TAWPI @ AIIM

Posted by Mark Brousseau

Nine top IT leaders -- comprising the Council for Information Advantage -- published a report at the AIIM conference providing a blueprint for transforming information in assets to gain competitive advantage. The council was assembled by EMC Corporation.

“When an organization leverages information to revolutionize how it competes and transforms how it does business, it has gained an information advantage,” says Mark Lewis, President of Content Management and Archiving Division at EMC. “Throughout my countless customer visits, we have found that organizations are still really struggling with how to make intelligent use of the information they have. EMC convened the Council for Information Advantage because its members have deployed strategies for leveraging information to compete more efficiently, increase customer loyalty, grow market share and identify new sources of business value. We believe that their personal experiences and lessons learned will help other organizations blaze their own trails toward an information-advantaged future.”


The first report from the Council for Information Advantage outlines fundamental strategies that are often overlooked as companies work to achieve information-driven competitive advantage. Council members drew from their professional experiences to provide actionable recommendations that can be executed, for the most part, without costly investments in new IT solutions or programs. This practical, straightforward guidance focuses on how to increase the accessibility and value of corporate information and win organizational support for information-based change initiatives. These guiding strategies which are explored in detail within the report are:

 Transform information liabilities into business assets through information governance. Define and institute an enterprise-wide information governance policy to control how information is kept, shared and used. Consider appointing a Chief Information Architect who is responsible for maximizing the value and reusability of information by taking a long-term view of technology development.

 Elevate information architecture. Rather than fine-tuning data for specific applications or narrow business processes, align data and technology solutions in order to maximize the potential value of information through access and reuse.

 Balance people and process with technology. Increase the time and resources devoted to managing changes in how people work as a result of new technology investments.

“It’s a major advantage to have a culture that values information because it removes a lot of the barriers to creating knowledge,” commented council member Deirdre Woods in the report. “That’s one of the advantages universities have. The sharing of information and knowledge is inherently understood to be a good thing and a priority because it’s part of our core mission.”

The members of the Council for Information Advantage include:

 Dave Blue, Senior Manager, Enterprise Data Services, The Boeing Company
 Andrew Brown, Managing Director, Head of Strategy Architecture and Optimization, Bank of America
 Guy Chiarello, Chief Information Officer, JPMorgan Chase
 John Chickering, Vice President, Fidelity Investments
 Paul Cushing, Senior Vice President of Technology and Media Infrastructure, ESPN
 Dimitris Mavroyiannis, Group Chief Information Officer, Eurobank EFG Group
 Sanjay Mirchandani, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, EMC Corporation
 Joe Solimando, Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Technology, Chief Information Officer, Disney Consumer Products
 Deirdre Woods, Associate Dean and Chief Information Officer, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

What do you think?