Provides a full suite of design and web
development services.
Corporate service for an electronic
identity
Authoritative source for employee data

The Office of the Chief Information

Officer (OCIO) has developed a
strategy for better information sharing
that will enable more information
decision making and generate better
outcomes for citizens and businesses.

This strategy is about making sure the right

people have access to the right information
at the right time for the right reasons, while
ensuring and enhancing the privacy of
citizens

The Information Access Layer (IAL)

provides a critical layer enabling
information sharing between citizencentered service providers across the
public sector and their private sector
partners for a wide variety of provincial
information services.

Accessing information
Protecting information
Metadata for employee data

accessing information
protecting information
automating processes

The Business Process Management

provides a critical link to bringing some
consistency around how processes are
automated and integrated

Ministry of Housing and Social

Development and Ministry of
Children and Family

Integrated Case
Management (ICM)
Project

Figure 5 IM/IT Initiatives

A few of the above initiatives have been elaborated on below to show how the ECM Strategy
ties into them:

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The Identity Information Management (IDIM) strategy and standards are being led by the
Architecture and Standards Branch within the Office of the Chief Information Officer
(OCIO) while the project is being led by Shared Service BC (SSBC). The full potential of
the ECM strategy hinges on the IDIM initiative. It is through the use of identity
credentials and authoritative parties that the access control is based on.
Open Data led by Workforce Planning and Leadership is in the process of creating an
environment to support the provinces open data. This group has created an Open Data
Catalogue and a web presence to interact with the public (DataBC). It is recognized
that the engagement with the public through this type of means is an asset that
government wants to encourage. The ECM Strategy supports this initiative:
o through classification of unstructured content, identifying early on that content is
public will help with the open data initiative
o metadata is essential to the open data catalogue and is providing consistency
across government
o interoperability and the means to get access to repositories that house open data
and open information
Integrated Case Management (ICM) led jointly by Housing and Social Development and
the Ministry of Children and Families. This project is a significant project currently being
developed within government. It is breaking down the silo between two of the social
ministries allowing government to better serve the citizens of B.C. The goal is to
integrate CASE work and share information between the two sectors, using a single
environment. The importance of the ECM Strategy is the fact that so much of a case is
unstructured content, documents and reference material needed to effectively work a
case. Content Management is a foundational piece for this Enterprise Business
Application, the ECM Strategy creates that foundation and supports this initiative:
o through content classification
o improved search and discovery
o consistent access control, ensuring that only people allowed to search and view
the information have access to it
o interoperability addressing the means to get access to the repositories that store
the information
o interface consistency allowing the application to be available to the case material
through a consistent means.
Integrated Corrections Operations Network (ICON II) led by Public Safety & Solicitor
General is building the foundation for Justice ECM in collaboration with the OCIO. The
solution will leverage corporate IDM services to provide secure confidential access to
sensitive legal material, protect the rights of accused persons, and the integrity of
criminal prosecutions. The Project is building the solution to align and support the
corporate ECM strategy and metadata standard.

Industry Advancements
The direction presented in this version is still very much aligned with version 1; however there
have been industry advancements in this area that need to be linked to this version:

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Interoperability
International standards and developing products are evolving to be more interoperable,
recognizing the need to standardize on common interfaces to enable systems to share content.
Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS) is a specification for allowing users to
share and access data across multiple content management (ECM) systems.
CMIS provides a data model and web services for defining ECM capabilities, such as query, at
the repository level. This allows developers to create custom applications for CMIS-compliant
content management systems without having to understand each specific system. Prior to
CMIS, companies had to build or purchase custom application connectors, migrate content from
one system to another, or use existing (but limited) content sharing standards, such as Java
Content Repository.
This strategy recognizes the need to support this advancement and through the architecture
and standards is defining this.

Mobility
The Post PC era gives birth to the "new user," who interacts with information from a variety of
sources, and across a multitude of devices. Integrating user-friendly interface with the traditional
content management repositories delivers the new mobile and external collaboration capabilities
required for businesses to make better, faster decisions. These joint solutions strike the right
balance in giving users easy-to-use tools for accessing information regardless of device, with
the control IT expects for capturing, managing, processing and preserving content.
This strategy recognizes the power behind enabling the new user to interact like this while in
the work environment. This interaction will also have to take under consideration that the user
may be disconnected from the enterprise environment when in remote locations. By providing
an ecosystem that enables and supports mobility government is creating this cultural shift and
will only benefit from it.

Social Media
The Social Media (SoMe) Revolution is upon government. It is not a fad it is here to stay. It is
experiencing significant internal uptake and generating increasing amounts of unmanaged
content. It is important to see how it fits into the ECM Strategy.
To aid in the understanding of how SoMe and Content Management (CM) are related we can
divide CM into two conceptual categories, traditional Systems of Record (i.e., Document
Management and Records Management systems) and the new generation of Systems of
Engagement (i.e., Yammer and Facebook).

In Systems of Record, content is authored as discrete files and is easily searchable,

users generally need to be trained, access is regulated and constrained, and there is a
strong focus on enterprise-wide security and policies.
Social software falls into the Systems of Engagement category, where content is
developed collaboratively and can be of any type (audio, video, images, etc.), and the
systems follow Web 2.0 principles so little training is needed, accessibility is wide open,
and security is limited to individual user privacy.

Both of these types of systems add value and are important to government, in order to leverage
both, they must co-exist in a cohesive manner. While a System of Record promotes efficiency, a
System of Engagement creates effectiveness. The resulting social enterprise architecture is that
in which the System of Engagement operates on top of and in touch with the System of Record.

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The ECM Architecture document shows how this environment works.

eDiscovery
eDiscovery is the iterative process of identifying, collecting, preserving, preparing,
reviewing, and potentially producing electronically stored information (ESI) to support
litigation, investigations, and regulatory proceedings. eDiscovery is the process that allows
litigators to search through, review and comment on documents relevant to their litigation.
Within government, the demand for eDiscovery is growing as litigation requires increasing
volumes of electronic evidence. This strategy provides the foundation for categorizing,
labeling and searching information, which does assist in the execution of eDiscovery. This
strategy by separating the middle management layer enables management services to be
exposed and leveraged by all presentation layer applications. Exposing a legal hold service
would aid the eDiscovery process.

Preservation
Preservation ensures the reliability and trustworthiness of electronic documents throughout the
documents life cycle. Content needs to be readable, viewable or auditable for the duration of its
life otherwise it holds no value. Preservation ensures:

the type of content is always consumable,

the integrity of the content has been maintained in that it has not been compromised or
corrupted

Preservation supports eDiscovery, open data, and archiving, it crosses all of governments lines
of business and effects every electronic activity.
A low priority in government today and the lack of a preservation strategy poses a huge gap.

Open Data
Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use, combine
and republish as they wish, without restrictions imposed by copyright, patents or other
mechanisms of control. While not identical, open data has a similar ethos to those of other
Open movements such as open source, open content, and open access.
Several national governments around the world have committed to making a large part of the
data they collect available to the public, including the province of B.C.:

Data.gov U.S. government open-data website launched in May 2009

Data.gov.uk U.K. government open-data website launched in September 2009
Data.gov.au Australian government open-data website launched in March 2011
Data.gc.ca Canadian government open-data website launched in March 2011

B.C. governments website:

Data.gov.bc.ca

This strategy supports the open data movement through the classification of content, identifying
during the early stages of a documents life cycle what is public data. Establishing
interoperability making it easy for users to locate open data and by addressing the need to
improve search and discovery within government. Open data sets are just a form of

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unstructured content, the practices addressed in this strategy only aid in the success of this
movement.

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Strategy
Goals:
The goals of this version of the strategy are to:

Further detail out the Conceptual Architecture by creating a Functional Architecture

Establish a plan outlining how to move the Functional Design forward
Create a Business Case for the ECM Functional Architecture Strategy
Create the next release of the ECM-Content Metadata Standard and Content Metadata
Model.
Develop a Governance Framework

Conceptual Architecture
Content Classification
External
Organizations

Increasing Levels of Precision and Control

Access

Contr

Contr
l

Control

Protect

Storage

Control

Authentication

Discovery and Sharing

Control

Protect

Storage

Figure 6 Conceptual Architecture

It is understood that not all content needs to be managed to the same degree and that one
solution will not be the best fit for all business needs. There are a range of content types that
make it impossible to select one solution however it is also recognized that too many solutions
will also have the same detrimental effect. In order to create a manageable and interoperable
Content Ecosystem, standards must be created in the seven areas defined above and a
common understanding of the integration points must be established. To start this
understanding the ECM Functional Architecture document has been created.

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Long Term Vision

This strategy transforms the government environment to a place where information is always
easy to find and readily accessible. All of government information whether it is a contract, a
strategy, a piece of evidence, a profile of an employee, a learning video or a recorded live
meeting would be automatically classified, tagged, and be searchable consistently across
government and accessible when authorized. The information would be managed and
protected according to legislation and policies through the use of CM systems and automated
rules. CM systems that contain the necessary capabilities to achieve the business requirements
and automated rules that can be leveraged across government.
A federated search allows multiple information sources to be searched from one location. For
example, content tagged as public would be available to citizens at a one stop location
enabling Open Data and Open Information.. The location of the information would be
transparent to the citizen because of the interoperability technologies used to classify, protect
and authorize access to the content. Natural Language Processors and text analytics will be
used to increase the probability of finding relevant and reliable information.
Applying access control to the content based on roles of the user and not on the individual user
itself would allow employees greater access to the information they need. Employees would not
have to register with or switch to each system they need to access, saving valuable time.
The content itself would contain the information relating to who can access it and what
capabilities they would have with respect to read, write, delete, send and copy. Access could
be given or restricted based on the department they work for, the position they are working in,
the professional license they hold or any combination. With this type of access (ensuring there
arent any other constraints related to custody and legislative) content could reside anywhere
even in the cloud because only the users with the right credentials could get access. The
content in a sense would protect itself with Information Rights Management managing the
content outside of the organization. This ensures the information is protected even if it falls into
the wrong hands. Only the person with the proper credential will be able to open and access
the information.
Content would be located in a managed CM system rather than in an unmanaged file share.
The capabilities that a CM system offer outweighs what a file share can do in terms of lifecycle
management, audit and traceability, and access and authentication protection. Less use of file
share and more use of a CM system would ensure less risk for information breaches or
unauthorized disposal of information. Using a CM system rather than a file share would imply
fewer requirements for VPN and DTS because direct browser access is possible.
Content will be sent via email through links rather than as attachments which would lead to the
reduction of email storage costs. Increased safety would be an added benefit because even if a
link is miss-sent, the non-intended recipient could not open that link because of the
authentication and access protection within the CM system.
Just as electronic banking changed the way the financial world works this strategy will guide the
government to change the way we work with government information.

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Go Forward Plan
The go forward plan of this version of the strategy continues to be to set the common base line
with respect to content and the content management practices throughout Government. The
continued approach of adoption, to support business needs, is at the forefront of this strategy.

Key Actions Supporting the Strategy:

Action Description

Date Started
(or ongoing/completed)

Develop an ECM Content Metadata Standard to identify what metadata

elements are required during different stages within a contents lifecycle.

Completed

Develop a Content Metadata Model to identify metadata elements and

their definitions.

Completed

Conduct awareness sessions education business owners of the benefits

and value behind classification through metadata

On going

Functional ECM Architecture document review, validate and awareness

November 2011

Develop an ECM Functional Architecture a business oriented document

explaining the vision in terms of functions.

December 2011

Vendor Demos and Proof of Concepts

March 2012

Develop a Governance Framework

March 2012

Develop a business Case

March 2012

Identify a sponsor to develop and submit a T&T process plan

September 2012

Develop the next version of the ECM-Content Metadata Standard

October 2012

Develop the next version of the ECM Strategy

December 2012

Develop rules

December 2012

This strategy will continue to evolve over time. New versions will be produced as needed to
identify the advancements and direction of the B.C. Government Content Ecosystem. This
strategy is focused on maximizing employee productivity and enhancing their engagement with
each other. Ensuring continuity across the broader public sector to move us towards a
federated Content Management Environment aligning us closer to the Governments strategic
goals which are to ensure the right information gets to the right person at the right time, to
improve information sharing and to reduce costs.

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Conclusion
Employees require greater access to, and control over, content. The practices used today are
those of the past and have not evolved to take advantages of the capabilities and
advancements available today. These practices cannot cope with the exploding volumes and
complexities of the content that exists today. Nor are they supportive of an information sharing
and collaboration workplace that is needed.
Through the use of the focus group to create this strategy we have already started the ball
rolling, awareness is happening and the excitement and benefits are being realized. Ministries
and vendors alike are excited and waiting for this movement towards a Content Ecosystem.
The siloed CM approach is not working for government as most of the silos cannot meet all of
the current content lifecycles need. Growing frustrations with organizing and finding information
along with the overwhelming demands of information requests need to be addressed.
If government continues to create disparate approaches, effectively isolating information needed
to provide better services to citizens through the burgeoning growth of unmanaged content, the
problem is only going to get worse. Resources used to manage the content chaos will continue
to put the government at risk due to human error and inconsistency. Information will continue to
be difficult to find and share. Government will fail to leverage the investment in current
information content and more importantly will continue to waste scarce resources on
accumulating content without a means of accessing and using it effectively.
This strategy addresses the 7 key areas:
Classify:
Practices and services that apply consistent and reliable content metadata to all
unstructured content must be established. This includes the application of metadata that
addresses OCIO security, and records management classification, as well as common
discovery metadata elements. The business owner is encouraged to build upon this
minimum set and define finer grained requirements to meet their specific business
needs. This combination enables government to programmatically act upon
classification across the organization. It supports both corporate and specific business
processes and administrative needs. It will improve productivity because improved
discovery will aid in the ability to find and reuse content.
Access:
Establishing interface standards that will be applied to all information sources, enabling
government to obtain a consistent look and feel when interacting with the different
information sources. Application owners need these standards to provide more costeffective development and deployment of information systems; improved operations;
better quality decision making as a result of more timely, accurate, and complete
information.
Discovery and Sharing:
A Federated Search will improve content findability and lead to improved content and
information sharing. Just as web portals have transformed the way in which consumers
access Internet content, shopping areas and services, Federated Search services
promise to do the same for government, by providing a single entry-point to the wealth of
information, resources and expertise.

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Control:
Automated metadata classification will reduce human error and inconsistency which in
turn reduces liability risks. It is recognized that automation will not meet all classification
requirements but it will meet the essential ones. Leveraging the automated metadata
classification will provide baseline control over content. Those baselines can
accommodate different rules and considerations required for open and secure content
and recognize the distinction between corporate/administrative type content and
operational content.
Protect:
There are times when added security measures must be taken and with the help of
guidelines and principles education of business risks when applying and not applying
added Information Rights Management protection will be realized.
Storage:
Business needs are more complex these days and storage flexibility has to be
addressed. Business areas need to be given more flexibility in terms of the duration the
content is needed, the type of content as well as the kind of access that is required.
This strategy will enable the BC Government to assist program areas align their content
management practices with those of other program areas, align their developers technical
aspects with a common architecture. Security, audit, traceability and compliance are seen as
added benefits, but the prime driver is the need to maximize employee productivity and enhance
their engagement with each other. Ensuring continuity across the broader public sector will
move government towards a federated Content Management Environment aligning closer to the
Governments strategic goals which are to ensure the right information gets to the right person
at the right time, to improve information sharing and to reduce costs.
This ECM strategy will provide the foundations for building the BC Government Content
Ecosystem.

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References

http://www.information-management.com/issues/20030201/6287-1.html Information
Management The Problem with Unstructured Data
http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/2009/06/8-things-you-need-to-know-about-contentclassification-and-ecm.html Digital Landfill 8 Things You Need to Know about Content
Classification and ECM
http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/news/1320746/Enterprise-contentmanagement-brings-order-to-chaotic-unstructured-content Search Data management
Enterprise content management brings order to chaotic unstructured content

Terms and Definitions

Analytical

Structured content that supports queries and analysis and is

implemented using structured databases, these are
purposefully de-normalized and optimized for query ease and
performance. Analytical content will contain aggregated or
derived information.

Authored

Creation of unstructured content in a wide variety of formats,

such as multimedia, application system programs or text
documents with embedded graphics. The term authoring is
broad in scope. At one extreme, taking a photo with a digital
camera may be authoring. At the other, authoring may
involve a complex workflow for the production of a formal
report. E-mail or other messages exchanged are considered
to be authored content. These are implemented by
specialized authoring systems whose underlying repositories
may be of any of a variety of constructs to store data objects
such as file systems, and relational databases.

Client

A member of a target group.

Clients

Represent service consumers (part of target group), clients

have expectations for services;
Versioning control
Allow multiple people to edit the content

Collaboration
Consumer

The recipient of a payload resulting from a request made to

an information service. Consumers operate under agreed
levels of service with information service providers.
Consumers may also be bound by one or more constrains
(such as a license) applied by the owner over the source
information asset.
Source: Services orientation: Winning Strategies and Best
Practices; US Government FEAP DRM 2.0

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Content

Any type of data or information that can be stored as a file.

Content
Management

Application of management techniques to collect and control

content, communicate it within and outside the organization,
and process it to enable managers to make quicker and
better decisions. This includes the governments standard
records management practices.

CRM

Customer Relationship Management

Custodian

An information asset has a custodian who is responsible to

the owner and who applies controls to the information asset.
The custodian is the recognized individual responsible for
implementing and maintaining information assets according
to the rules set by the owner to ensure proper quality,
security, integrity, correctness, consistency, privacy,
confidentiality, retention and accessibility.

Refer to the
Roles and
Responsibility
Guideline

Data

See Information

Refer to the
OCIO
Information
Security Policy

Discovery
Disposition

Is the process of searching, finding and then retrieving the

information.
The action taken when information/records becomes inactive
under an approved records schedule (i.e., destruction or
transfer to the custody of the government archives)

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning

Government
Information

means all recorded information, regardless of physical format,

that is received, created, deposited or held by or in any
ministry, agency, board, commission, Crown corporation,
institution, committee or council reporting or responsible to
the Government of British Columbia. Government records
include machine-readable records, data stored in information
systems, film, audio and audiovisual tapes, etc. Government
records include cabinet ministers' records that are created
and/or accumulated and used by a Minister (or a Minster's
office) in developing, implementing and/or administering
programs of government. Government records do not include
legislative records (records created and/or accumulated and
used by an individual or an office in the administration of the
Legislative Assembly of British Columbia or by a Member of
the Legislative Assembly). The retention and final disposition
of most government records is governed by the Document
Disposal Act
Represents a single accountable role that ensures client
expectations are being met, and is ultimately responsible for
the success of the program initiative/change;

Governor

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Records
Management
definition

Refer to the
OCIO
Information
Security Policy

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Information

the data in context. The meaning given to data or the

interpretation of data, based on its context, for purposes of
decision making. (See: Government Information).

Information
Management

Application of management techniques to collect and control

information, communicate it within and outside the
organization, and process it to enable managers to make
quicker and better decisions. This includes the governments
standard records management practices.

Information
Service

An Information asset is accessed through an information

service. An information service represents an endpoint that
provides a defined interface for access to information assets
in the particular business context.

Metadata

Is used to describe information that enables:

Discovery of content
Understanding the provenance and quality of the
content
Analysis of the content
Control of the content

Needs

A need is a target group condition or circumstance that a

program must address by reason of its mandate (purpose).
Needs are not requirements, a need is a condition or
circumstance requiring relief.

Owner

An information asset has an owner who holds accountability.

The owner is the recognized individual who is identified as
having the authority and accountability under legislation,
regulation or policy for the collection of information assets.
It is the owner who defines the information asset
requirements of an agency, including ongoing management
requirements.
An owner will often delegate the operational responsibility for
information assets to a custodian.

Program

Program
Outcome
Published

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Refer to the
OCIO
Information
Security Policy

An enterprise may include one or more programs. A program

represents a mandate from the governors to achieve goals
and outcomes (based on a strategy) that address the
identified needs of a target group within a
jurisdiction. Programs are delivered through a collection of
services that contribute to the program goals and comply with
the program strategy.
A desired future state of a target group based on their need;
Unstructured content assembled from its component pieces,
into a desired format and disseminated to a target audience
and implemented using technologies that optimize discovery,

Refer to the
Roles and
Responsibility
Guideline

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search and retrieval. Traditionally, published content
manifests as physical printed media catalogued by libraries
using physical or electronic catalogues. However, more and
more published content is being held electronically in
repositories that include the file systems underlying websites,
relational databases underlying content management
systems and XML registries.

Retention

How long the information needs to be retained by the

business area in active or semi-active storage.

Records
Management
definition

Scheduling

A prescribed timetable that governs the life cycle of

information/record from creation, through active use within an
office, retention in off-site storage during its semi-active
period, to final disposition when it becomes inactive.
The tangible value of a service, which is discreet, measurable
and deemed valuable by the client independent of other
services.
Represents the provision of specific outputs that satisfy the
needs of clients (target group) and contribute to the
achievement of program goals.

Records
Management
definition

Service
Outputs
Services

Structured
Content

Information assets typically described via entity-relationship

or class models, such as logical data models and XML
documents. Structured data is organized in well-defined
semantic chunks called entities, nodes or objects.
Source: US Government FEAP DRM 2.0

Supplier

The provider of an information service through which

consumers are able to access information assets. Suppliers
implement the information service, but may not necessarily
be the data manager, custodian or owner. However, a
supplier would operate within the rules applicable to the
information assets they utilize for an information service.
Source: Service orientation: Winning Strategies and Best
Practices; US Government FEAP DRM 2.0

Target Group

A population of individuals (organization, family etc.)

identifiable via known characteristics (i.e. age, location etc.);

Transactional

Structured content that supports business processes and

workflows and is implemented using structured databases,
these are highly normalized and optimized for transactional
performance.

Unstructured
Content

An information asset that is free-form format, such as

multimedia files, images, sound files, or unstructured text.
Unstructured data does not necessarily follow any format or

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hierarchal sequence, nor does it follow any relational rules.
However, unstructured content may contain some structured
content. For the sake of simplicity, this concept of semistructured is considered to be within the scope of
unstructured data for the purpose of the Information
Architecture.
Source: US Government FEAP DRM 2.0

Workflow

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Order in which people must action the content.

A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps.

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Appendix
The Content Reference Model

DATA

Put into context

INFORMATION

Store as a file

CONTENT

Definitions
1. Data is facts, that when put into context, becomes information.
2. Information is data that has been put into context.
3. Content is data or information that has been stored as a file.

The Focus Group Approach

Initiation
ICON II project was underway and was told to conform to the OCIO Strategy around Content
Management. Rather than just building a strategy for a specific project/Ministry it was decided to create a
broad government wide solution.

Framework
A framework was developed with a thought from a government wide perspective what is important to
align across all Content Management systems. It was determined that although the product was important
it was more important to have the interoperability. This framework identifies 7 key aspects: Content
Classification, Access, Discovery and Sharing, Content Control, Protection, Storage and Authorization. It
is these aspects that must be brought to a common baseline across government.

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Focus group
A focus group was brought together to discuss the key aspects of the framework and to see if it held
strong to all of the business requirements.
The focus group was created through the ASRB (Architecture Standards Review Board), the concept was
presented and members were asked to put forward a representative from their sector to participate. Some
ASRB members were the representative and others put forward a person that was closer to the subject.

Process
There was a kickoff meeting to set the terms of reference, and to get an agreement on the goals of this
group. A timetable of six sessions was presented, one for each of the six main areas leaving the
authentication to the IDIM team.
Prior to the meeting vendors were interviewed to get an idea of the industry direction, experts within
government were interviewed and a presentation was created. The presentation was vendor and product
agnostic; the presentation gave a description of the key aspect and then identified key capabilities and
facts about the different options available.
The group then took the next 2 hours to identify business needs, challenges and concerns. They looked at
the facts put forward and recommended where they would like to see government go.
Following the meeting the chapter reflecting that key criteria was written and the group took their time
reviewing the contents passing the information on to others within their sector for comments.
Once the document was completed with the group met a number of times to walk through the sections to
make sure everyone was in agreement.

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Observations / Conclusions
There was great representation across the board. Members actively participated in the discussions and all
brought forward business requirements, concerns, ideas and recommendations from their areas.
It was very important to understand different areas challenges and relate them across different sectors.
In the end the hard work and time paid off as consensus was achieved and all of the
recommendations were supported.

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