About IdeasFirst
IdeasFirst is a resource for Canadian provincial and municipal government leaders navigating enterprise content management, records management, and digital transformation.
What You’ll Find Here
Practical Insights: Real-world lessons from government ECM implementations—not vendor marketing, not academic theory.
Canadian Focus: Content specific to Canadian regulatory environments, procurement processes, and government structures.
Provincial & Municipal Perspective: Written for the unique challenges of sub-federal government organizations.
About Michael D
I’m an enterprise sales professional at OpenText, working with Canadian public sector organizations on content management and information governance challenges.
Before joining OpenText, I spent years understanding how governments actually work—the formal processes and the informal realities. That experience shapes how I approach ECM: as a business transformation challenge, not a technology installation.
Why This Blog Exists
Most ECM content falls into two camps:
- Vendor product pitches that solve every problem with one solution
- Consultant whitepapers so generic they apply to any industry
Neither serves Canadian government decision-makers well. This blog attempts something different: practical, specific guidance grounded in actual experience working with provincial and municipal organizations.
Connect
Views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of OpenText.