Content Management: Best Practices

There’s no denying that we live in an increasingly mobile, connected world. When I leave the office at night, I check my work e-mails on my personal smartphone, and I fire up my laptop to write stories. Millions of other workers globally just like me rely on tablets, phones and other devices to keep up with the fast pace of business. But the BYOD trend is not as simple as it seems. It might be nice and convenient for me to use my own device in a work setting, but this influx of mobile devices, apps and content is creating serious headaches for an enterprise’s IT department. There are, however, some best practices from the researchers at theSANS Institute (News – Alert) that enterprises should put into place in order to ensure security for the network.

Best Practices

• Know thyself: It is important to assess your current situation. Without knowing what circumstances are in place, it’s hard to know where to go. Learn what devices your employees are using, the type of content they access and how they access and share it. This will give you the foundational knowledge you need to get started.
• Fear the unknown: In these circumstances, it is better to be safe than sorry. Most consumer-based apps lack enterprise dashboards that can give you the insight into mobile content and activity that you need, like usage auditing and activity tracking.
• Don’t rip and replace: Chances are, you have already made significant content management investments. There’s no need to throw these away. You can leverage your existing solutions like Microsoft (News – Alert)SharePoint, EMC/Documentum or OpenText Document Management and more.
• Have sensible file-sharing policies: These should be specific to your industry, employees and business goals. You might be in a highly regulated industry, like the financial or healthcare space, or you might need to create specific categories like “classified” and “open.” Always keep specific regulations in mind when creating policies.
• Think about BYOD and BYOA: The more popular this trend for devices and apps is in your office, the higher the security risk. Consider securing business content and separating it from personal content, and couple mobile device management best practices with mobile content management.
• Audit regularly: Use the usage statistics you gather from enterprise dashboards to give you information on who is accessing what and when. Audit these figures on at least a monthly basis – more frequently depending on your industry.
• Training is important: Employees need to be taught about risks of using consumer tools. Train them in your mobile content management system, explain to them the “why” and the “how,” and they are sure to believe in the cause!

With these best practices in mind, you can create a mobile content management policy that will help your employees – and your business – thrive!