As an Australian police officer prepares to encounter a suspected terrorist or criminal gang member, arrayed on his or her iPad mini screen are the up to the minute results of a comprehensive search of more than 1000 federal, state and territory police databases detailing all essential facts about the individual. This may not be the case today, but is the future aim of a major IT collaboration and consolidation program underway at the Australian Crime Commission (ACC). IDM spoke with Chief Information Officer Narelle Lovett to learn more about the quest.

You’re not alone – the majority of people use email for communications of course (it’s the de facto standard), but also as a collaboration tool. Microsoft Outlook is now also the accidental storage system – a vast amount of an organisation’s knowledge resides in individual users’ inboxes.

The days of an employee photocopying the client list or saving it onto a USB may be dwindling.  Employees are now "connected" to your customers and key contacts on social media.  Such connections occur as a matter of ordinary course with the approval of the business.  LinkedIn and other social media platforms provide a de-facto client list at an employee’s ready disposal.