Technology Reseller v11

01732 759725 AIIM FORUM UK 26 Ready, steady, AIIM with new technologies and practices. The original meaning of AIIM – the Association for Information and Image Management – has obviously outlived its usefulness, and we spent the better part of last year looking at new applications of information in the workplace, the next big innovation waves and the impact that both would have on the future of our industry. We concluded that despite all the talk of new labels – Gartner’s opinion that ECM is dead and the term should now be content services – the end game was about trying to achieve digital transformation. So, we did two things: we defined what we mean by digital transformation in information-driven terms; and we thought about the aspirations that almost any business, of any size, in any industry shares. We came up with four tenets of digital transformation – to enrich the internal and external customer experience; to enable innovation; to execute processes nimbly and on demand; and to do all of that while minimising risk. Then we asked ‘what’s the toolkit, the roadmap, to get you there?’, which is where intelligent information management comes in. The digital transformation journey begins with intelligent information management. We don’t disagree with anything that Gartner has said, but they tend to approach things from a technology perspective to put things in a magic quadrant. For us, Intelligent Information Management is the practice; it’s what people do. TR: What are the main intelligent information management challenges that organisations face today? PW: We prefer to think of intelligent information management as the solution to what is a digital transformation challenge. The main challenge organisations face is the risk of disruption, and to combat that they have to look at how they are going to enrich their internal and external customer experience. Everything comes from that. How do you use information to be innovative and to empower people. You certainly need to minimise risk, but that’s not the key driver. TR: Do the solutions to these problems exist? PW: The intelligent information management toolkit is based on four things as well. Number one is modernising and rationalising the information eco-system and there are a variety of things you can do in that regard. Cloud is a no-brainer. By using cloud, by using some best-of- breed applications, you don’t necessarily reduce the number of tools and systems that people use, but you do make them more modularised and componentised, so you can plug and play. One of our really smart members said you are always going to invest in the tool that has the biggest impact on your business, even if connecting it to the back end looks kind of ugly. The second element is something we have been talking about forever, and that’s the idea of digitising your core organisational practices. These are some of the most mature technologies in our space – capture 2.0, OCR, digital signatures. They have been around for ever and they seem trivial, but they are not. For many organisations, that’s an easy, ‘quick win’ place to start. Along with that, you’ve got to automate the compliance and governance piece, remove the human element with auto recognition and auto-classification. Nobody wants to classify things or drag and drop; they just won’t do it. A lot of new technology, including AI, has those technologies already baked in, enabling you to free up your workers to do more exciting and innovative things. The final pillar is leveraging analytics and machine learning. A lot of our members ask us how to do that, so maybe it’s time metadata became cool again, because metadata is the secret to taking unstructured information and turning it into machine-readable data. Our people know metadata, so let’s give them more skills in that area. The solutions are there already, but the people, the process and the mindset also play a big part. TR: Are vendors and their channel partners doing enough to help organisations with digital transformation or are there other things they could be doing or doing better? PW: They certainly could be doing things better. That said, we are seeing exciting changes there. At the AIIM conference on this side of the Atlantic, we had a new crop of providers – people like Automation A lot has happened in the 12 months since the last AIIM Forum UK, in the wider world of information management and at AIIM itself, which on January 1 changed its name (but conveniently not its acronym) to reflect the new reality of ‘intelligent information management’. Technology Reseller Editor James Goulding caught up with AIIM President Peggy Winton to discuss the changing world of information management and how AIIM is helping its members to develop and prosper in an era of digital transformation. Technology Reseller (TR): What is the significance of AIIM’s change of name from The Association for Information and Image Management to the Association for Intelligent Information Management? Peggy Winton (PW): As an association, we are not unusual in that throughout our long history our mission has evolved in line I hate to say it, but nobody cares about governance and compliance. You are never going to get executives excited about it Ahead of the AIIM Forum UK 2018, taking place at IBIS Earls Court London on June 20, James Goulding caught up with Peggy Winton, President of AIIM (the Association for Intelligent Information Management), to discuss the changing world of information management Peggy Winton