I had previously written about maturity models that have been introduced in the Enterprise Content and Records Management (ECRM) space in the last year.  As I indicated in that blog posting, we've used the Enterprise Content Management (ECM3) model with some of our clients (you can download the model at this link).  It seems to have more widespread usage since I last wrote about it, with the developers of the model indicating over 4000 downloads since it was introduced in February 2009.

Version 2.0 of the model was released last week.  I look forward to continued usage of it, particularly in the area of assessing and explaining the current state of ECM in an organization and guiding the development of a roadmap as the organizations wants to mature its ECM practices.

Because the model looks at a wide variety of dimensions in which ECM practices can be placed (there are 13 dimensions within 3 categories), it is very useful in also informing clients that they aren't ready for a technology solution...yet.  Too many organizations jump into meetings with ECRM vendors and software demonstrations before they fully understand and document their requirements.  Some do it to become more "educated" on the benefits that can be derived from implementing ECM, but I would challenge that there are a lot of vendor-agnostic sources for that type of material.  Professional organizations like AIIM and ARMA would be a great source for education into what ECRM is.  While the model may indicate you are at Level 2 in the systems category because you've had some success with departmental implementations, it would also inform you that you aren't ready to move to Level 3 if you have no policies and procedures (governance) or you score low in re-use because content is routinely duplicated.

Please have a look at the model if you've not done so before.  Some really good thought and work has gone into the development of the model, creating a very practical and useful guide.