Digital Landfill

It's Graduation Time - My #Commencement Address - #AIIM

I recently did a seminar for a friend who runs a class at George Mason University for seniors on finding a job in the real world.  My job was to talk mostly about non-profit careers, and secondly about the technology sector.

I violated one of my long-standing rules in professional keynote speaking by NOT asking him whether there would be any other speakers, and if so, in what order would we speak.

Well, it turns out there was another speaker, and he spoke first.  There were a few characteristics about the speaker I wish I had known beforehand.

1. This guy was a REALLY good speaker.  OK, I do a lot of speaking, so I thought we're even.
2. This guy knew what he wanted to do with his life since he was 4 years old.  [Uh-oh.  I still haven't figured that out completely.]
3. What he wanted to do was to be a jet pilot with the Thunderbirds in the Air Force. [Double my concern.]
4. Enroute to his dream, he had a life threatening illness that he had to overcome. [I'm toast.]
5. He concluded his presentation with a video of him flying; you could see the wings of two other jets about 8 inches above his head.

"And our next speaker, John Mancini, will talk about non-profit careers."  [Oh, crap.]

Short circuit to the end, it went OK, although I never did confess that at 4 years old I wanted to be a garbage man -- or maybe it is now called a recyling engineer. In thinking about this presentation, though, I did come across a post I did 2 years ago.  I thought in this graduation season I would run it again.

And to all you new graduates, good luck.

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8 Things You Need to Know Now That You Are Out in the Real World Looking for a Job

 OK, I have waited long enough for an invitation to do a Commencement Address and none have been forthcoming.  (Although my wife does work in a church pre-school; I am holding out hope that this year's harvest of kindergarten wannabees will still tee me up.)

The particular reason Commencements are on my mind is that our youngest is getting ready to graduate from High School. One of her older brothers has graduated from college and is out in the workforce (although about ready to go back for an MBA) and the other will graduate from college in December, the good Lord willing. So perhaps by auditioning through this blog post -- and by trying out my act on the Herndon United Methodist pre-Ks -- I will have a future chance for a Commencement address. I am especially lured by the idea of getting an honorary doctorate with no work.

So here goes -- my 8 Things You Need to Know Now That You Are Out in the Real World Looking for a Job.

1 -- You likely won't go to work for a super-cool company.

 I have recently been listening to Tom Peters' The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence while "jogging" (a relative term -- I go faster than just standing still) on the treadmill and around the 1/16 mile track at the Y. (Note: I DO understand how unbelievably geeky this sounds).

Tom talks about two worlds -- Guru World and the Real World. In Guru World (the place you read about in all the management books), everyone works for companies that are (amongst other things): 1) Fortune 500; 2) global; 3) supercool (like Google); 4) on TV all the time.

The reality -- and I can personally testify to this one given that I am well into the 2nd half of a 30 year career in the association world -- is that most people don't work at these kinds of places. Most companies or organizations are somewhat small and make their money doing things that are not terribly sexy. Like mine. There are millions of organizations like mine. That doesn't mean the job can't be fulfilling. But not every job is cool.

2 -- Be resilient.

While I am on Tom Peters, he has a GREAT chapter on what companies are looking for in an employee. It all comes down to being "resilient." I love the attributes he lists. I'm thinking about having them put on our job applications. For those of you looking for a job, your task is to figure out how to convince your interviewer that you possess these traits (just a partial list).

• Inner calm.
• High self-knowledge.
• Breadth of out-of-the ordinary experience.
• Known for integrity.
• An appetite for modestly controlled chaos.
• Sense of humor.
• Empathy.

 When I think of all the people that I have hired in my world of small associations over the years, these traits trump domain expertise. Every time. Make sure your interviewer knows that you have them.

3 -- Clean up your Facebook act.

I have been on Facebook a long time -- since shortly after they opened it up to non-edu domains.

There seems to be an assumption out there that you can somehow control how you are viewed by various audiences by controlling the variable security settings on Facebook. No matter what anyone says, DO NOT BELIEVE THIS. I heard two quotes about this at a recent seminar at Santa Clara University that ring true.

First, from @benparr @Mashable -- "Do not post anything that you would not be comfortable having your mother see." And secondly -- I think the quote was from Felix Sterling, SVP and General Counsel, Trend Micro Inc. -- "Don't ever underestimate the power of unintended content syndication."

One recent example. A friend of my one of my sons recently friended me out of the blue. Nice kid; have always liked him. Two days later, he evidently broke up with his girlfriend. He proceeded to post a horrendously offensive status about his ex-girlfriend. I don't think I'll ever think about this kid the same way again.

So get rid of all of those F words and keg stand pics and pictures of drunken orgies. I'm not a prude -- but my Mom is on Facebook for crying out loud. Do you really want a 79-year-old woman to see that?And if that isn't enough, you can be guaranteed that potential employers will use Facebook to check up on you. Don't let embarrassing results deep six your job opportunity.

Electrons live forever.

4 -- Attitude trumps just about everything.

There is a Chick-Fil-A I go to more often than I should in Reston, VA. (Note: As a veteran Chick-Fil-A person, I will let you in on a secret. Based on my scientific study, if you order extra pickle on your sandwich, you tend to get a bigger piece of chicken. Try it. If you don't actually want extra pickle you can just take it off. You don't need to thank me.)

The thing that I notice almost every time I go in this Chick-Fil-A is this: the people. Everyone is friendly. Everyone works as a team. Many of the people recognize me and say hello.

I should add at this point that I don't believe English is the native language for ANY of the people working at my favorite Chick-Fil-A -- a place I go out of my way to stop at if a need a quick meal.

The point is this. Before you start whining about how tough it is to find a job in this economy -- and it is tough -- remember that there are many prospective employees out there who don't share all of the amazing gifts and privileges that you have had. And yet they approach a not terribly exciting job (see #1) with grace and enthusiasm and an attitude to die for. You should too.

5 -- Be an expert.

I know looking back to my post college job-hunting experience that there is a tendency to sit around and just wait in-between sending out bushel baskets of resumes. Don't.

You have two assets that you can put to work while you wait that will help you in the job search. And these assets are so common in your universe that you don't know how rare they are in the world at large.

Number one. You are a recent college graduate in something.  Your knowledge at this point about some set of academic topics is likely at its peak. Take my word for it, this will fade. I got an "A" in Linear Algebra my freshman year at William & Mary. Now I couldn't even tell you what Linear Algebra is, much less do it. But for now, you know a lot of stuff.

Number two. You are a digital native. You have no fear of computers. Interacting with social media is something you do without thinking.

Combine these two and do something productive with your time while you wait. Blog and/or tweet and/or participate in LinkedIn on topics that are germane to the kind of job you are seeking. Become a valued participant in the discussions.

You know how to use social networking. There is a favorite cartoon I use in presentations that has two dogs at a PC, with the caption, "On the Internet, no one knows you are a dog." On the Internet, no one knows you have no job experience. They will judge you by the quality of your participation. Take advantage of this. On the plus side, it can lead to contacts that will help in your job search. At worse, it will help keep your skills sharp.

It will also convey an experience that is critically important to organizations like mine and that you can market in and of itself -- how to get noticed in a Facebook world.

6 -- Be indispensible.

 If you haven't already done so, read Seth Godin's Linchpin. For that matter, read anything by Seth Godin, but for purposes of the job hunt, start with Linchpin.

Seth's concept in the book is that the path to career fulfillment is to be indispensible to the organizations that employ you -- "The indispensable employee brings humanity and connection and art to her organization. She is the key player, the one who’s difficult to live without, the person you can build something around."

In my career of hiring people, these people are worth their weight in gold. No matter what the economic circumstances of hiring and firing, you will defend them. I will take a personal pay cut rather than let these people go.

So think about what potentially makes you indispensible. Some of it is domain knowledge, which you likely have in spades as a recent graduate. Some of it is practical experience, which you likely lack. A huge part is attitude and approach and enthusiasm.

For you, job descriptions should not matter. Getting your foot in the door does. Especially in smaller organizations, once you are in and once you are viewed as indispensible, you are on your way. You won't stay at a small organization forever, but by being indispensible you will make them weep when you leave for a much bigger job down the line.

7 -- Know YOUR story.

Your resume is likely somewhat thin. But everyone has a story. The purpose of your resume and your cover letter and your interview should be to tell the story of who you are.

Some of this will be a recitation of academic accomplishments. Some of this will be a description of skills you've garnered in part-time jobs. Some of this will be a reflection of personal experiences.

But the point is this. Think about your story. In advance. Practice talking about who you are and what makes you special in 120 seconds or less. And then make sure this comes through in whatever printed stuff you send me.

8 -- Know ME.

There is no excuse in a Google world for not knowing everything about me and my organization before you walk in the door. Ignorance was a whole lot easier when information was hard to come by. In a world of ubiquitous information that is instantly findable, you have no excuse.

If I ask you about our web site, you should have a perspective. If I ask you about some of the conversations on Twitter that are connected with AIIM, you should have come across these at some point. If I ask you whether you have seen my blog or our Facebook fan page or my Linked In profile, the answers should be YES, YES, and YES.

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An update: So that's it. After two years, it still holds up pretty well.  About the only thing  I would add to it right now is to make sure you are present on LinkedIn and that your presence is optimized for the kind of job you seek.  With a few recommendations sprinkled in. Even if they are more of a personal nature than job related.  

Update on the people mentioned above...My daughter has wrapped up her second year at James Madison and is looking to apply to the nursing school there. #2 son did graduate and now works for Dell in their new software group (his initial company, AppAssure, was acquired 9 days after he started) and is surviving the rigors of the first year of sales, focused on cloud-based backup and disaster recovery solutions (which has certainly changed the nature of dinner table conversations).  #1 son graduates from the MBA program at Duke next weekend, and has survived in Blue Devil land after an undergraduate life as a Cavalier. He and his wife did had a cool piece on Business Week's site last week - The MBA Life at Duke.

 

 

New presentation - Getting Ready for Extreme Information - and 3 other recent presentations

I thought folks might be interested in this new presentation on Big Data and Big Content.  I'm calling it "Extreme Information" - a term I like a lot that I picked up from Gartner.  The Sorcerer's Apprentice reference refers to the dynamic that what we create often spins out of control.  In the case of information management, the challenge is even more challenge.  Per David Weinberger, the key to managing the massive amounts of information that will be coming at us is actually more information.

Enjoy.  Interested in a keynote speaker?  Ping me. As always, in the interests of information management evangelism, feel free to borrow from the presentations; attribution back to AIIM and me appreciated.

Are You Ready for the Era of Extreme Information Management?

View more presentations from John Mancini

And a few more presentations that might be of interest...

What does it take to engage employees and customers?

View more presentations from John Mancini

Social business and innovation

View more presentations from John Mancini

McAfee and AIIM Task Force Findings

View more presentations from John Mancini

What? Another Certification? Why should I even consider the CIP?

For those getting this on email without embedded content, here is the direct link.

Why should I even consider the CIP?

Feel free to share this presentation, embed this presentation, do whatever the heck you want with it.

Another Certification? Are You Kidding? Why should I even consider the CIP? on Prezi

Which are people more likely to own...a cell phone or a toothbrush?

It seems like only yesterday that the IPhone first appeared.  It's hard to believe how long the iPhone - and all the sons of iPhones for those initially held in Verizon and Sprint purgatory - have been with us.  NOT!  Believe it or not, it's been less than 5 years.  A blink of an eye. 

Which are people more likely to own? A cell phone or a toothbrush? on Prezi

The iPhone was introduced in June 2007, to fairly widespread snickering among "serious" technology types. Per blogger Mark Flosser (http://www.intomobile.com), "The initial reaction from competitors, or soon-to-be competitors since Apple wasn’t really in the game yet, was either shock or laughter. RIM didn’t think it was possible to have such a device without it being a power hog. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer laughed at it for not having a physical keyboard."

I will confess to being swept up early in the iPhone frenzy, and ultimately convinced my IT types to chill, that I would handle my own tech support, and that everything would be OK.  (And true confessions, for the most part it was.  And yes, I do understand that technology in a small 45-person organization is different than technology in a Fortune 500 company.)

Well, a lot has changed. We now find ourselves in…

• A world in which there are now more tablets and smartphones sold than PCs.
• A world in which more people have cell phones than toothbrushes.  Yikes.
• A world in which our customers expect to use a mobile device to: 1) interact with us; interact with the information we provide; and 3) interact with the processes that drive our businesses.
• A world in which our employees are increasingly working outside of traditional, chained to the desk, office environments, and expect to use multiple devices and locations to interact with corporate information and systems that we once thought of as locked down and "company confidential."

Ubiquitous mobile computing is one of the core underlying drivers for Systems of Engagement and continues to shape the future of these systems. In the span of a decade, cell phones have spread to essentially every person and location on the planet. Less than half the devices accessing the Internet run on Windows, and the shipments of smartphones and tablets are now larger than the shipments of laptops and PCs.  Mobile technologies have been the "steroid" accelerating the push to social technologies, and this push is now spreading to the business.  And all of this is not just in the context of smartphones, but in the context of an ever increasing array of devices beyond smartphones that are truly mobile.

On the opportunity side, we now interact with customers on devices that are aware of their location.  If we know exactly where a customer is in real time, what does this mean in terms of the kinds of new products and services we can deliver? If our customers carry around connected devices with 5 megapixel portable cameras and scanning devices in their pockets, what does this mean in the context of our interactions with them?

The natural reaction of IT in the face of this dramatic change to fall back into the control paradigm. Witness the following…

• 76% of organizations have no mobile processes: 24% haven’t even thought about it, 20% have security reasons or feel it adds no value, 32% have evaluated it but not made a move. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• A third of organizations have not optimized their websites for mobile. Of those that have, only 8% specifically test access to all pages and forms and only 10% have apps -- and only 5% check for tablet resolution. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• Median % of processes that could be mobile that actually are = 2.5%. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• Only 47% of organizations allow personal devices to access company data, and most do so in a policy void. (Making the Most of Mobile:  Content on the Move)
• Mobile access to ECM systems is somewhat restricted. 37% of organizations have no mobile access available on their ECM systems, and a further 30% would need to rely on a conventional web interface. 15% have a dedicated app, at least for iPhone. (Making the Most of Mobile: Content on the Move)
• 42% expect staff to carry two phones, a company one and a personal one. 47% allow personal devices to access company data, but only a third of those enforce data-wipe policies. The rest rely on employee trust. 20% have no usage policy on mobile and 9% allow staff to hook up in an ad hoc way. (Making the Most of Mobile: Content on the Move)

The potential benefits of embracing mobile are significant:

• Median expected productivity improvement among administrative staff for automated processes = 29%. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• 67% of organizations believe that mobile technologies are "important or extremely important to improving their business processes. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• Median expected productivity improvement for field-based or travelling staff if they could input directly to, and/or interact with back-office processes using mobile (hand-held) devices = 25%. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• Median organization that has deployed mobile solutions is 2.7X faster in responding to customers and staff than those that have not. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)

While we can't ignore the control factor, we need to respond aggressively to the opportunities afforded by mobile.  Mobile needs to be a part of every IT decision, not an afterthought.  We must invest in the required technical skills, which are different from traditional IT skills, which we need to take advantage of mobile. We need to set our focus on where our customers will be three years from now in terms of mobile, and figure out how our IT strategies and systems will meet them when they get there.

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Have you registered for the AIIM Content Management Boot Camp yet?

A few slots are left; the event is free, but first come, first served.  

May 01, 2012	Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel	Houston, TX	Register/Agenda
May 03, 2012	Renaissance Dallas Hotel	Dallas, TX	Register/Agenda
May 08, 2012	Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center	Denver, CO	Register/Agenda
May 10, 2012	Sheraton Anaheim Hotel	Anaheim, CA	Register/Agenda
May 15, 2012	The Westin Bellevue	Bellevue, WA	Register/Agenda
May 17, 2012	Palace Hotel	San Francisco, CA	Register/Agenda

 9 reasons to attend...

1. Your organization needs to change the way they handle paper – it’s everywhere and it’s slowing down your business processes.
2. Your marketing team wants to reach customers where they are and how they consume content – social, local, and mobile.
3. Your company has offices around the globe and you need to collaborate better.
4. Your Business Executives want to put everything in the Cloud. Should you?
5. You need to build a strategy to handle “Big Data” in your organization.
6. You want to ban email in your organization - just for one day.
7. You want to find out how your peers are solving their business challenges and get some insight in to key considerations.
8. There are so many solutions out there. Which one do you choose?
9. For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

Keg Stands, Ice Luges, and Social Business

It seems like just a few years ago (oh, it was just years ago) that social technologies were viewed as some temporary aberration of college students.  Kind of like keg stands or an ice luge (ask your kids). Well wake up, social technologies have moved into the enterprise with a vengeance, and are beginning to transform organizational processes.

Consumer sites like Twitter and Facebook initially exposed organizations to the potential benefit of using social technologies as listening posts to the market. Many early adopters of social and collaborative technologies were keen to try out different tools and services to see how they might work in a business environment. These pioneering toolsets have now converged to a much more defined set of products and application areas, and an increasing focus on integrating social technologies into the core of business processes.

Keg Stands, Ice Luges, and Social Business on Prezi

Organizations are now beginning to understand that true Systems of Engagement mean more than just this public veneer; true Systems of Engagement mean embedding social technologies in the very nature of how an organization operates. In just a few years we will cease to view “social” as a separate layer from process and the objective will be how to make the business itself social.

It is clear that the young professionals in our organizations -- those of the mobile and social generation -- view work much differently than we in the email generation do.  And if we are going to race with the machine rather than against it, if we are going to position our organizations for the future rather than the past, we best start paying attention to what they are saying.

A few months ago, Cisco did a very interesting report on what is going on in the minds of college students and young professionals. The Cisco World of Work Report was published in November 2011, and surveyed 1,400 college students (ranging in age from 18-23) and 1,400 young professionals (30 years old of less) from 14 countries.  

Now one can say, particularly if one is of my generation, “Who cares what these people want. Just suck it up and work the way we tell you to.”  But honestly I don't feel that's the way to approach it.  If we buy the proposition that engagement is key to creating value -- and ultimately profitability and productivity -- then we really need to think about the social and mobile technology systems that create and foster engagement -- and how they connect back to the existing information resources of the organization.

So let me give you a couple of data points about how young professionals in the workplace view mobility and flexibility and social technologies from the Cisco report.

• 45% of young professionals would accept a lower paying job with more flexibility rather than a higher-paying job with less.
• One in four young professionals say the absence of a remote access option for their jobs would influence their job decision. 
• 30% of young professionals feel that the ability to work remotely with a flexible schedule is a "right.”
• 77% of young professionals have multiple computing and communication devices.  33% use at least three devices for work purposes. 
• 52% of young professionals believe that they are not responsible for securing their work devices and data -- service providers and IT are.  15% of young professionals have had their mobile phone, laptop or other devices stolen in the past 12 months. 30% have experienced identity theft at least once.
• 73% of young professionals access Facebook at least once per day.  70% of these have “friended” either their colleagues, their manager, or both.
• 68% of young professionals believe that company-issued devices should be available for both work and play.

So clearly we need to think about how we engage this generation of employees differently from how we engaged the email generation. While deployments of social technologies in a business context is still in its infancy, the data suggests huge potential benefits:

• 51% of organizations consider social business to be “Imperative” or “Significant” to their overall business goals and success. [Social Business Systems, Success Factors for Enterprise 2.0 Applications]
• 38% of those organizations using some form of Enterprise Q&A or expertise sourcing get half or more of their answers from unexpected sources within the business. (Social Business Systems: Success Factors for Enterprise 2.0 Applications)
• Within organizations using an Open Innovation social platform for ideas and suggestions, 48% have successfully surfaced major changes to internal processes and 34% have come up with major changes to external product offerings. (Social Business Systems: Success Factors for Enterprise 2.0 Applications)
• By using specific social collaboration between Sales and Marketing staff, the number of respondents reporting “poor sharing of knowledge and information” drops from 41% of organizations to 8%, and “poor working together” drops from 21% to 4%.  (Social Business Systems: Success Factors for Enterprise 2.0 Applications

Social technologies are clearly on the way to becoming digital dial tone in organizations. There is still huge resistance to these technologies, in this case not only from traditional IT, but from business executives who believe that these technologies will result in the escape of corporate "secrets" and the death knell of employee productivity.  Sound familiar?  We all said exactly the same thing about deployment of email and then internet connectivity to the general employee population.

The business needs to demand that we embrace social technologies as the future digital dial tone of our organizations. We need to understand that how the Facebook generation will expect to connect with their peers and customers is dramatically different from how the email generation did so.  We need to admit that email as a group collaborative tool (as opposed to a direct tool for one to one communication) is an abject failure.

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Have you registered for the AIIM Content Management Boot Camp yet?

A few slots are left; the event is free, but first come, first served.  

May 01, 2012	Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel	Houston, TX	Register/Agenda
May 03, 2012	Renaissance Dallas Hotel	Dallas, TX	Register/Agenda
May 08, 2012	Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center	Denver, CO	Register/Agenda
May 10, 2012	Sheraton Anaheim Hotel	Anaheim, CA	Register/Agenda
May 15, 2012	The Westin Bellevue	Bellevue, WA	Register/Agenda
May 17, 2012	Palace Hotel	San Francisco, CA	Register/Agenda

 9 reasons to attend...

1. Your organization needs to change the way they handle paper – it’s everywhere and it’s slowing down your business processes.
2. Your marketing team wants to reach customers where they are and how they consume content – social, local, and mobile.
3. Your company has offices around the globe and you need to collaborate better.
4. Your Business Executives want to put everything in the Cloud. Should you?
5. You need to build a strategy to handle “Big Data” in your organization.
6. You want to ban email in your organization - just for one day.
7. You want to find out how your peers are solving their business challenges and get some insight in to key considerations.
8. There are so many solutions out there. Which one do you choose?
9. For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

16 things you need to know about processes, the cloud, and mobile

The latest AIIM Industry Watch survey - Process Revolution: Moving Your Business From Paper to PCs to Tablets - is hot off the presses and available for download.  Just as a reminder, the downloads are FREE.

The report is the latest in AIIM's ongoing Industry Watch series, prepared by our in-house analyst Doug Miles.  Some of the other recent titles you may have missed...

• The Paper Free Office - Dream or Reality?
• Records Management Strategies - Plotting the Changes
• Social Business Systems - Success factors for Enterprise 2.0 applications
• Using SharePoint for ECM - How well is it meeting expectations?
• State of the ECM Industry 2011- How well is it meeting business needs?
• Capture and Business Process: drivers and experiences of content-driven processes
• E-Discovery and ERM - How is records management performing in the new spotlight
• Content Analytics - research tools for unstructured content and rich media?

Some of the highights of the Process Revolution survey:

1. 52% of respondents report that administrative staff in their organization would be a third or more productive if their processes were work-flowed using scanned forms and documents, with automated data capture.
2. 70% consider that the use of scanning and capture improves the speed of response to customers, suppliers, citizens or staff by three-times or more. Nearly 30% put the factor as ten times or more.
3. Despite the acknowledged benefits, a third of small and mid-sized companies and 22% of the largest have yet to adopt any paper-free processes. Over half report that 10% or less of the processes that could be paper-free have so far been addressed.
4. Only 20% of organizations surveyed actively evaluate all processes for driving out paper.
5. Lack of management initiatives or mandates is the most likely reason for the prevalence of paper in so many business processes. Staff are also to blame, preferring to handle and file paper - feeling it’s more reliable - and also driven by the perceived need to physically sign signatures.
6. 67% of respondents consider mobile technologies to be important or extremely important to improving their business processes. 31% consider tablets to be more important than smartphones, with 24% seeing smartphones as more important.
7. Whilst two-thirds acknowledge the importance, over three-quarters have made no progress towards mobile-enabling their business processes. 20% have sound security reasons, 32% have evaluated but not made a move, and 24% haven’t even thought about it.
8. A third of organizations have not optimized their public-facing websites for mobile. Of those that have, only 8% specifically test access to all pages and forms.
9. 76% have no mobile access to their DM/ECM system. 5% rely on non-optimized browser pages. Only 7% have dedicated apps.
10. 45% of respondents suggest a 33% or more improvement in productivity if field-based or travelling staff were able to connect to back office processes. The average assessment was a 36% improvement in productivity.
11.  45% of respondents consider that the speed of response to customers, suppliers, citizens or staff would be improved by three-times or more by the use of mobile information access, process interaction, and local capture.
12. In 5 years’ time, 33% of respondents consider that over half of their employees will be using iPads, tablets or digital clipboards for filling-in forms – compared to 2% now.
13. For customer processes, 75% consider mobile technologies to be important (50%) or extremely important (25%). This compares with 71% who consider social technologies to be important (57%) or extremely important (14%).
14. Only 30% of organizations have effective rules and policies regarding the security of data on company-issued mobile devices and on personal mobile devices. 70% have rules but only 30% of respondents feel they are being actively used and enforced.
15. Half of responding organizations would consider adopting a 3^rd party or Government cloud system for active content management, although most (35%) are waiting for security and reliability to mature.
16. Strategically, 11% would go fully cloud-based for their ECM, whereas 14% would look to a mixed on-premise and off-premise system.

 

Big Data -- Does Size Really Matter?

According to IDC, the amount of information in the Digital Universe will grow by a factor of 44 between now and the end of the decade.  Even more challenging, the number of containers or files will grow by a factor of 67. The subset of information that needs to be secured is growing almost twice as fast.  And the amount of UNPROTECTED yet sensitive data is growing even faster.

And while all of this is going on, the number of IT professionals in the world will grow only by a factor of 1.4. [IDC, Digital Universe]

Well, hell, that's a lot of bits and bytes.

The shift to Systems of Engagement dramatically increases the complexity and volume of data and information that must be managed within an organization. IT, we understand that not everything can or should be saved forever because of the litigation risk associated with saving "everything." We also understand that there is growing value in mining the huge masses of information we are accumulating.  We also understand that these two statements are not necessarily consistent with each other.  Help us make sense of our irrationality.

On the "risk" side of the equation, the volume of information coming at us is making it clear that manual information retention and disposition processes simply extended from the world of Systems of Record will no longer suffice. Aside from the sheer enormity of the task, a lack of clarity about what content is valuable is the main obstacle, along with the fear of getting it wrong and a sense that there is no immediate ROI from getting rid of outdated information. 

Big Data: Does Size Really Matter? on Prezi

The reality in most organizations is that traditional approaches to information governance are a joke, and it's not for lack of effort. It was never realistic to assume that knowledge workers would assist in manually classifying documents according a complex records retention schedule, and it is equally unrealistic to assume that we will manage the firehouse of data and unstructured ephemeral social content with the same kinds of records rigor that we applied to retention of a life insurance policy for the life of the policy holder.

Clearly, adapting to the world that is upon us is proving problematic:

• Two-thirds of organizations have an Information Management Strategy, only 22% use it. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet).
• 79% of organizations have an Information Retention policy, but only 32% enforce it. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet).
• 70% have mobile device rules, and social media rules, only 30% enforce them. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet).
• 58% of organizations say that a single enterprise records management model underlying all content systems is their goal, yet only 9% have achieved this. (Records Management Strategies: Plotting the Changes)

Yuchon Lee, a VP with IBM, describes the "value" side of the equation this way...

"For the past decade, companies have been accumulating data in what we call a system of record.  Those who survive going forward will also have systems of engagement, which start with evaluating how you can have a relevant conversation with each individual customer across all channels.  And insuring you have the analytical capability and the data to support that analysis.  That is where the linkage is between the system of record data to system of engagement. On the technology side, we believe the future of handling this volume lies in leveraging the capability of the cloud.  A lot of the analysis is done behind a firewall, but the analysis, platform and architecture is really a hybrid.  That is how you solve the problem and get the most value out of the data."

Many analytical solutions were not possible previously in the world of unstructured information because: 1) they were too costly to implement; 2) they were not capable of handling the large volumes of data involved in a timely manner; or 3) the required data simply did not exist in an electronic form. New tools now bring the capabilities of business intelligence and the benefits of optimization, asset management, pattern detection and compliance monitoring to the world of unstructured information.  Cloud technologies such as HADOOP and NoSQL have dramatically changed the cost of analyzing large volumes of information, making analysis of large amounts this information affordable for first time.

The systems that we have deployed until know have largely centered around trying to identify, store, preserve, and act upon information that has intrinsic value, usually directly in the context of business process.  We have done a better job of managing this high-value Systems of Record information on the structured side than on the unstructured side. This is not only in terms of the % of information under some sort of governance (think of our usual lament that 80% of the information in an organization is unstructured, and most of this in unmanaged), but also in terms of the lack of tools to actively interpret and mine all of this unstructured information in any meaningful way.

Systems of Engagement are generating massive volumes of new structured and unstructured information.  Per Fortune, by 2020, Internet connected devices will grow from 400 million today to 50 billion.  These devices will be talking to each other and to the Internet.  By 2020, it is also predicted that our smart phones will have the capability of storing and accessing as much information as IBM’s Watson and super-computers can.  The core difference between this "low-value-density" information and all of the high-value information in Systems of Record is that this new information tends to have value in the aggregate or as it is interpreted rather than intrinsinctly.  In other words, it is easy to see the value in storing a document or a piece of data that documents a specific transaction or process.  It is more difficult - and it has been too expensive in the past - to do so with vast quantities of digital flotsam and jetsam that has value only as it is aggregated and analyzed.

Advances in semantics, search, content and text analytics, and print stream analytics are now making analysis of large amounts of information practical for first time - especially all of that unstructured information hidden away in digital landfills.  In addition, for the first time, natural language processing and visualization techologies are moving the analysis of all of this data and information from technical back rooms and into the executive suite (to help solve the vexing business problems listed above).

The business needs to acknowledge that the old world of paper driven records management approaches is dead; and we need IT's help in mitigating the risks associated with the death of this nice predictable world. We also desperately need to get more value out of all the "stuff" we are gathering -- and use this intelligence to improve customer responsiveness and anticipate and predict where the business will go next.

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Have you registered for the AIIM Content Management Boot Camp yet?

A few slots are left; the event is free, but first come, first served.  

May 01, 2012	Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel	Houston, TX	Register/Agenda
May 03, 2012	Renaissance Dallas Hotel	Dallas, TX	Register/Agenda
May 08, 2012	Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center	Denver, CO	Register/Agenda
May 10, 2012	Sheraton Anaheim Hotel	Anaheim, CA	Register/Agenda
May 15, 2012	The Westin Bellevue	Bellevue, WA	Register/Agenda
May 17, 2012	Palace Hotel	San Francisco, CA	Register/Agenda

 9 reasons to attend...

1. Your organization needs to change the way they handle paper – it’s everywhere and it’s slowing down your business processes.
2. Your marketing team wants to reach customers where they are and how they consume content – social, local, and mobile.
3. Your company has offices around the globe and you need to collaborate better.
4. Your Business Executives want to put everything in the Cloud. Should you?
5. You need to build a strategy to handle “Big Data” in your organization.
6. You want to ban email in your organization - just for one day.
7. You want to find out how your peers are solving their business challenges and get some insight in to key considerations.
8. There are so many solutions out there. Which one do you choose?
9. For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

Digitize Everything That Moves or Risk Revenge of the Cranky Old Man

We've all done it.  Admit it. Tearful confessions are the first step to forgiveness.  And an appearance on Oprah.

No, not sex, drugs, or rock-n-roll.  I'm talking about pulling rank on the IT people, coming in with a great idea you thought of over the weekend, and convincing everybody to roll it out as quickly as possible. To push out that new "System of "Engagement" and damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.

Except for one thing.  True customer engagement is more than just creating a social veneer.  Because once you bring the customer into the business, once they truly engage, all of the weaknesses of your back end systems and processes will be exposed.

The reality of most organizations is that there is a lot of cleaning up to be done in core backend processes. We've all experienced the irritation of keying in our phone number or account number multiple times in a call response system, only have the very first question asked by a customer service representative (assuming we get one) be, "Can you tell me your phone number?"

I won't even go into the recent customer experiences that generated the following tweets (company names masked to protect the guilty; my wife calls these my old man rants):

@Jmancini77 - 1:40 pm via HootSuite - If someone doesn’t contact me today and let me end run your #Satanic call center, I’m blogging tomorrow @xxxxx

@Jmancini77 - 3:40 pm via HootSuite - This is Day 87 that I am held hostage by @xxxxx’s ridiculous #mortgage refinance process. Please call.

No matter how elegant the front-end, Systems of Engagement cannot operate in an environment in which the processes that support and complement them are engulfed by paper and inefficiency. The reality is that most organizations exist in a hybrid environment in which process information may come from paper documents, paper forms, web forms, faxes, emails, SMS, mobile and social. 

Digitize Everything That Moves or Risk Revenge of the Cranky Old Man on Prezi

Automated capture as early as possible in the business process produces cleaner data, resulting in higher quality information, less exception handling, and better process management. The more important the process is to a business, the greater the impact such improvements will have.

Forms processing is a particularly important element in process automation.  Forms -- both electronic and paper -- are used to collect data, to carry signatures, to drive the business process, and to provide an auditable record of the outcome. Each of these can be readily carried out in all-electronic formats, but until recently, the paper form has been somewhat stubborn in its hold on even the most modern offices.

A few data points illustrate the reality that exists in most organizations:

• The median cost to process a paper invoice is still > $9. (Automating Financial Processes: User Feedback on the Real ROI)
• Overall, 52% of organizations surveyed have yet to adopt any automated AP systems. One third of organizations receiving more than 25,000 invoices per month are still using paper-based processes. (Automating Financial Processes: User Feedback on the Real ROI)
• A third of small and mid-sized companies and 22% of the largest have yet to adopt any paper-free processes. Only 20% of any size orgs pro-actively evaluate all processes for driving out paper. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• Median % of processes that could be paper free that actually are = 14%. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• On average, 45% of documents that are scanned are 100% “born digital” – just as they came from the printer. And many of the rest would be all-digital if not for the added signatures. (The Paper Free Office: Dream or Reality?)
• 77% of invoices that arrive as PDF attachments get printed. 31% of faxed invoices get printed and scanned back in. (The Paper Free Office: Dream or Reality?)
• For 40% of organizations, half or more of their electronic workflows are interrupted by physical sign-offs, generally requiring multiple paper copies to be printed (Digital Signatures for documents, workflow and SharePoint)

Perhaps the most astonishing thing about true progress relative to digitizing processes is how compelling the existing results are relative to the lack of progress outlined above.

• Electronic-only filing would halve the storage space needed for paper in 5 years. The average proportion of office space taken up by paper is now 15.3%, and it would drop to 7.4% with an all-electronic filing policy, a saving of nearly 8% in overall office costs. (The Paper Free Office: Dream or Reality?)
• 61% of Accounts Payable system users report a payback period of 12 months or less. 77% consider they have achieved a payback of 18 months or less. A significant 20% report a payback in as little as 6 months. (Automating Financial Processes: User Feedback on the Real ROI)
• The median cost per invoice to process is $9. Costs reported range from less than $2 to more than $30, with an average of $11.6. Half of survey respondents are processing 5,000 or more invoices per month. At this level a 33% saving at $10 per invoice is $200,000 per year. (Automating Financial Processes: User Feedback on the Real ROI)
• On average, respondents using scanning and capture consider that it improves the speed of response to customers, suppliers, citizens or staff by 6-times or more. 70% estimate an improvement of at least 3-times, and nearly a third (29%) see an improvement of 10-times or more. (The Paper Free Office: Dream or Reality?)
• 42% of users have achieved a payback period of 12 months or less from their scanning and capture investments. 57% are posting a payback of 18-months or less. (The Paper Free Office: Dream or Reality?)

The business needs to demand that we ruthlessly drive paper out of every process we can find. It must demand that we view the connections between systems with as much rigor as we view the individual systems themselves. It must demand that once we drive paper out, we keep it out. It must demand that we automate just enough, but not too much.

-----

Have you registered for the AIIM Content Management Boot Camp yet?

A few slots are left; the event is free, but first come, first served.  

May 01, 2012	Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel	Houston, TX	Register/Agenda
May 03, 2012	Renaissance Dallas Hotel	Dallas, TX	Register/Agenda
May 08, 2012	Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center	Denver, CO	Register/Agenda
May 10, 2012	Sheraton Anaheim Hotel	Anaheim, CA	Register/Agenda
May 15, 2012	The Westin Bellevue	Bellevue, WA	Register/Agenda
May 17, 2012	Palace Hotel	San Francisco, CA	Register/Agenda

9 reasons to attend...

1. Your organization needs to change the way they handle paper – it’s everywhere and it’s slowing down your business processes.
2. Your marketing team wants to reach customers where they are and how they consume content – social, local, and mobile.
3. Your company has offices around the globe and you need to collaborate better.
4. Your Business Executives want to put everything in the Cloud. Should you?
5. You need to build a strategy to handle “Big Data” in your organization.
6. You want to ban email in your organization - just for one day.
7. You want to find out how your peers are solving their business challenges and get some insight in to key considerations.
8. There are so many solutions out there. Which one do you choose?
9. For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

 

How is Cloud Computing Like Teenage Sex? Answer Below.

We've all just about had it with monolithic proprietary systems that cost lots of money in purchase costs and annual service, require expensive customizations in order to get anything actually done, with frequent upgrades requiring additional consulting services just to do the upgrade, followed by yet more consulting services to port the previous customizations to the upgrade, and on and on and on.

Per Cloud Powering an Enterprise, business always strives to do three things simultaneously: 1) sustain existing products and services; 2) grow them; and 3) introduce new ones. Gartner labels these activities "run, grow, and transform."

According to Gartner in 2011, 66% of IT spending is focused on "run" (sustaining existing stuff), 20% is focused on "grow" (improving existing stuff), and only 14% of IT spending is focused on "transformation" (creating new value).

How is Cloud Computing Like Teenage Sex? on Prezi

Now that doesn't mean there isn't a role for on-premise software. Far from it. But as we think about how to meet the challenge of rapidly deploying new Systems of Engagement, it doesn't take a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon or [insert other really smart people] to realize that something needs to give. We have to find new, more cost effective ways to deploy new systems and we need to find ways to save on legacy Systems of Record. Cloud solutions can provide a way to save money on our legacy systems, and also provide new ways of more quickly deploying transformational technologies.

A couple of data points to consider

• 60 percent of organizations are ready to embrace cloud computing over the next five years as a means of growing their businesses and achieving competitive advantage. The figure nearly doubles the number of CIOs who said they would utilize cloud in the previous 2009 study (IBM Survey of 3,000 global CIOs).
• The total size of the public cloud market will grow from $25.5 billion in 2011 to $159.3 billion in 2020. The market for virtual private cloud solutions will grow from $7.5 billion in 2011 to $66.4 billion in 2020. The market for private cloud solutions will grow from $7.8 billion in 2011 to $15.9 billion in 2020 (Forrester, Sizing the Cloud).
• Cloud computing spending among SMEs (1-1,000 employees) will double between 2010 and 2015 from $6.3 billion to $13.3 billion (In-Stat, http://www.instat.com)

However, this is easier said than done. Cloud computing is a lot like teenage sex; not nearly as many people as doing it as are talking about it.  The data suggests that organizations are having a difficult time making the transition.

• 33% of organizations have a generic IT strategy for moving to the cloud. 12% do not, and 55% are still undecided. (Process Revolution: Moving Your Business from Paper to PC to Tablet)
• 28 percent of US organizations currently using cloud computing. [CDW Cloud Computing Tracking Poll]
• 1/3 of organizations still unlikely to use cloud-based or SaaS solutions. [AIIM – State of the ECM Industry]

The net-net is that the business needs to DEMAND that IT embrace the cloud. Not just experiment with it or consider it or ponder it or look at it when they have a chance. Cloud be a part of every IT decision, not an afterthought. 

-----

Have you registered for the AIIM Content Management Boot Camp yet?

A few slots are left; the event is free, but first come, first served.  

May 01, 2012	Renaissance Houston Greenway Plaza Hotel	Houston, TX	Register/Agenda
May 03, 2012	Renaissance Dallas Hotel	Dallas, TX	Register/Agenda
May 08, 2012	Hyatt Regency Denver Convention Center	Denver, CO	Register/Agenda
May 10, 2012	Sheraton Anaheim Hotel	Anaheim, CA	Register/Agenda
May 15, 2012	The Westin Bellevue	Bellevue, WA	Register/Agenda
May 17, 2012	Palace Hotel	San Francisco, CA	Register/Agenda

9 reasons to attend...

1. Your organization needs to change the way they handle paper – it’s everywhere and it’s slowing down your business processes.
2. Your marketing team wants to reach customers where they are and how they consume content – social, local, and mobile.
3. Your company has offices around the globe and you need to collaborate better.
4. Your Business Executives want to put everything in the Cloud. Should you?
5. You need to build a strategy to handle “Big Data” in your organization.
6. You want to ban email in your organization - just for one day.
7. You want to find out how your peers are solving their business challenges and get some insight in to key considerations.
8. There are so many solutions out there. Which one do you choose?
9. For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

An invitation to Content Management Boot Camp for Digital Landfill readers

Join Your Local Information Professionals, Be Inspired and Get Excited about the Future of Content Management.

What You'll See and Hear:

• Inspiring keynote by AIIM President John Mancini / AIIM VP Peggy Winton: an engaging, rapid fire call to action for information professionals.
• Cool new approaches to managing content and process in the new era of mobile, social and cloud from cutting edge technology companies.
• Shared ideas from your peers in the world of content management and social business in an awesome professional networking environment.
• Real-world ideas, planning tools and how-to guides to help you lead your own organizational process revolution.

Get Answers to the Questions Keeping you up at Night.

• How do I move my organization to the cloud without losing control...and getting fired?
• Can I get my organization ready for business on tablets and phones, instead of laptops?
• How do we get rid of all the #$^%FG paper?
• Could my organization use social technologies to help real work get done?

Give Us 4 Hours and We'll Give you 4 Steps to Revolutionizing your Processes.

• Cut costs and reduce bottlenecks by moving your business processes to the cloud.
• Get your content and information ready for mobile access and engagement.
• Communicate and collaborate across geography and time zones with social technologies.
• Make better decisions by exploring analytics and new opportunities in the world of big data.

Don't wait... Register Today for the Content Management Boot Camp in a city near you.

For you records managers and information professionals, the event has been pre-approved for 4 hours of ICRM Certification Maintenance Program (CMP) credits when you attend. You'll also get CIP credits.

And by the way, it's FREE!