businessinfomag.uk
magazine
16
AIIM Forum
We are living through an era of
extreme information disruption,
brought about by three simultaneous
factors:
1
IT consumerisation is transforming
user expectations of their business
applications and how these are delivered;
2
Cloud, mobile and pervasive networks
are facilitating anytime, anywhere access
and redefining customer and employee
interactions; and
3
The Internet of Things is starting to
generate massive amounts of new data
and information, which will increase
exponentially over the next decade.
These forces have been playing
havoc with traditional information
systems and existing protocols, putting
more and more power into the hands
of individual users and moving it away
from centralised control.
The need for robust and consistent
information processes has never been
greater – but the world is now all about
skills to configure and connect, rather
than build and develop. So what exactly
is the role of the Information Profession
amidst all of this chaos?
In the opening keynote at this year’s
AIIM Forum UK (
Crawling from the
Chaos: The Future of the Information
Profession
), industry visionary and
outgoing AIIM President John Mancini
examines this key question and proposes
a clear way forward. John will argue that
Information Professionals now need to
become the ‘adult supervision’ required
to formulate and implement effective
information strategies, overseeing
information governance and acting as a
vital bridge between people, processes
and technology.
Indeed, these key ‘bridging’ skills
appear to be much needed in light of
recent findings from AIIM’s ongoing
research programme.
Mind the alignment gap
AIIM’s new report,
Information
Management: State of the Industry
2016
1
, highlights the fact that the
number of large organisations citing risk
and compliance as the largest driver
for Information Management (IM) has
risen dramatically in the past year,
from 38% to 59%. Nearly half (44%)
of medium-sized organisations also
cite this as the biggest driver, although
smaller organisations say cost savings
and productivity improvements are more
significant drivers for IM.
However, the report also reveals a
significant alignment gap between IM/
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
systems and organisational Information
Governance (IG). Fewer than one in five
organisations align their I/ECM system
strategies with agreed Governance
policies, while 15% have IG policies but
do not use these to drive IM decisions
and 29% have no IG policies whatsoever.
“Organisations are rightly concerned
It has become a major challenge to design document and content management processes
that can withstand the huge demands of a constantly shifting information landscape –
but standing still is not an option either. Fortunately, help is at hand at the forthcoming
AIIM Forum UK, explains Rich Tribe of Revolution Events
Emerging from the
Information Chaos
Many existing
systems are
not fit for
purpose in the
social, mobile
and cloud
age
about corporate risk but are not aligning
their systems so that they can comply,”
said Bob Larrivee, Chief Analyst at AIIM.
“Many existing systems are not fit for
purpose in the social, mobile and cloud
age, but before embarking on upgrades
and replacements, organisations need
to address the lack of information
governance policy as a priority – this has
to be the first step in minimising risk.”
Despite growing concerns over risk,
half of the organisations surveyed by
AIIM admitted they would struggle to
defend deletions in court, particularly
with cloud file-shares and business social,
but also with SharePoint and email. Even
where organisations have IG policies, half
are not auditing compliance and 15%
admit they are mostly ignored.
Content overload threatens around
one-quarter (24%) of respondents who
have no mechanism to limit stored
content volumes, and while 47% have
an IG policy that defines retention
periods, more than half (51%) rely on
manual deletion versus 25% who have
automated deletion. Just 7% are using
analytics tools for data clean up.
“The findings reveal that the
Information Management industry is in
a state of flux and many organisations
are adopting a ‘bury your head in the
sand’ strategy,” said Larrivee. “Most
organisations know that they need to
manage their content and information
much better than they are, and are also
aware of their shortcomings should they
ever be required to go to court. Yet they
are still not doing enough to address
this, and it feels like it may take a huge
compliance case to shake organisations
into action.”
Other key findings in the AIIM report
include:
n
87% of respondents are concerned
about cloud chaos and 75% agree
that email management is still the
‘elephant in the room’ with Information
Management.
