Posted by Mark Brousseau
Some odds and ends from AIIM’s info360 event this week in Washington, D.C.:
… d.velop technologies announced the launch of its ecspand for SharePoint enterprise content management (ECM) solution in the United States. Over the past two years, d.velop also introduced ecspand in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. d.velop exhibited in the info360 Microsoft pavilion.
… Colligo Networks and GimmalSoft forged a partnership and will integrate Colligo’s email management software into GimmalSoft’s SharePoint-based records management solution. The partnership will fulfill the DoD 5015.2 design criteria in GimmalSoft’s solution. DoD 5015.2 is the U.S. Department of Defense’s design criteria standard for electronic records management solutions.
… Document collaboration provider Workshare said it was awarded Microsoft Certified Gold ISV Partner status in the Microsoft Partner Program. The Gold ISV certification requires the highest level of competence and expertise with Microsoft technologies. By achieving Gold competency, partners receive benefits such as increased customer visibility through branding and accessibility, as well as training and support. Workshare has been a Microsoft Gold partner since 2005.
… Laserfiche demonstrated its DOD 5015.2-certified records management solution for SharePoint 2010. Laserfiche claims that its SharePoint 2010 integration was the first to obtain DoD 5015.2 certification. With the joint certification, Laserfiche now works with SharePoint 2010 to provide a unified business collaboration platform with enterprise content management (ECM) functionality.
… Datawatch released an enhanced version of its enterprise report management, archive and distribution solution. Called Datawatch BDS V8, the software adds certification for Red Hat LINUX, several new security features, and report and document redaction and translation.
What did you see at AIIM’s info360?
Showing posts with label AIIM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AIIM. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Government e-discovery trends
Posted by Mark Brousseau
The chief information officer increasingly is joining the chief council in setting e-Discovery strategy within government organizations. That's according to a survey by USIS, an Altegrity company, conducted among government leaders from the federal e-Discovery community.
Among the other findings of the survey:
• Information management, data collection, and producing discoverable results in a timely manner are major concerns.
• More than one-third of respondents said the preservation and collection stage of electronic data discovery (EDD) needs the most improvement.
• Organizations that place a strong emphasis on the EDD process and strategy tend to have better e-Discovery processes.
• Among respondents whose organizations do not place an emphasis on the EDD process, not a single one reported being satisfied with their e-Discovery process.
“This survey reinforces how important it is to have good information management practices in place for the e-Discovery program and the burden it can place on a team when those practices simply aren’t there,” notes Michael Santelli, president of USIS’ Information Management Division (LABAT). “Being proactive about managing data can also save money. It is not uncommon to hear that the cost of one litigation would have paid for the technology and services to better manage the data.”
What do you think?
The chief information officer increasingly is joining the chief council in setting e-Discovery strategy within government organizations. That's according to a survey by USIS, an Altegrity company, conducted among government leaders from the federal e-Discovery community.
Among the other findings of the survey:
• Information management, data collection, and producing discoverable results in a timely manner are major concerns.
• More than one-third of respondents said the preservation and collection stage of electronic data discovery (EDD) needs the most improvement.
• Organizations that place a strong emphasis on the EDD process and strategy tend to have better e-Discovery processes.
• Among respondents whose organizations do not place an emphasis on the EDD process, not a single one reported being satisfied with their e-Discovery process.
“This survey reinforces how important it is to have good information management practices in place for the e-Discovery program and the burden it can place on a team when those practices simply aren’t there,” notes Michael Santelli, president of USIS’ Information Management Division (LABAT). “Being proactive about managing data can also save money. It is not uncommon to hear that the cost of one litigation would have paid for the technology and services to better manage the data.”
What do you think?
AIIM/info360 lint in the cranial vent
By Steve Weissman of the Holly Group
After spending more than three days at the AIIM Conference/Info360 event in Washington, D.C., my brain is clogged with all kinds of interesting nuggets.
Here are but a few of the more intriguing story lines that stuck following my ECM Practitioner class, my series of show-floor briefings, and my numerous in-the-corridor-and-press-room perspective checks with buyers, vendors, and integrator/reseller types:
Misuse/overuse of the word “new”
This itself isn’t, well, new in terms of vendor marketing, but it kept surfacing in places where the principals really ought to have known better. The lesson is to ask, “In what way is this new?” when you hear the word.
Is the feature/product/capability truly innovative? Never before seen in this particular market space? Never before offered by this particular vendor? I found much of what was touted as “new” either to be old client/server development techniques wrapped in ECM/BPM clothes or long-standard features finally being offered by the vendor in question. So as they said in ancient Rome, caveat emptor.
Emerging stratification in the world of mobility
All the talk of customer engagement intersected with the drive to enhance the mobile experience to surface an important distinction between enabling browser-based smartphone or tablet access to content and process activities on the one hand, and fielding true mobile apps for the purpose on the other.
The separation of these two tiers is still nascent, but the long-term ramifications are significant since they speak to new ways to think about information architecture, content structure, usability, security, and privacy. The use of “m.” sites and formatting is just the beginning.
Tendency to ignore the past (and thus the risk of being condemned to repeat it)
Specifically, is cloud computing a true innovation or merely a viable hosting alternative with its roots in 1970s timesharing and 1990s ASPs? (See prior point regarding new.)
To be sure, the underlying technology is hugely more flexible and accessible today than it was then, but the takeaway here isn’t one of semantics and definition – rather, it has to do with cutting away the hype, focusing on the practical, and, especially, looking to preceding market models and technology trends for guidance.
Black/white vs. shades of gray
Perhaps it’s a reflection of how commodity so much of the technology has become, and thus how competitive the market is today. But there was an awful lot of talk about good tools vs. bad, all users vs. none wanting certain features, old technologies being dead vs. new ones being saviors.
Well, the world isn’t a binary place. Tools that do x vs. y aren’t better of worse; they’re merely different, and depending upon what you need to accomplish, they may be absolutely perfect for you. Just as, say, and “old” technology like microfiche is very much alive, and perhaps critical for archivists needing to think in terms of centuries-long retention schedules.
Conclusion
My mother-in-law used to say, “Remember who you are!” when the kids would go out, and so you should remember who you are when you attend conferences and exhibitions. There’ll be plenty that will stick in your brain, and you’ll best make sense of it only by using your own organization and needs as the touchstone.
What do you think?
Steve Weissman, ECMp, ECMs, BPMp, can be reached at 617-383-4655.
After spending more than three days at the AIIM Conference/Info360 event in Washington, D.C., my brain is clogged with all kinds of interesting nuggets.
Here are but a few of the more intriguing story lines that stuck following my ECM Practitioner class, my series of show-floor briefings, and my numerous in-the-corridor-and-press-room perspective checks with buyers, vendors, and integrator/reseller types:
Misuse/overuse of the word “new”
This itself isn’t, well, new in terms of vendor marketing, but it kept surfacing in places where the principals really ought to have known better. The lesson is to ask, “In what way is this new?” when you hear the word.
Is the feature/product/capability truly innovative? Never before seen in this particular market space? Never before offered by this particular vendor? I found much of what was touted as “new” either to be old client/server development techniques wrapped in ECM/BPM clothes or long-standard features finally being offered by the vendor in question. So as they said in ancient Rome, caveat emptor.
Emerging stratification in the world of mobility
All the talk of customer engagement intersected with the drive to enhance the mobile experience to surface an important distinction between enabling browser-based smartphone or tablet access to content and process activities on the one hand, and fielding true mobile apps for the purpose on the other.
The separation of these two tiers is still nascent, but the long-term ramifications are significant since they speak to new ways to think about information architecture, content structure, usability, security, and privacy. The use of “m.” sites and formatting is just the beginning.
Tendency to ignore the past (and thus the risk of being condemned to repeat it)
Specifically, is cloud computing a true innovation or merely a viable hosting alternative with its roots in 1970s timesharing and 1990s ASPs? (See prior point regarding new.)
To be sure, the underlying technology is hugely more flexible and accessible today than it was then, but the takeaway here isn’t one of semantics and definition – rather, it has to do with cutting away the hype, focusing on the practical, and, especially, looking to preceding market models and technology trends for guidance.
Black/white vs. shades of gray
Perhaps it’s a reflection of how commodity so much of the technology has become, and thus how competitive the market is today. But there was an awful lot of talk about good tools vs. bad, all users vs. none wanting certain features, old technologies being dead vs. new ones being saviors.
Well, the world isn’t a binary place. Tools that do x vs. y aren’t better of worse; they’re merely different, and depending upon what you need to accomplish, they may be absolutely perfect for you. Just as, say, and “old” technology like microfiche is very much alive, and perhaps critical for archivists needing to think in terms of centuries-long retention schedules.
Conclusion
My mother-in-law used to say, “Remember who you are!” when the kids would go out, and so you should remember who you are when you attend conferences and exhibitions. There’ll be plenty that will stick in your brain, and you’ll best make sense of it only by using your own organization and needs as the touchstone.
What do you think?
Steve Weissman, ECMp, ECMs, BPMp, can be reached at 617-383-4655.
Monday, March 21, 2011
The business value of managed content
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Managed content can deliver 30 percent productivity gains and a 25 percent in efficiency improvements, according to new research co-sponsored by OpenText and AIIM.
One of the more notable findings from the survey of more than 450 information technology professionals and business managers is that the productivity of professional staff would be improved by 30 percent if they could only find internal information and documents as quickly and as easily as they find information on the Web. Along the same lines, respondents said customer service levels and response times could be improved by 33 percent if all customer-facing staff could immediately access and share all of the customer-related and case-related information.
Additional opportunities for improvement included:
• The productivity of administrative staff could be increased on average by 33 percent through use of workflow, scanned forms and automated data capture.
• Changing to a culture of electronic-only filing would reduce the office space allocated to filing storage from 14.5 percent to 5.9 percent – a 60-percent reduction.
• The size of server farms dedicated to unstructured content and emails could be reduced by between a third and a half if each document or email attachment was stored only once.
• A collaborative, widely accessible team-site environment could improve project delivery by 23 percent on average in terms of time and project costs.
• Respondents indicated they believe that Enterprise 2.0 applications could improve staff productivity and engagement by about 18 percent.
• The improved efficiency from providing office staff with comprehensive mobile access to company information would likely be between 20 and 25 percent.
While the survey indicates a compelling case for adopting enterprise content management (ECM) technologies, it also exposes the significant challenges for companies that get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of documents and content accumulating on shared drives, email, laptops and mobile device and paper files.
According to 61 percent of the survey respondents, organizational knowledge is the first thing to suffer in a badly managed environment, causing the organization to lose its competitive position due to poor decisions and a lack of accumulated corporate expertise. Innovation is considered to be another significant victim of poor collaboration and restricted knowledge-sharing, followed by the productivity impact of information search fatigue.
Compliance breaches and information and data leaks also weighed heavily on the minds of the survey respondents. For instance, 40 percent of organizations would take a financial hit from a compliance breach while fully 66 percent would suffer bad – and costly – publicity. Over a third of organizations reported they would have no way of finding out who was responsible if sensitive data was “leaked” to a competitor or to the press by a trusted employee. Only a quarter could readily point to a specific employee based on activity logs. For 60 percent of the largest organizations, the potential impact of such a leak would be high, and for 13 percent it would be “disastrous.”
“As the research confirms, companies that claim, control and capitalize on content increase their people’s contribution, deliver better customer service, and save money – all of which leads to better business,” said James Latham, chief marketing officer, OpenText. “At the same time, succumbing to fast-growing unstructured content inside the enterprise will increase risk, stifle innovation, or worse yet, leak sensitive documents. The case for ECM has never been stronger.”
What do you think?
Managed content can deliver 30 percent productivity gains and a 25 percent in efficiency improvements, according to new research co-sponsored by OpenText and AIIM.
One of the more notable findings from the survey of more than 450 information technology professionals and business managers is that the productivity of professional staff would be improved by 30 percent if they could only find internal information and documents as quickly and as easily as they find information on the Web. Along the same lines, respondents said customer service levels and response times could be improved by 33 percent if all customer-facing staff could immediately access and share all of the customer-related and case-related information.
Additional opportunities for improvement included:
• The productivity of administrative staff could be increased on average by 33 percent through use of workflow, scanned forms and automated data capture.
• Changing to a culture of electronic-only filing would reduce the office space allocated to filing storage from 14.5 percent to 5.9 percent – a 60-percent reduction.
• The size of server farms dedicated to unstructured content and emails could be reduced by between a third and a half if each document or email attachment was stored only once.
• A collaborative, widely accessible team-site environment could improve project delivery by 23 percent on average in terms of time and project costs.
• Respondents indicated they believe that Enterprise 2.0 applications could improve staff productivity and engagement by about 18 percent.
• The improved efficiency from providing office staff with comprehensive mobile access to company information would likely be between 20 and 25 percent.
While the survey indicates a compelling case for adopting enterprise content management (ECM) technologies, it also exposes the significant challenges for companies that get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of documents and content accumulating on shared drives, email, laptops and mobile device and paper files.
According to 61 percent of the survey respondents, organizational knowledge is the first thing to suffer in a badly managed environment, causing the organization to lose its competitive position due to poor decisions and a lack of accumulated corporate expertise. Innovation is considered to be another significant victim of poor collaboration and restricted knowledge-sharing, followed by the productivity impact of information search fatigue.
Compliance breaches and information and data leaks also weighed heavily on the minds of the survey respondents. For instance, 40 percent of organizations would take a financial hit from a compliance breach while fully 66 percent would suffer bad – and costly – publicity. Over a third of organizations reported they would have no way of finding out who was responsible if sensitive data was “leaked” to a competitor or to the press by a trusted employee. Only a quarter could readily point to a specific employee based on activity logs. For 60 percent of the largest organizations, the potential impact of such a leak would be high, and for 13 percent it would be “disastrous.”
“As the research confirms, companies that claim, control and capitalize on content increase their people’s contribution, deliver better customer service, and save money – all of which leads to better business,” said James Latham, chief marketing officer, OpenText. “At the same time, succumbing to fast-growing unstructured content inside the enterprise will increase risk, stifle innovation, or worse yet, leak sensitive documents. The case for ECM has never been stronger.”
What do you think?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Companies Unprepared to Address Risks Created by New Technology
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Less than a third of global businesses have an IT risk management program capable of addressing the risks related to the use of new technologies, according to Ernst & Young’s 13th annual Global Information Security Survey. In spite of the rapid emergence of new technology, just one in ten companies consider examining new and emerging IT trends a very important activity for the information security function to perform.
A significant increase in use of external service providers and business adoption of new technologies, such as cloud computing, social networking and Web 2.0, is recognized to increase risk for 60% of respondents. Yet, in spite of this, less than half intend to increase annual investment in information security.
Paul van Kessel, Ernst & Young Global IT Risk and Assurance Leader,comments: “Technology advances provide an increasingly mobile workforce with seemingly endless ways to connect and interact with colleagues, customers and clients. These advances represent a massive opportunity for IT to deliver significant benefits to the organization but new technology also means new risk. It is vital that companies not only recognize this risk, but take action to avoid it.”
Over half of respondents state that increased workforce mobility poses a considerable challenge to the effective delivery of information security initiatives, due to widespread use of mobile computing devices. For almost two-thirds employees’ level of security awareness is recognized as a considerable challenge.
"As the mobile workforce continues to grow, so does the level of risk. In addition to implementing new technology solutions and re-engineering information flows, companies must focus on informing the workforce about risks. The delivery of effective, and regular, security awareness training is a critical success factor as companies attempt to keep pace with the changing environment,” van Kessel adds.
Among the other findings in the report:
•Half of respondents plan to spend more over the next year on data leakage and data loss prevention – up 7% from last year. To address potential new risks, 39% are making policy adjustments, 29% are implementing encryption techniques and 28% are implementing stronger identity and access management controls.
•For the first time, continuous availability of critical IT resources was identified as one of the top five risks.
•23% of respondents are using cloud computing services, a further 15% plan to use within the next 12 months. For 85% of respondents, external certification of cloud service providers would increase trust; 43% state that certification should be based upon an agreed standard and 22% require accreditation for the certifying body.
What do you think?
Less than a third of global businesses have an IT risk management program capable of addressing the risks related to the use of new technologies, according to Ernst & Young’s 13th annual Global Information Security Survey. In spite of the rapid emergence of new technology, just one in ten companies consider examining new and emerging IT trends a very important activity for the information security function to perform.
A significant increase in use of external service providers and business adoption of new technologies, such as cloud computing, social networking and Web 2.0, is recognized to increase risk for 60% of respondents. Yet, in spite of this, less than half intend to increase annual investment in information security.
Paul van Kessel, Ernst & Young Global IT Risk and Assurance Leader,comments: “Technology advances provide an increasingly mobile workforce with seemingly endless ways to connect and interact with colleagues, customers and clients. These advances represent a massive opportunity for IT to deliver significant benefits to the organization but new technology also means new risk. It is vital that companies not only recognize this risk, but take action to avoid it.”
Over half of respondents state that increased workforce mobility poses a considerable challenge to the effective delivery of information security initiatives, due to widespread use of mobile computing devices. For almost two-thirds employees’ level of security awareness is recognized as a considerable challenge.
"As the mobile workforce continues to grow, so does the level of risk. In addition to implementing new technology solutions and re-engineering information flows, companies must focus on informing the workforce about risks. The delivery of effective, and regular, security awareness training is a critical success factor as companies attempt to keep pace with the changing environment,” van Kessel adds.
Among the other findings in the report:
•Half of respondents plan to spend more over the next year on data leakage and data loss prevention – up 7% from last year. To address potential new risks, 39% are making policy adjustments, 29% are implementing encryption techniques and 28% are implementing stronger identity and access management controls.
•For the first time, continuous availability of critical IT resources was identified as one of the top five risks.
•23% of respondents are using cloud computing services, a further 15% plan to use within the next 12 months. For 85% of respondents, external certification of cloud service providers would increase trust; 43% state that certification should be based upon an agreed standard and 22% require accreditation for the certifying body.
What do you think?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Investment in knowledge workers critical to economic recovery
Posted by Mark Brousseau
One of the keys for economic recovery lies in aggressive investment in Social Business Systems designed to dramatically improve the productivity of middle tier knowledge workers.
That’s according to a new report by AIIM and noted author Geoffrey Moore (Dealing with Darwin, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line).
These "Systems of Engagement" enhance the ability of knowledge workers to quickly cooperate with each other in order to improve operating flexibility and customer engagement, the report says.
"We have spent the past several decades of IT investment focused on deploying 'systems of record.' These systems accomplished two important things," notes Moore. "First, they centralized, standardized, and automated business transactions on a global basis, thereby better enabling world trade. Second, they gave top management a global view of the state of the business, thereby better enabling global business management. Spending on the Enterprise Content Management technologies that are at the core of Systems of Record will continue -- and will actually expand as these solutions become more available and relevant to small and mid-sized organizations. However, there is also a new and revolutionary wave of spending emerging on Systems of Engagement -- a wave focused directly on knowledge worker effectiveness and productivity. Social Business Systems are at the heart of Systems of Engagement."
According to AIIM Chair Lynn Fraas, Vice President of Crown Partners, "Social Business Systems provide a means for organizations to build on their investment in content management solutions. Increasingly, Systems of Record have become a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for business success. In the future, organizations will differentiate themselves based on how well they deploy Social Business technologies to improve organizational flexibility and better engage customers. These Social Business technologies are transforming customer engagement through such consumer facing tools as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They are simultaneously creating new models of employee and partner collaboration, cooperation and conversation within organizations -- models that will eventually replace e-mail as the primary means of internal collaboration."
According to Moore, "The first wave of spending left knowledge workers mostly on their own. We gave our workers laptops, connectivity, email, and the Office suite, and told them to go be more productive. The world of consumer social technology has given our workforces a taste of what is possible beyond this kind of rudimentary e-mail driven collaboration. Given the pressures that global business models are putting on collaboration and coordination across enterprise boundaries, the demand for increased capabilities is escalating rapidly. The implications of this for IT organizations and CIOs are revolutionary -- organizations need to quickly get in front of this curve or they run the risk of getting run over by it. We are on the cusp of a new wave of investment in Social Business Systems that will focus on providing knowledge workers with the tools to collaborate with a business purpose."
"We are not just talking about collaboration for collaboration's sake," concludes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "Nor are we talking about companies tentatively setting up Facebook fan sites or Twitter accounts to appear to be 'social.' We are talking about the strategic deployment of Social Business Systems that can help organizations improve the flexibility and responsiveness of their core processes and be more responsive to customers. As organizations implement these Social Business Systems, they need to meet three criteria: 1) How to do so quickly; 2) How to do so responsibly; and 3) How to do so in a way that achieves a business purpose."
What do you think?
One of the keys for economic recovery lies in aggressive investment in Social Business Systems designed to dramatically improve the productivity of middle tier knowledge workers.
That’s according to a new report by AIIM and noted author Geoffrey Moore (Dealing with Darwin, Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line).
These "Systems of Engagement" enhance the ability of knowledge workers to quickly cooperate with each other in order to improve operating flexibility and customer engagement, the report says.
"We have spent the past several decades of IT investment focused on deploying 'systems of record.' These systems accomplished two important things," notes Moore. "First, they centralized, standardized, and automated business transactions on a global basis, thereby better enabling world trade. Second, they gave top management a global view of the state of the business, thereby better enabling global business management. Spending on the Enterprise Content Management technologies that are at the core of Systems of Record will continue -- and will actually expand as these solutions become more available and relevant to small and mid-sized organizations. However, there is also a new and revolutionary wave of spending emerging on Systems of Engagement -- a wave focused directly on knowledge worker effectiveness and productivity. Social Business Systems are at the heart of Systems of Engagement."
According to AIIM Chair Lynn Fraas, Vice President of Crown Partners, "Social Business Systems provide a means for organizations to build on their investment in content management solutions. Increasingly, Systems of Record have become a necessary but not sufficient prerequisite for business success. In the future, organizations will differentiate themselves based on how well they deploy Social Business technologies to improve organizational flexibility and better engage customers. These Social Business technologies are transforming customer engagement through such consumer facing tools as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. They are simultaneously creating new models of employee and partner collaboration, cooperation and conversation within organizations -- models that will eventually replace e-mail as the primary means of internal collaboration."
According to Moore, "The first wave of spending left knowledge workers mostly on their own. We gave our workers laptops, connectivity, email, and the Office suite, and told them to go be more productive. The world of consumer social technology has given our workforces a taste of what is possible beyond this kind of rudimentary e-mail driven collaboration. Given the pressures that global business models are putting on collaboration and coordination across enterprise boundaries, the demand for increased capabilities is escalating rapidly. The implications of this for IT organizations and CIOs are revolutionary -- organizations need to quickly get in front of this curve or they run the risk of getting run over by it. We are on the cusp of a new wave of investment in Social Business Systems that will focus on providing knowledge workers with the tools to collaborate with a business purpose."
"We are not just talking about collaboration for collaboration's sake," concludes AIIM President John F. Mancini. "Nor are we talking about companies tentatively setting up Facebook fan sites or Twitter accounts to appear to be 'social.' We are talking about the strategic deployment of Social Business Systems that can help organizations improve the flexibility and responsiveness of their core processes and be more responsive to customers. As organizations implement these Social Business Systems, they need to meet three criteria: 1) How to do so quickly; 2) How to do so responsibly; and 3) How to do so in a way that achieves a business purpose."
What do you think?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
7 Steps to Structured Content
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Structured content can be a powerful change agent within the organization. But to reap the power, Tom Magliery, an XML Technology Specialist at JustSystems, says organizations must first embrace the change. Magliery offers the steps below to help make the change happen:
Companies that adopt structured content have consistently seen it accelerate the creation, simplify the maintenance, and improve the quality of their content. They've seen structured content drive higher quality information, reduced publishing costs, and faster times to market for their technical manuals, policy documents, financial information, and other content and content-based
products and services.
So how does an organization - a department, division, or an entire company - get on the structured content bandwagon? Or, if it's already on the bandwagon, how does it expand the use of structured content within its operations? In either instance, the organization needs a strategy for moving to structured content and managing the change such a move creates. After years working with companies and helping them with their structured content adoption, I've found several common steps in the process.
Step 1 - Find a champion. You need a manager to sponsor the project, someone with a vested interest in the success of the structured content project. The champion's title is not as important as his or her commitment. Depending on the size of the organization, the title may be relatively modest. Department managers can be just as effective in the champion role as senior vice presidents. In fact, the department manager may be more effective than the senior VP in a department-level adoption. Regardless, the champion needs to be someone with a strategic vision and influence in the organization when it comes to content processes, and someone who stands to benefit by the move to structured content.
Step 2 - Understand the problem. What are the problems associated with your current content practices? And what are those problems costing today in terms of money, lost time, redundancies, inefficiencies, etc? Companies in regulated industries or litigious fields need to consider costs associated with penalties and litigation. For most companies, a typo is embarrassing, but it can lead to a huge fine or worse for companies in financial services or pharmaceuticals or other regulated industries. Finally, consider opportunity costs, the opportunities you can't pursue due to unstructured content constraints - e.g., adding multiple languages in a product line or publishing content in new formats.
Step 3 - Propose the alternative. Given the problems revealed in the previous step, define how structured content is going to resolve them. Map structured content's key functional attributes - content reuse, separation of format and content, etc. - to the challenges currently posed by unstructured content. Identify how reusable content could drive down costs by eliminating duplicate content creation or mitigate risk by ensuring the right content is used in all technical, legal and financial documents. Explain how the separation of format and content accelerates time to market by simplifying the creation of new content deliverables. Bottom line, you need to provide your champion with a vision of how structured content will solve those specific business problems that you just articulated.
In step 3, you also begin gathering requirements for the new structured content systems. This is a good place to start engaging the people who will be using the new tools and working with the new processes. You get a better idea of users' needs, and you get users invested in and excited by the new system, all of which promotes successful adoption.
Step 4 - Implement the change. Most organizations starting from scratch with structured content are better off starting small, getting their feet wet with a departmental pilot project instead of a broader departmental - or enterprise - rollout. Even organizations expanding their use of structured content are encouraged to move slowly, racking up a series of small successes rather than risking one spectacular failure. So start small and get professional assistance with the technical details rather than trying to do it all, even the tasks that are within your skill set.
Similarly, don't reinvent the wheel when it comes to using structured content within your specific business. If DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) or some other schema is an appropriate solution for you, use it. The proof of concept is the proof of value. Later, you can expand the pilot into a larger implementation.
Step 5 - Hold users' hands. The last thing you want to do is implement a structured content solution only to have writers sneak off, create content in Word, and then copy and paste it to the structured content system because they're not comfortable. Make the users comfortable, especially the power users who others look to for how-to tips and advice. Too many organizations implement a project and move on, forgetting the people who have to use the new tools. Don't underestimate the amount of training and support users will need to be successful. And don't forget to give the users a voice in the adoption process. Implement a feedback cycle that lets them communicate their challenges and requests, and nurtures the feeling of investment that you initiated during Step 3.
Step 6 - Adjust and extend. Pilot projects are highly recommended for organizations that can afford them. The benefits of the pilot are the lessons learned from experience in the pilot. A pilot project reveals areas that can be improved and ways to make structured content tools and standards better fit the organization. So the pilot lets the organization make adjustments and corrections as it moves forward and builds out its structured content system.
Note the typical pilot project advice is "avoid customizations." In structured content, the pilot advice is "don't worry about getting your customizations perfect." Customization and specialization is inherent in the value of structured content. You can modify the systems to best serve your business needs. So as structured content adoption grows beyond the pilot, one of the key issues involves selection of the right products and the right standards. Those choices give you the right balance between what works out of the box and what is flexible - i.e., customizable - enough to meet future needs. You don't want a system that requires a lot of customization to be usable, but you do want a system that is capable of such customization to meet your evolving needs.
Step 7 - Acknowledge the success. No matter what size the organization or project, success needs to be communicated to project champions, project stakeholders, and the organization at large. This helps stakeholders look to other business units that may be suffering similar problems and help drive change in those areas of the organization. Ideally, those successes will be supported by before-and-after metrics that demonstrate quantifiable improvements - time or money saved, process efficiencies realized, etc.
What do you think?
Structured content can be a powerful change agent within the organization. But to reap the power, Tom Magliery, an XML Technology Specialist at JustSystems, says organizations must first embrace the change. Magliery offers the steps below to help make the change happen:
Companies that adopt structured content have consistently seen it accelerate the creation, simplify the maintenance, and improve the quality of their content. They've seen structured content drive higher quality information, reduced publishing costs, and faster times to market for their technical manuals, policy documents, financial information, and other content and content-based
products and services.
So how does an organization - a department, division, or an entire company - get on the structured content bandwagon? Or, if it's already on the bandwagon, how does it expand the use of structured content within its operations? In either instance, the organization needs a strategy for moving to structured content and managing the change such a move creates. After years working with companies and helping them with their structured content adoption, I've found several common steps in the process.
Step 1 - Find a champion. You need a manager to sponsor the project, someone with a vested interest in the success of the structured content project. The champion's title is not as important as his or her commitment. Depending on the size of the organization, the title may be relatively modest. Department managers can be just as effective in the champion role as senior vice presidents. In fact, the department manager may be more effective than the senior VP in a department-level adoption. Regardless, the champion needs to be someone with a strategic vision and influence in the organization when it comes to content processes, and someone who stands to benefit by the move to structured content.
Step 2 - Understand the problem. What are the problems associated with your current content practices? And what are those problems costing today in terms of money, lost time, redundancies, inefficiencies, etc? Companies in regulated industries or litigious fields need to consider costs associated with penalties and litigation. For most companies, a typo is embarrassing, but it can lead to a huge fine or worse for companies in financial services or pharmaceuticals or other regulated industries. Finally, consider opportunity costs, the opportunities you can't pursue due to unstructured content constraints - e.g., adding multiple languages in a product line or publishing content in new formats.
Step 3 - Propose the alternative. Given the problems revealed in the previous step, define how structured content is going to resolve them. Map structured content's key functional attributes - content reuse, separation of format and content, etc. - to the challenges currently posed by unstructured content. Identify how reusable content could drive down costs by eliminating duplicate content creation or mitigate risk by ensuring the right content is used in all technical, legal and financial documents. Explain how the separation of format and content accelerates time to market by simplifying the creation of new content deliverables. Bottom line, you need to provide your champion with a vision of how structured content will solve those specific business problems that you just articulated.
In step 3, you also begin gathering requirements for the new structured content systems. This is a good place to start engaging the people who will be using the new tools and working with the new processes. You get a better idea of users' needs, and you get users invested in and excited by the new system, all of which promotes successful adoption.
Step 4 - Implement the change. Most organizations starting from scratch with structured content are better off starting small, getting their feet wet with a departmental pilot project instead of a broader departmental - or enterprise - rollout. Even organizations expanding their use of structured content are encouraged to move slowly, racking up a series of small successes rather than risking one spectacular failure. So start small and get professional assistance with the technical details rather than trying to do it all, even the tasks that are within your skill set.
Similarly, don't reinvent the wheel when it comes to using structured content within your specific business. If DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) or some other schema is an appropriate solution for you, use it. The proof of concept is the proof of value. Later, you can expand the pilot into a larger implementation.
Step 5 - Hold users' hands. The last thing you want to do is implement a structured content solution only to have writers sneak off, create content in Word, and then copy and paste it to the structured content system because they're not comfortable. Make the users comfortable, especially the power users who others look to for how-to tips and advice. Too many organizations implement a project and move on, forgetting the people who have to use the new tools. Don't underestimate the amount of training and support users will need to be successful. And don't forget to give the users a voice in the adoption process. Implement a feedback cycle that lets them communicate their challenges and requests, and nurtures the feeling of investment that you initiated during Step 3.
Step 6 - Adjust and extend. Pilot projects are highly recommended for organizations that can afford them. The benefits of the pilot are the lessons learned from experience in the pilot. A pilot project reveals areas that can be improved and ways to make structured content tools and standards better fit the organization. So the pilot lets the organization make adjustments and corrections as it moves forward and builds out its structured content system.
Note the typical pilot project advice is "avoid customizations." In structured content, the pilot advice is "don't worry about getting your customizations perfect." Customization and specialization is inherent in the value of structured content. You can modify the systems to best serve your business needs. So as structured content adoption grows beyond the pilot, one of the key issues involves selection of the right products and the right standards. Those choices give you the right balance between what works out of the box and what is flexible - i.e., customizable - enough to meet future needs. You don't want a system that requires a lot of customization to be usable, but you do want a system that is capable of such customization to meet your evolving needs.
Step 7 - Acknowledge the success. No matter what size the organization or project, success needs to be communicated to project champions, project stakeholders, and the organization at large. This helps stakeholders look to other business units that may be suffering similar problems and help drive change in those areas of the organization. Ideally, those successes will be supported by before-and-after metrics that demonstrate quantifiable improvements - time or money saved, process efficiencies realized, etc.
What do you think?
TAWPI @ AIIM
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Next year, info360 -- AIIM international's exposition + conference will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., March 22-24, 2011.
“Every two years we move info360 and ON DEMAND to another major city, and Washington is one of the most accessible cities on the east coast. The expansive convention center is located right in downtown, convenient to hotels and nightlife making it a perfect setting for a large convention,” says Debra Brown, event director for ON DEMAND. “Many of our exhibitors have expressed interest in having the events in Washington giving them a distinct opportunity to meet new customers from the government sector.”
“Washington was the No. 1 location identified by our attendees in an event survey, so we are feeling positive about the move to Washington, DC,” adds Beth Torrey, event director for info360. In 2011, info360 and ON DEMAND will also be held at the same time as ITEX, the trade show for Office Technology and Business Solutions.
Next year, info360 -- AIIM international's exposition + conference will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., March 22-24, 2011.
“Every two years we move info360 and ON DEMAND to another major city, and Washington is one of the most accessible cities on the east coast. The expansive convention center is located right in downtown, convenient to hotels and nightlife making it a perfect setting for a large convention,” says Debra Brown, event director for ON DEMAND. “Many of our exhibitors have expressed interest in having the events in Washington giving them a distinct opportunity to meet new customers from the government sector.”
“Washington was the No. 1 location identified by our attendees in an event survey, so we are feeling positive about the move to Washington, DC,” adds Beth Torrey, event director for info360. In 2011, info360 and ON DEMAND will also be held at the same time as ITEX, the trade show for Office Technology and Business Solutions.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
TAWPI @ AIIM
TAWPI's Jason Glass (left) and Frank Moran (center) greet Jim Tauber of Open Text at info 360 -- AIIM international's conference + exposition this afternoon at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
TAWPI @ AIIM
TAWPI Vice President of Sales Jason Glass greets Debby Kristofco, director of corporate communications and events, ibml, this afternoon at info 360 -- AIIM international's exposition + conference at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
TAWPI @ AIIM
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Based on what he saw yesterday, Jim Thumma (jthumma@docfinity.com), vice president of sales, marketing and professional services for Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT), says it is clear that info 360 – AIIM international’s exposition + conference continues to shrink. Many vendors I spoke with today share his assessment, noting that expo hall traffic has been steady for most of the show, but lighter than in years past.
Thumma’s other observations on info 360:
… “There are lots of companies pushing the cloud,” Thumma said
… Thumma found it ironic that despite all the "squawking" over the past few years about “what SharePoint isn’t,” the SharePoint pavilion was positioned in the front of the expo hall, and featured a cast of companies marketing SharePoint add-ons.
… “There are many old faces here, but also many new faces,” Thumma said.
What did you notice at info 360?
Based on what he saw yesterday, Jim Thumma (jthumma@docfinity.com), vice president of sales, marketing and professional services for Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT), says it is clear that info 360 – AIIM international’s exposition + conference continues to shrink. Many vendors I spoke with today share his assessment, noting that expo hall traffic has been steady for most of the show, but lighter than in years past.
Thumma’s other observations on info 360:
… “There are lots of companies pushing the cloud,” Thumma said
… Thumma found it ironic that despite all the "squawking" over the past few years about “what SharePoint isn’t,” the SharePoint pavilion was positioned in the front of the expo hall, and featured a cast of companies marketing SharePoint add-ons.
… “There are many old faces here, but also many new faces,” Thumma said.
What did you notice at info 360?
TAWPI @ AIIM
Posted by Mark Brousseau
In a recent research study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, only 38 percent of the respondents said their companies had a formal enterprise-wide information governance strategy in place. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents expect their information governance challenges to become more complex over the next three years. Similarly, EMC estimates that 85 percent of all unstructured information within an organization goes unmanaged -- there are no formal policies for retaining, protecting or handling it.
Unfortunately, this lack of information control is impacting business decisions.
Last year, a survey conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value discovered that eight out of 10 business leaders make major decisions with missing or untrusted information. In many cases, the information needed probably resides within the organization; just not accessible at the right time.
What do you think?
In a recent research study conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, only 38 percent of the respondents said their companies had a formal enterprise-wide information governance strategy in place. Sixty-eight percent of the respondents expect their information governance challenges to become more complex over the next three years. Similarly, EMC estimates that 85 percent of all unstructured information within an organization goes unmanaged -- there are no formal policies for retaining, protecting or handling it.
Unfortunately, this lack of information control is impacting business decisions.
Last year, a survey conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value discovered that eight out of 10 business leaders make major decisions with missing or untrusted information. In many cases, the information needed probably resides within the organization; just not accessible at the right time.
What do you think?
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?
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?
TAWPI @ AIIM
Posted by Mark Brousseau
The first day of the info360: AIIM Expo + Conference and ON DEMAND Conference & Expo included a full slate of activities. The two events run through Thursday, April 22 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
“We are thrilled with the buzz on the show floor and the standing room only crowds in the keynote sessions of both programs,” says Debra Brown, event director for ON DEMAND.
Michael Rogers, MSNBC’s “The Practical Futurist” and Technology Expert, started off the day as a keynote speaker for info360. The conference room quickly filled (with overflow attendees viewing the presentation via video link in a nearby room) as he discussed ways for businesses to continue to move into the virtual world to stay competitive and communicate effectively with their customers. Following Rogers, Robert Shimp, J.D., and group vice president of Oracle Corporation, led a lively discussion on how innovative organizations are driving the integration of content management with their core business processes. John Mancini, president of AIIM, presented Eight Trends that will Transform the Content Management Industry.
SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo was kicked off with a keynote speech by Eric Swift, general manager, Microsoft, who discussed the benefits and ease of the new SharePoint 2010 in action to the standing room only audience, all interested in learning about the new product that will be released soon. The SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo will continue through Thursday with innovative sessions from those who developed SharePoint 2010, as well as early adopters who are already putting this new platform to work in their organizations.
On the show floor free educational sessions, networking opportunities and dozens of new products were introduced at info360.
The first day of the info360: AIIM Expo + Conference and ON DEMAND Conference & Expo included a full slate of activities. The two events run through Thursday, April 22 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.
“We are thrilled with the buzz on the show floor and the standing room only crowds in the keynote sessions of both programs,” says Debra Brown, event director for ON DEMAND.
Michael Rogers, MSNBC’s “The Practical Futurist” and Technology Expert, started off the day as a keynote speaker for info360. The conference room quickly filled (with overflow attendees viewing the presentation via video link in a nearby room) as he discussed ways for businesses to continue to move into the virtual world to stay competitive and communicate effectively with their customers. Following Rogers, Robert Shimp, J.D., and group vice president of Oracle Corporation, led a lively discussion on how innovative organizations are driving the integration of content management with their core business processes. John Mancini, president of AIIM, presented Eight Trends that will Transform the Content Management Industry.
SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo was kicked off with a keynote speech by Eric Swift, general manager, Microsoft, who discussed the benefits and ease of the new SharePoint 2010 in action to the standing room only audience, all interested in learning about the new product that will be released soon. The SharePoint 2010 Summit @ AIIM Expo will continue through Thursday with innovative sessions from those who developed SharePoint 2010, as well as early adopters who are already putting this new platform to work in their organizations.
On the show floor free educational sessions, networking opportunities and dozens of new products were introduced at info360.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Electronic Content Still out of Control
Posted by Mark Brousseau
In its annual “State of the ECM Industry” research report, released at its conference and exposition here in Philadelphia, AIIM has found that managing electronic office documents is still a challenge for 47 percent of organizations, and that modern business communication channels—instant messages, text messages, blogs and wikis—are uncontrolled and off the corporate radar for 75 percent of businesses. Additionally, e-mail is still out of control, with 55 percent of organizations having little or no confidence that important emails are recorded, complete and retrievable. However, AIIM’s research also found that whereas two years ago compliance was the main driver for bringing this content into a controlled and searchable environment, cost savings and efficiency are now the main motivating factors.
According to the AIIM survey, for those that have invested in ECM or document and records management solutions, hard dollar savings have on the whole turned out on plan, and soft dollar benefits have exceeded expectations. Compared to other significant technology investments, ECM implementations have generally produced better returns.
John Mancini, President of AIIM, comments, “For many organizations, poorly managed and out of control information represents a huge potential source of bottom line savings in this tight economy — if only organizations would just take this cost saving seriously. Controlled content can be fed into business processes to speed them up, cut down travel via project collaboration, and form a knowledge base for the business. Uncontrolled content represents a lost opportunity – and a major compliance risk.”
The survey also found that spending on Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow was likely to grow strongly in 2009, with Enterprise Search, Email Management, Document Management and Records Management all set to show positive growth.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
In its annual “State of the ECM Industry” research report, released at its conference and exposition here in Philadelphia, AIIM has found that managing electronic office documents is still a challenge for 47 percent of organizations, and that modern business communication channels—instant messages, text messages, blogs and wikis—are uncontrolled and off the corporate radar for 75 percent of businesses. Additionally, e-mail is still out of control, with 55 percent of organizations having little or no confidence that important emails are recorded, complete and retrievable. However, AIIM’s research also found that whereas two years ago compliance was the main driver for bringing this content into a controlled and searchable environment, cost savings and efficiency are now the main motivating factors.
According to the AIIM survey, for those that have invested in ECM or document and records management solutions, hard dollar savings have on the whole turned out on plan, and soft dollar benefits have exceeded expectations. Compared to other significant technology investments, ECM implementations have generally produced better returns.
John Mancini, President of AIIM, comments, “For many organizations, poorly managed and out of control information represents a huge potential source of bottom line savings in this tight economy — if only organizations would just take this cost saving seriously. Controlled content can be fed into business processes to speed them up, cut down travel via project collaboration, and form a knowledge base for the business. Uncontrolled content represents a lost opportunity – and a major compliance risk.”
The survey also found that spending on Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow was likely to grow strongly in 2009, with Enterprise Search, Email Management, Document Management and Records Management all set to show positive growth.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Improving Business Processes in a Challenging Economy
Posted by Mark Brousseau
In the midst of deepening budget and staffing cuts, the critical importance of effective enterprise information management has never been greater.
"Now more than ever, organizations need to find ways to automate business processes, connect people and ideas more economically, reduce legal and regulatory exposure, and improve information access and business performance transparency," said Tom Bliss, Group Conference Director, Questex Media, producers of the AIIM International Exposition + Conference.
During a presentation at the event, Whitney Tidmarsh, vice president of EMC, said, "In 2009, IT will face even more increasing pressures and CIOs will be scrutinized for their ability to deliver better business efficiency, risk reduction and more rapid ROI. At the same time, employees, partners and customers are demanding transparency and a more open flow of information enabled by social networks and collaborative Web 2.0 applications. Faced with an explosion of user-generated data and increased information sharing, organizations are challenged to protect and retain this information and somehow generate value from it."
Notwithstanding the challenges businesses are facing, this is a unique environment to make competitive gains by harnessing the value of IT investments, knowledge management tools, and people, Kurt Delbene, vice president, Office Business Platform Group for Microsoft said during another presentation. Delbene said a company’s ability to streamline and increase efficiencies, keep know-how within a company, retain and attract customers, and keep top talent in this highly competitive environment will determine how it will fair through this tough economic period.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
In the midst of deepening budget and staffing cuts, the critical importance of effective enterprise information management has never been greater.
"Now more than ever, organizations need to find ways to automate business processes, connect people and ideas more economically, reduce legal and regulatory exposure, and improve information access and business performance transparency," said Tom Bliss, Group Conference Director, Questex Media, producers of the AIIM International Exposition + Conference.
During a presentation at the event, Whitney Tidmarsh, vice president of EMC, said, "In 2009, IT will face even more increasing pressures and CIOs will be scrutinized for their ability to deliver better business efficiency, risk reduction and more rapid ROI. At the same time, employees, partners and customers are demanding transparency and a more open flow of information enabled by social networks and collaborative Web 2.0 applications. Faced with an explosion of user-generated data and increased information sharing, organizations are challenged to protect and retain this information and somehow generate value from it."
Notwithstanding the challenges businesses are facing, this is a unique environment to make competitive gains by harnessing the value of IT investments, knowledge management tools, and people, Kurt Delbene, vice president, Office Business Platform Group for Microsoft said during another presentation. Delbene said a company’s ability to streamline and increase efficiencies, keep know-how within a company, retain and attract customers, and keep top talent in this highly competitive environment will determine how it will fair through this tough economic period.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Reduce Risk, Focus on Compliance
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Complying with an eDiscovery request can be an expensive and time consuming exercise.
"The ever-increasing volume of information and records created and stored in electronic form creates a growing need for automated and flexible systems designed to improve litigation defensibility and response," said Tom Bliss, Group Conference Director, Questex Media, producers of the AIIM Expo + Conference.
In his annual state of the industry address at the AIIM Expo + Conference, AIIM President John Mancini noted the intersection between collaboration and security concerns within organizations. As core document, content, and records management technologies move to the mainstream, there are many new collaborative tools to empower employees to create, publish, and distribute information. Colliding with this trend are increasing compliance and legal demands to control critical and sensitive content and information.
"No organization wants or can afford to be caught unprepared. The costs and risks are simply too high," Bliss said, noting IT and business professionals must learn how to build bullet-proof records and information
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Complying with an eDiscovery request can be an expensive and time consuming exercise.
"The ever-increasing volume of information and records created and stored in electronic form creates a growing need for automated and flexible systems designed to improve litigation defensibility and response," said Tom Bliss, Group Conference Director, Questex Media, producers of the AIIM Expo + Conference.
In his annual state of the industry address at the AIIM Expo + Conference, AIIM President John Mancini noted the intersection between collaboration and security concerns within organizations. As core document, content, and records management technologies move to the mainstream, there are many new collaborative tools to empower employees to create, publish, and distribute information. Colliding with this trend are increasing compliance and legal demands to control critical and sensitive content and information.
"No organization wants or can afford to be caught unprepared. The costs and risks are simply too high," Bliss said, noting IT and business professionals must learn how to build bullet-proof records and information
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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