Recently Linda Shave kindly answered some questions about how to harness the value of information assets. Linda is a thought leader, researcher and architect of change.
A big thank you to Linda Shave, for her valuable insights.
1. What are some of the steps that organisations can take to harness the value of their information assets?
This depends upon the context of the question and could be compartmentalised into the following groups harnessing information assets in the context of:
| Information and Records Management (IM) | Information Communication Technology (ICT) |
| Physical – Scanned digitised | Big Data / Open Data |
| Digital born | Bring your own devices (BYOD) tablets, mobile etc. |
| Machine to Machine | |
| Mobile Content Management |
Current recordkeeping methods and record management methodologies manage digitised/digital born documents that are captured and registered into an existing on premise EDRM/ECM application. The value of these information assets ceases when they become a ‘record’ (or until needed to be used again) and held for the allocated retention period and then re-assessed for their value for transfer to State/National Archives and/or disposal.
However, the rate of new technology is evolving rapidly. In our workplace, mobile devices such as tablets, smart-phones, laptops, wearable devices and social networks are disrupting our traditional ways of working. Government Digital Strategies are mandating that government agencies consider ‘cloud first ready’ solutions and agencies will need to demonstrate why they cannot use a cloud first solution. In the traditional EDRM/ECM space there will be a shift towards cloud offerings .
From an ICT angle harnessing the value of information assets stems from the agency understanding the value of its datasets (business intelligence) and being able to capitalise on this data to create new partnerships, products and services.
Harnessing the value of information is now crossing the boundaries as digital born data is captured from devices such as wearable devices, mobile devices, machine to machine and the internet of things. The digital data explosion is just beginning and making sense of the value of information assets will require new tools, new rules and will break down traditional business models.
2. What are some of the benefits that organisations can expect to realise through improving their information management?
This is my view only. Current methods of recordkeeping and records management methodologies for information management will not meet the needs for Cloud offerings such as Software as a Services and Web3.0/Gov3.0 mobile information centric approaches (e.g. pushing out information to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets). Current methods and on premise EDRM/ECM solutions will still remain and/or be hosted on a hybrid cloud for the short term – but the push toward ‘public’ cloud solutions will require different approaches. An organisation can expect benefits to be realised from adopting the next generation of information management tools, methods and information management professionals. This will require up skilling staff, adopting new information management frameworks and reviewing cloud offerings and deployment models that best meet the needs of the organisation and provide interoperability between on premises systems and new cloud hosted solutions such as Software as a Service (SaaS).
3. What tips would you give organisations about how to improve their information management?
As previously indicated mobile devices such as tablets, smart-phones, laptops, wearable devices and social networks are disrupting our traditional ways of working. The gap is already growing between traditional on premises EDRM/ECM solutions and the needs to manage digital born content that is data/documents created in and stored in cloud.
Firstly, there are some tools that can be used as organisations/agencies try to manage records and information assets between traditional LAN server platforms and Platform as a Services (PaaS) and traditional on premises EDRM/ECM software applications and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions. One such tool is Objective-Connect which could be described as a ‘portal’ a gateway for ‘information assets’ to be moved backwards and forwards.
Secondly, that metadata tagging at birth, semantic web, linked data, wrappers, information centric, digital preservation is providing a new platform for the next generation of record professionals.
Thirdly, keep up to date with the changing landscape and be agile to change.
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