Latest data, trends, and statistics on content management and social business, scanning, BPM, SharePoint and ECM from AIIM President John Mancini -- home of "8 things"
"There is hardly any person I know who would not benefit from the content of the AIIM Certified Information Professional certification. Whether on the job or in our personal lives, we all need core skills in managing, and perhaps even mastering, the information and technology that surrounds us every day." (Tim Elmore, CIO, Bank-Fund Staff Federal Credit Union)
-----
A few notes on Email Architecture, Backup and Archiving
The way messages are stored, backups are made, and archives are kept is important because they all have an impact on how findable and shareable the information they contain ends up being.
It's not that long ago that emails were simply “out there” and not thought of as things that needed to be managed in the same way as other information resources. After all, the thinking went, storage is cheap, so we can just keep everything. And if we need to find it, well, Outlook and Exchange have search functions!
But what about emails that have been archived elsewhere, or simply saved to someone’s desktop? And what about the people searching from within other applications? And what of the attachments?
Looking to demonstrate that you have the ability to solve an organization's information-related problems and plan for the future? Check out the new Certified Information Professional (CIP) certification. This is not a training program, but a certification exam available from Prometric tests centers across the world. Learn more >
From a conversation with Ken Bisconti from IBM on the Future of Social Content. Ken on the AIIM CIP -- "Anyone in IT or in an information related discipline today should be thinking about it."
Looking to demonstrate that you have the ability to solve an organization's information-related problems and plan for the future? Check out the new Certified Information Professional (CIP) certification. This is not a training program, but a certification exam available from Prometric tests centers across the world. Learn more >
[As is the case with our 5 myths series, the opinions expressed in the 8 things guest columns are those of the guest contributor and not necessarily mine or AIIM's. This guest post was prepared by Matthew Jackson from Penny Imaging Exchange. ]
1 -- It’s safer than you think.
When transferring massive amounts of important documents onto virtual servers, security is a common concern. A ‘cloud’ doesn’t sound safe—it sounds like anyone can reach inside and take what they want.
People think that since something so intangible can’t be impenetrable, on-site servers are a smaller risk. You can see them, touch them, and put padlocks on them. What could be more secure?
Cloud networks, for one. The fact is that their security measures frequently surpass those of traditional corporate infrastructure. Just because you don’t see where your information’s going doesn’t make life in the clouds any more dangerous: virtual servers can be just as safe as physical ones—and often safer.
2 -- It’s more flexible than you think.
Cloud platforms grant you scalability, which translates to flexibility, efficiency, and ultimately less expense. When you need more capacity, you get more, and when you need less, you get less—and you pay only for what you get.
Imagine a world where every business needed its own power supply. Instead of getting electricity from the city infrastructure, your building would have its own generator, with all the headaches that come with it. You’ll need a place to put the generator (which will be big and noisy), you’ll need someone to run it, and you’ll also need to regularly buy parts and fuel. You’ll also have to manage periodic upgrades. Sound familiar?
And forget about scalability: your generator’s only going to produce as much power as it was designed to. If there are times when you don’t need so much capacity—or, worse, times when you need more capacity—there’s really nothing you can do.
It makes sense for electricity to be a utility. So does computing. Any cloud network will be far more responsive to your needs than a traditional in-house server. It’ll save you time, aggravation—and money.
3 -- It means more freedom for everyone.
Cloud technology tears down barriers. It makes no difference whether they’re barriers in distance or time: using a cloud to its fullest flexibility, you can store and transmit data from servers scattered around the globe. That is, the servers will usually be in your region, but they can be in other countries if you like. At the same time, these servers will act as the edge locations for your end-users. This saves everyone’s time. It also improves latency and security
Integrating yourself into a global server network through the cloud will boost communications and allow you to better manage and control your business.
4 -- It gives you the power to make worlds.
Thanks to advances in technology, you can now use the cloud as an extension of your current network, creating your own private virtual cloud where you have full control on the creation of subnets, enhanced control over the security configuration of network gateways, and more.
The cloud becomes the glue holding your organization together. However, instead of stiffening up, your organization will have more freedom, more flexibility, and more control over the resources within your cloud.
5 -- It’s robust.
Some people worry that files on the cloud will be lost if servers go down. At the very least, they think, the information will be inaccessible for some time. Neither is the case, actually, and with all the features built into the cloud platform, it’s really the safest and most reliable way to store your documents.
Cloud systems give you the ability to store your files redundantly, making them 400 times safer than if they were on a disk drive in an on-site server. In addition, you can also store your documents on multiple servers in different areas, which protects you from a power outage in any one location and automatically replaces any failing nodes.
Using these strategies, your files on the cloud will always be safe and accessible virtually all of the time.
6 -- It’s safer than you think, again.
Putting sensitive documents on the cloud will become increasingly popular. For things like medical records and government contracts, cloud providers employ state-of-the-art security features. These include firewalls, multifactor identification, SSH Keys, Identity and Access Management, and security groups. In this case, the flexibility of cloud systems translates to quick responses—they can and will upgrade their defenses as soon as upgrades become available.
When creating a virtual private network, taking full advantage of the cloud’s capabilities will grant you additional security so heavy it easily meets the standards of the U.S. departments of State, Energy, Agriculture, and Treasury.
7 -- It takes you out of the box.
Some people might not like the idea of using the cloud as a foundation for new applications. Again, that’s just a trick of the langue: cloud systems aren’t as stable as on-site systems—they’re even more stable.
Plus, with clouds you don’t have to tear down the foundations every time you change something. No longer will you have to put up with the limitations of standardized software: now you’re free to create custom applications and complex workflows that bend to your needs, instead of the other way around.
8 -- It’s here to stay.
More and more companies are adopting the cloud for all the above reasons. Increasing numbers of people are attracted to its security, its scalability, and its transforming effect on business.
Cloud systems provide cost-effective solutions that save you money on equipment, service contracts, personnel, and electricity. Putting all your information on the cloud may seem like a big leap, but that’s the way the wind is blowing. The revolution has begun, the IT industry is changing, and so must you. Now is the time to jump into the cloud.
-----
About the author: Matthew Jackson—as a Custom Cloud Designer for Penny Imaging Exchange—creates custom-branded and hosted cloud-based workflow solutions. Penny Imaging has more than 25 years of industry experience and is committed to creating mutually beneficial relationships. You can continue this discussion at http://complexworkflow.com/forum/.
The three reports can be downloaded directly from the AIIM web site (you need to login, but they are free) at THIS LINK.
Here's the press release...
New Research Shows That Enterprise Social Technology Gets Work Done
Research scientist Andrew McAfee and the AIIM Task Force track the adoption rate of social business and reveal social business/Enterprise 2.0 best practices for three key business engagement models
Silver Spring, Md.,January 25, 2012 -AIIM, the global community of information professionals, today announced the release of a three-part white paper series, titled “When Social Meets Business Real Work Gets Done” authored by Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Digital Business and the AIIM Task Force on Social Business and Innovation.
The research, conducted over the past six months, revealed that companies are realizing significant, measurable benefit from the adoption of social technologies in the areas of marketing and sales, open innovation and enterprise Q&A, which is defined as the capability to let people ask and answer questions companywide. Despite the growth of external social networks for personal use, the adoption of similar social business technologies has lagged.
Based on this new research, businesses may want to re-consider this “wait and see” approach toward social business. The key findings included:
More than 60 percent of firms who did invest in collaborative frameworks achieved big gains in knowledge sharing and communication accuracy between marketing and sales.
Open innovation delivers beneficial changes to both internal processes and external products, and is meeting the expectations of its sponsors. Open innovation helped realize major changes to the internal processes of 48 percent of responders and to the external offerings of 34 percent of responders.
A 60 percent satisfaction rate was reported for organizations with a rewards-based enterprise-wide Q&A. Respondents said high-quality answers often come from unexpected sources indicating that social tools are cultivating advanced knowledge sharing.
“All three areas addressed by the Task Force demonstrate that when people engage properly with each other and with technology, trust, self-organization, and good business results emerge," says Dr. McAfee. “The three use cases are true examples of social business because they depend on people with strong, weak and potential ties to organize their own workflows, roles and credentials."
Recommendations include “socializing” marketing and sales assets to reduce search costs and redundant work; focusing open innovation environments to improve both products and processes; and adopting enterprise Q&A structures that are frictionless to remove company-wide communication hurdles.
"We are clearly moving into a new phase in social technologies, one in which the critical success factor will be the integration of social technologies into key organizational processes,” according to AIIM President, John Mancini. “The end objective should not be to simply set up social networks inside our organizations, but to actually make our organizations social. There is still a lot of work to be done to fulfill this potential, but the three use cases suggest that significant progress is happening inside business."
The “When Social Meets Business Real Work Gets Done” research papers on Connecting Sales and Marketing, Fostering Innovation and Enterprise Q&A are available to the public for download at: http://www.aiim.org/SocialMeetsBusiness.
About Andrew McAfee Andrew McAfee (http://www.andrewmcafee.org) is a Principal Research Scientist at the Center for Digital Business, part of the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, MA. McAfee is a researcher, writer, and teacher about technology’s impact on the world of business. His book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization’s Toughest Challenges was published in late 2009 by Harvard Business Publishing.
About AIIM
AIIM has been an advocate and supporter of information professionals for nearly 70 years. The association mission is to ensure that information professionals understand the current and future challenges of managing information assets in an era of social, mobile, cloud and big data. Founded in 1943, AIIM builds on a strong heritage of research and member service. Today, AIIM is a global, non-profit organization that provides independent research, education and certification programs to information professionals. AIIM represents the entire information management community, with programs and content for practitioners, technology suppliers, integrators and consultants.
# # #
-----
I also put together a short powerpoint with some of the major findings. CLICK HERE for the direct link, or check out the embedded version below...
Per IDC's Digital Universe report, "Although the amount of information in the Digital Universe will grow by a factor of 44, and the number of containers or files will grow by a factor of 67 from 2009 to 2020, the number of IT professionals in the world will grow only by a factor of 1.4."
Did you see my conversation with Ken Bisconti from IBM on the Future of Social Content? Ken on the AIIM CIP -- "Anyone in IT or in an information related discipline today should be thinking about it."
Had a fun time with this conversation with Ken Bisconti from IBM (NYSE:IBM) and well-known tech columnist Lenny Liebmann (who did a great job, BTW) at Lotusphere this week. The focus was on the future of social content. Kudos to them for getting all these videos out 2 days after they were done - amazing turnaround given the amount of content.
We also spend a bit of time talking about the AIIM Certified Information Professional program. Details here. Per Ken on the CIP program, "Anyone in IT or in an information related discipline today should be thinking about it."
Here's the direct link for those who get this via email and don't allow embedded content.
For those Digital Landfill subscribers who get my weekly email update, my apologies that the last few issues have had the same subject line.
I would like to say this is because of some complicated issue, but the simple truth is that it was a User ID-10-T error by the editor relative to some Mail Chimp settings (the email host).
News of the Kodak (NYSE:EK) Chapter 11 filing is obviously creating ripples throughout the mainstream press. But closer to home, as one of the founders of both AIIM (back in the NMA days) and as an icon in the document management industry, Kodak’s filing highlights for me the challenges implicit for any organization as they try to navigate the complicated waters of the digital age.
[Editor’s note: as neither a legal nor a financial genius, please cut me a bit of slack me as I think through the implications of the filing for our industry.]
On January 19, 2012, Eastman Kodak Company and its U.S. subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 business reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The business reorganization will enable Kodak to bolster liquidity in the U.S. and abroad, monetize non-strategic intellectual property, fairly resolve legacyliabilities, and enable the Company to focus on its most valuable business lines. Non-U.S. subsidiaries are not part of the filings, are not subject to the Court proceedings, and are operating as usual.
The filing frees up $950 million in funds from Citigroup (plus the cash that is already on hand) to continue operations within the Chapter 11 framework. This is in the context of a business plan moving forward that has been approved by the court.
I would imagine that news of the filing must come with some amount of relief for folks in the document management group given that uncertainty is always the least desirable position to be in. Per Kodak, the document management business has been strong. However, given that results for this business are not broken out separately from the rest of the company, whatever these results are, they have clearly been masked by the troubles of the rest of the company.
Prior to the reorganization, Kodak tried to sell its portfolio of consumer digital capture assets to free up cash. Getting a buyer to agree on the pricing of these assets must have been challenging in the uncertainty prior to the filing (likely the understatement of the week). With the path forward at least clear now, it appears the sale of these assets will move forward.
These kind of Chapter 11 processes normally last about 18 months. Kodak last week restructured its business from three to two major operating units, one consumer focused and one commercial. Within the commercial segment, there are now three major pieces: 1) Enterprise Services and Solutions Group (under which the document management business operates); 2) Graphics and Entertainment and Commercial Film, and 3) Digital and Functional Printing Group.
Technology continues to roll over and around segments and companies that were once considered invulnerable, either 1) sweeping them away or 2) leaving them dramatically transformed in its wake. The next 18 months and a new start will determine which result will be Kodak’s future.
Recent Comments