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IBM Champion for ECM Michelle Christensen

As part of our ChampionSpeaks program, we recently interviewed Michelle Christensen, IBM Champion for ECM. We learned a lot about the power of user groups, how enterprise content management (ECM) has evolved, and how refereeing youth soccer can help in a sales cycle. Listen to the full podcast (below) and read on.

Michelle is Vice President of Sales at EnChoice, an IBM Premier Partner involved with ECM. EnChoice is also a Tier 1 support provider for FileNet, with 300+ customers for whom they provide the entire solution, from hardware and software to scanners, networks and load balancers.

In 1987, Michelle helped found the IBM Content Managers OnDemand User Group (ODUG). Twenty-two people attended the first meeting in Chicago that brought users together to share ideas and best practices. They made a commitment to build a group that would be run by users.

Today, ODUG is very independent, with IBM providing experts and occasional support for a cocktail hour. While the vision remains the same, there are now regional groups operating in many different languages and geographies, plus a very active online community.

The in-person meetings are vital. Each October, the regional groups and users connect at the Information on Demand conference in Las Vegas, where unlikely collaborations occur with a goal of greater understanding. Michelle will be speaking at IOD this year,  As Michelle noted, “How many times do you get three large telecoms who compete against each other sitting together around a table, talking about how they can use the product better? That is huge.”

“It’s a win-win-win for everyone,” Michelle says of ODUG.”Whenever you get organizations together, they’re sharing ideas and experiences. Probably 80%, maybe upwards of 90% of these organizations, will not or cannot be references. But you get them in a room, and they’re sharing all their stories… scripts and goals.”

If you’re an OnDemand user, regardless of platform – Linux, Windows, I Series – you should be aware of the user group. Just fill out the form and indicate that you’re a user, and you’ll have access to the forums. Michelle and other members help ensure that the information shared is accurate and valuable to other users. You can questions or find references – and even visit other companies’ call centers before you buy.

Michelle urges everyone to get involved. “The more you get involved, the more you get out of it. You don’t have to volunteer to do anything. Just ask questions or go to a meeting and you’ll learn so much.”

In fact, there are a few very helpful LinkedIn groups, including IBM CMOD, Content Management Professionals and IBM Web Content Managers.

IBM Content Manager OnDemand was originally developed for three organizations who wanted to see exact replicas of images that had been printed and mailed. That product has become one of IBM’s most successful, used by an incredible array of customers across industries.

Meanwhile, ECM has evolved from managing print, microfiche, images and paper to today’s web, social and email content – all of which create unstructured data that doesn’t fit in a traditional database.

Likewise, the industry has changed, with a new focus on online print capabilities and viewing. As organizations move to off-the-shelf applications, shows like XPlor International (where Michelle is a frequent speaker) are shifting from displays of printers and machines to more educational events similar to IOD. People are looking for education on topics like printing on-demand, security implications, consolidation of bills, and managing addresses and data quality. Despite this change, Michelle doubts there will ever be a truly paperless office.

In her free time, Michelle also referees youth soccer games, making $50 to run 5 miles. Being a referee has taught her to look at things very objectively among a lot of moving pieces, which has proved very valuable to managing sales cycles.

Connect with Michelle on LinkedIn, and listen to the podcast for more from our interview. And make sure you attend IOD, where she will be presenting session LTT-2613A: The ECM Spectrum: How We Learned to Stop Worrying with ECM.

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