Report from Juanita Richardson, Consultant & Licensing Managment, CEDROM-SNi, who was at the Information Highways 2005 inToronto last week produced by The eContent Institute for the Canadian information industry with the common themes of content and technology.
In his keynote on Day 1, Michael O’Neil, Managing Director, IDC Canada, spoke to the “push for productivity” and how content and technology are enabling this productivity growth. “The value of content is increasing dramatically - at the same time that storage costs are plunging, content will expand to fill all the available containers.” Why have content and content management strategies become so important? Access to content enables: speedy / accurate decisions; better management; shorter sales cycles. Therefore, content management strategies must: deliver info to decision makers; support regulatory compliance; support product / service delivery. However, as content becomes more valuable, it’s at greater risk of being used without the right - which brings governance and content management policies into the focus. Vendors take note: the IT / IM industry is growing because productivity is the #1 concern of senior executives and IT / IM enables productivity. The #1 area vendors should address: align solutions with the client’s business need / strategy. Of note: 10% of senior executives were disappointed on the ROI on IT. Food for thought.
Carolyn Burke of Integrity Incorporated spoke on data collection, management and governance, stressing that “security is a process - not a ‘thing’ in itself (eg. a firewall)”. Yet in an environment of pervasive computing, security is of the utmost importance. She shared an urban legend which, at first brush, appeared to be true: that a certain model of Lexus car was “blue-tooth enabled” - which could result in the car being “blue-jacked” by somebody with a device outside taking control of the car. Although this story ended up not being true, clearly the scenario bears consideration given our “modern lifestyle”.
Wayne Hogan of Sun Microsystems, speaking on information lifecycle management, indicated that 65% of data created is only touched once. Therefore, while it makes sense to manage closely only “business critical” data, all data needs to be managed - and the right tool can help classify data by their level of importance.
The Department of Foreign Affairs continues to be a leader in best practices in the information industry in Canada and their InfoBank product, as demonstrated by Joel Denis, was a excellent case study to follow. That said: “technology is only one of the legs of the table – you also need the policies and practices that make sense / gain efficiencies for the users of the system.”
Stephen Abram of SIRSI certainly delighted the audience with his ‘Delighting the real user’ presentation – and for the real users, it’s all about context: “If content was king, there would be line-ups outside libraries!” Stephen listed five “contexts” or “experiences”: neighbourhood; learning; research; work; entertainment. Providers of information services (whether intermediaries or online solutions) should keep in mind that “quality and relevance are in the eye of the beholder.” That’s why personas are important.
The closing keynote for Day 1, Paul Swinwood of the Software Human Resources Council, stressed that: “if you have the package you’re employable”. But what’s the package? There’s been a shift up the skills ladder with softer skills playing a more critical role. He finished by providing us with a view of the “skills stool”: 1) attitude = interpersonal skills; 2) aptitude = an ability to get the job done; 3) technical skills; 4) professional skills. Clearly the key is to understand the context / environment / purpose / how you fit into the business process.
Day 2 keynote, Paul Kent, COO of xwave – an Alliant Company, spoke on productivity: Productivity is directly impacted by ICT (information & communications technology) and our lack of productivity (per David Dodge - Bank of Canada) is directly related to our slow uptake of ICT. Kent describes ICT as the convergence of all technology and communications devices together with applications and people - resulting in “information agility” and embedded computing - and productivity!
Marcia Douglas of BearingPoint speaking on optimizing content and process technology offered us a vision of “truly managed content”, getting rid of the business silos with their disparate applications. Instead, a holistic solution incorporating all the content processes (digital content management, workflow, business process management, business intelligence, collaboration) would ultimately increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs.
Rita Vine , Workingfaster.com debunked the hype and shared the reality on many Web search tools. From her five-step evaluation process, I thought the most overlooked by most searchers was: evaluate the sites business model as this can have a significant impact on content selection and results delivery. Some general tips: there are LOTS of “not-ready-for-prime-time” tools out there; beware lofty promises; be choosy; ignore most popular award sites. She ended with a plug for Gary Price’s Resourceshelf.com as the best source for keeping abreast of developments.
