Integrate data for business gain
- Posted:
- 16:26 05 Jul 2004
Staff spend too long tracking relevant data, says Chris
Harding
As firms are coming under more and more pressure to
improve productivity, efficiency and business performance, they
look for new ways to achieve their objectives. The spotlight has
turned to optimal use of information and knowledge as a key
differentiator and a source of competitive
advantage.
This brings a whole new set of challenges and questions. What is
the correct knowledge and in-formation to generate and distribute,
how can its quality and safety be assured and how can the right
people access it? How can people filter and prioritise information
to avoid overload? How can an integrated information flow be
created, connecting all the separate islands that exist in the
organisation? And how can different business lines, geographies and
time zones co-operate efficiently?
Although information management is not a new concept, the products
often result in stovepipe solutions. As a consequence, employees
spend too much time searching for and recreating the information,
which can become inaccurate, stale, not available or hard to
integrate. This dramatically affects productivity and therefore the
bottom line.
With continuous pressure on producing results, leading
organisations are looking to take a holistically approach to
address the lifecycle of information and knowledge management -
from creation to sharing and reuse to impact on business
results.
Firms are looking to integrate information from multiple sources
and transform and transfer it as needed. All the components need to
be connected - from metadata and taxonomies to portals,
collaboration software, content management and enterprise resource
planning software. The right information needs to be available to
the right person at the right time in the right format.
Companies from a number of sectors are calling for a holistic
product. Oil companies with complex operations spanning the globe
need just-in-time information to maximise the use of their
equipment and resources.
Auto manufacturers need to manage complex relationships with their
supply chains. Retailers have to continuously optimise their
inventory moving proc-esses. E-commerce companies need to integrate
products in different formats with images, product information
catalogues and lead metrics to enable one-stop comparison shopping.
Global financial institutions need to provide straight-through
transaction processing. Insurance companies require fresh and
accurate information to assess the level of risk.
The need to access integrated information applies not only to
firms, but also to governments and other organisations. Physicians
need to stay on top of thousands of diseases, tests and drugs and
an automated check against a database and a comparison with patient
records could minimise errors and save lives. Law enforcement
agencies want just-in-time access to the right information, in the
right context and across departments to more effectively fight
crime or ward off terrorist attack. Researchers need access to the
latest information to cut down the time needed to bring new
products to market.
As many organisations are experiencing frustration with the lack of
an all-encompassing product and end-to-end integration, what can
they expect from suppliers? Although there are a number of
offerings in the space, these are still based on creating islands
of automation and a truly integrated product remains elusive.
This is not because suppliers do not recognise the problem, but
because it is a complex task. This is where a neutral organisation
can play a vital role, facilitating a dialogue and leading a joint
effort for a standards-based, user-centric product.
According to Peter Drucker, the next information revolution will be
in concepts. It will not be focused on IT or on data, but instead
will ask, "What is the meaning of information, and what is its
purpose?" For adaptive organisations, this revolution has already
begun.
Chris Harding is forum director at the Open Group
