When you stop to think about it, what is needed in order to have a robust Enterprise Content Management System? Would we not need the following, at a minimum?

• Ability for users to create and manage content areas
• Ability to upload information into the system with a low transaction cost
• Ability to directly manage that information
• Ability to find information in the system with a low transaction cost

In other words, how information goes into the system (Putability) will directly impact how the information comes out of the system (Findability). A good Findability architecture is built on a good Putability architecture, just like a good restore system is built on a good backup system.

In SharePoint Server 2010, there are three main part of the Putability architecture:

• Managed Metadata Service
• Content Organizer Feature
• Default Metadata Values

When these three features (small "f") are utilized together, they for a coherent way to describe and place information in such a manner that it can be found easily. We find information mainly through search and navigation tools, though other tools like RSS, links, shortcuts and the like can be useful in finding information. But until SharePoint Server 2010, we've not had the tools embedded within the product itself to implement a robust Putability architecture.

Now that SharePoint Server 2010 has both robust Putability and Findability tools, I believe the market will begin to take seriously SharePoint Server 2010's ECM features. But make no mistake, a great deployment on paper coupled with sincere intentions on the part of those who are doing the implementation won't be enough to achieve success. Instead, they will need to manage (overcome?) the following ECM busters:

• Lack of Governance (and its' enforcement) on how information will go into SharePoint
• Lack of funding for a project that is hard to quantify the savings in real dollars
• Lack of ongoing care and feeding of the SharePoint Server 2010 information management system
• Resistance at the desktop to take the time to apply metadata to information
• Lack of an overall Glossary on what the metadata column titles and value choices mean across the enterprise
• No agreement between the stakeholders on what their overall end-result is supposed to be
• No agreement between the stakeholders on the business requirements for improving the information management system

SharePoint Server 2010 provides solid reasons to choose it for an ECM system. I look forward to working with the community and our customers to ensure they implement ECM correctly, the first time, saving them serious dollars.

Bill English
MVP