Integrated information management

Adrian Butcher addresses a missing link in business support from many IT strategies.

What is meant by information management (IM)?
Adrian Butcher. Basically, a catch-all term for managing information of all types within the organisation. Although some sits neatly in a corporate database as structured data, more than 80 percent is unstructured or semi-unstructured. Increasingly, it's managed by enterprise content management (ECM). Anything from office documents to forms to website content, corporate records, emails, drawings, scanned images and documents, and emerging content types like video, wikis, blogs and other social media. Organisations often have structured data sorted but the unstructured information (rarely less than 80 percent of the total) less so - and still less integrated.

How does integration apply to all of that and why would we need it?
AB. Your core business processes often don't conveniently depend on one type of information per process - if anything, there's a trend to more types for any given process. So, for example, asset management needs not just an asset register, but accompanying asset information/documentation; a bank must manage customer interaction as well as administer account payments; a procurement organisation needs to manage contracts alongside finances and efficiently integrate invoices - often in paper form - into its accounts payable process. Different information types, therefore, should be accessed in a single context for individual operational roles. Your operational databases don't do that.

If that's the why of integrated IM, what's the how? Give us the high-level picture.
AB. Fundamentally, we refer to two integration 'dimensions' here: integration with your main information eco-system and between different content types.

Eco-system"means your current strategic systems - like your desktop (e.g. Microsoft Office, Sharepoint, corporate email), your major ERP or finance systems and so on. Integrating different content types means putting together content types that support end-to-end processes. For example, a customer may visit your website (containing web content), request a document, like a PDF, initiate a process through BPM by filling in and submitting a form, which needs approvals, then generates a contract and job sheet. This could generate an email or whitemail (scanned in) enquiry, requiring a response through the same medium. All those content types form a case, to be made available, as a whole, to staff, then managed as a record according to policy . Some cases, events and interactions may involve images, drawings or even video or social media content.

That sounds complicated - hard to get my head around. Where would one start?
AB. Either of two main entry points would be good places to start: ask the CIO if there is an overall enterprise IM or ECM strategy and - if so - how many different platforms support it. A plethora of platforms suggests a strategy not formulated or not yet implemented. And identify a core business process, encompassing different information types in an end-to-end flow, perhaps across different departments, then assess how many systems support that process, how seamlessly it flows, how well it's reported and how easily employees can access all related information through one interface, which could well be your ERP, desktop or mail interface if that's most appropriate. Any major point of failure suggests integrated IM/ECM not yet in place for that process.

This sounds like a significant investment in systems and change management - how is it justified?
AB. We'd advise looking for benefits in five major areas: process efficiency (unit cost/speed of execution), process effectiveness (right first time, process compliant), soft but usually larger than expected benefits, like avoidance of duplication or re-work and less wasted time finding authoritative information, risk management (compliance with internal and external regulations and laws) and reduced overall IT TCO (total cost of ownership) arising from fewer systems (some from active legacy decommissioning), reduced storage, licence and maintenance costs. To sum up, any organisation without a clear, Integrated IM strategy, documented and implemented, linking structured with unstructured information, has an opportunity for beneficial business change.

Adrian Butcher is Director of Value Engineering for Open Text in EMEA, a function whose role is helping organisations identify and achieve business value through IM/ECM investment. He brings more than 20 years in business management and 10 years in information management to this role.