At lntelligenceBank, we are here to make your Digital Asset Management implementation experience and ongoing usage a success. Ensuring you and your team get the maximum value out of our software is critical, and we want your implementation to go as smoothly as possible too.
lntelligenceBank’s expert implementation consultants have worked with hundreds of clients with varying requirements. In this article, we share valuable insights we have learned, with a helpful overview of frequently asked questions to help you get started with your project.
So what does implementation actually entail?
Firstly, implementation is not as onerous as you might think, especially if you have expert help. But even if you don’t, like most projects, the better prepared you are, the easier it is to execute.
Generally, the 7 main steps required for a successful implementation are:
Scoping
- Choose an internal project leader and involve stakeholders early on.
- Make a plan for change management.
- Consider the use cases and how your users think about content and taxonomy.
- Determine the file I folder I database structure.
- Establish naming configurations for your folders and files.
- Set launch date and key milestones.
Centralize your assets for upload: You can do this in one upload or several uploads over time. If you are using databases, you can import from Excel spreadsheets at any time.
Branding
- Login Page and Optional T&Cs.
- Masthead Banner and Alerts Banner.
- Custom Welcome Page.
- Design custom guidelines pages (if featuring them).
Site Setup
- Create folders, establish Controlled Metadata, Databases, Workflow Permissions and Alert Frequency.
- Review your content and how much will be migrated. lntelligenceBank can migrate files for you.
Integrations: If your platform needs to be integrated with other systems, we offer the following custom integrations:
- API to push or pull data from other sources into your platform.
- Single Sign-On (SAML or Active Directory).
- Custom URL and SSL needs to be purchased and provided to lntelligenceBank.
Training: Usually only Main Administrators need training around information upload, configurations, and managing users. Our 24/7 online helpdesk is always available, as well as phone and email support.
Launch: We are here to make sure your launch is a success and can assist you with uploading users, checking permissions and communications with your team.
Do I need a full-time person to manage the implementation and ongoing maintenance?
In the vast majority of cases, a full-time resource is not required. Rather, what’s more important is having a couple of people on board with your new business process and preparing your team for change.
We have found it’s often more effective to leverage existing people who can be a product champion or librarian over traditional hierarchical ownership. Also, having a good understanding of your current or altered process flows, staff touchpoints and existing tools can help distribute responsibility. Having more than one person who contributes to the success of your platform also builds in redundancy if someone is sick or leaves your business.
Can I customize the look and feel of my platform to represent my brand?
Yes! We have developed our platform with your brand in mind, so it’s easy to customize and align with your brand. You can simply change the colors, logos, banners, icons and navigation flow within the system or we can create stylized interactive custom pages for you. Either way, you can be sure your platform will embody your brand. If you need help with design services, we can assist with that too.
How do I integrate with other systems?
Your Digital Asset Management platform doesn’t have to be an island. Our robust API makes it easy to pull and push documents and data between your lntelligenceBank platform from other systems.
We also offer Custom URLs which reinforce your branding and last but not least, we integrate with Active Directory and SAML so your users can use their network ID to access your lntelligenceBank platform. Believe it or not, forgetting usernames and passwords is one of the biggest barriers to adoption, so having this enabled really assists with end-user adoption.
Integrations also ensure your platform is truly part of your business process.
How do I migrate files?
Before you upload your files, you need to determine your folder and controlled vocabulary structure. That is, what’s the hierarchy as to where your files will actually sit and which words do you want as choices to ‘keyword tag’ files when you upload? Once these two decisions are made, there are three ways to upload files to lntelligenceBank:
Basic Upload: From within the platform, you can upload one file at a time, or bulk upload files by dragging and dropping them from your desktop. With bulk uploading from the desktop, it’s perfect for uploading a hundred files at a time.
Desktop Uploader: lntelligenceBank also provides a desktop uploader. You can download our secure application to your desktop and drag and drop files into lntelligenceBank that way.
FTP Upload or Send us a Hard Drive: If you have over 500GB of data, and you are under time pressure to upload the files into your platform, we recommend either having lntelligenceBank set up a secure FTP connection so files are uploaded quickly in the back end; or you can send us a hard drive of your files in the structure you would like to see them in lntelligenceBank and we can do the upload for you from our data center.
If you find you need more data, you can purchase additional data storage at any time.
How far back in time do I upload?
This is a very common question – you probably have mountains of files to migrate and are unsure which files to move. Our advice is simple – draw a proverbial line in the sand. If you have a couple of thousand files with under 200GB (or less) – go ahead and upload everything. If you have terabytes of files, think about what you actually use every day, and just upload those files. We can accommodate your data either way.
How do I launch it to my users?
Before you launch, it’s important that your Administrators are fully trained. user group permissions are established and users are in the system as ‘suspended’ – that is, they are there but not active. Prior to activating your users, we can help you create a launch email that tells people about the new platform, any change management processes, the URL and that they will be receiving a welcome email to set their new password.
Once the email is sent, in bulk you can ‘activate’ your users and you are ready to go.
How do I make sure the platform actually gets used?
One of the best ways to ensure your software actually gets used is to be sure the platform complements your work routines and needs in the first place. Here are our top tips:
- Communicate and include your team early in the discovery phase to understand everyone’s needs.
- Communication focused on the benefits over features, such as efficiency gains, makes change a logical step. That is, give people the “why you are doing it” in addition to the “what it will do.”
- Once implemented, make sure new processes are embraced by declaring and enforcing old ones as dead. For instance, if people need you to email them a file, email them from the system, not by attaching a file to your email.
- Make sure someone is responsible for monitoring usage via our inbuilt reports. If there are any ‘weak areas· of inactivity, get on top of that quickly. Remember we continually release new features, so while we will be in touch with ‘what’s new’ make sure the Admin’s KPI s is to check in with us quarterly about new features and modules.
Last but certainly not least, we want to hear from you. If there’s a feature we can add or usability issue we can look at that will make your life easier, we want to hear about it. That’s what makes our product great and your users more engaged.
How secure is my data and where is it hosted?
Security is at the heart of everything we do. When you store files and data within lntelligenceBank, you fully control and ·own’ your data. Bottom line.
Your data is securely hosted either in our US, Australian or UK data centers, which are IS027001 and SAS70 compliant. Our servers are protected by separate hardware firewalls, which deliver high performance and multi-threat protection, and there is built-in server failover redundancy.
We regularly conduct penetration testing and update our servers with security patches. In addition, we do not access your platform without your explicit permission, and you can request a copy of your data at any time.
Each night, your data is backed up one time-on-site and another time at a geographically distant location for additional data redundancy.
Source: intelligencebank
