Putting content in context
Putting content in context
With fast, easy access to information becoming an ever more intrinsic part of an organisation's success, having a comprehensive information management strategy in place is vital. Stuart Finlayson talks to the CEO of a company that is working with organisations around the world to ensure they have the right tools to manage their information effectively.
Today's business strategists and technology executives are faced with many new and different challenges. The dynamics of business are changing: the time span of the decision-making cycle is continually being compressed; competition is aggressive, ruthless, and coming from all angles; and the rate of innovation is rapidly increasing.
To retain competitive advantage, executives need to provide employees with better tools for their jobs-tools that will offer more time for decision-making and that will give employees confidence in the choices that they make. In the past, it may have been a matter of merely equipping people with PCs and word-processing software. Today, employees need instant, easy access to relevant information, when they need it, in the context of their profession.
That is the view of Clare Hart, CEO of Factiva. Factiva provides global content, including Dow Jones and Reuters newswires and The Wall Street Journal, in a single content solution with multiple language interfaces and multilingual content covering nearly 8,000 sources.
Factiva's products and services help companies integrate news and business information into their daily workflow to increase organisational intelligence and leverage external and internal content within the knowledge management function.
"At Factiva, we have worked closely with many of our customers as they develop their information strategies," says Hart. "At the same time, we've worked with many of our partners as they develop new, innovative technologies. We are seeing a steady convergence of the customer's need to improve decision-making and the ability of information technology to profoundly impact this process. In short, technology has caught up with demand. There was a time when we often said, "If only the technology could do this or that." We are now at a place where information technology can do almost anything we need it to do. It is a matter of putting all of the pieces together to capture vast amounts of intellectual capital to drive competitive advantage for the organisation."
Hart is confident that 2004 will be the year in which innovative technologies developed in the last couple of years will help organisations to carry out sophisticated information strategies that will enable better decision-making.
"There are four developments that I believe will ensure that digestible amounts of relevant information are delivered to individuals at the point of decision-whether it is a business decision, information for a sales proposal, or an R&D project."
The convergence of technology and content has helped organisations manage their infortmation far more effectively, as Hart explains.
"In recent years, technology has acted as an enabler: getting bits of information from one place to another both quickly and more flexibly. It has acted as a mechanism, an option for delivery, but today, the value of technology to content is intrinsic. Newer, more flexible technologies such as Web Services and XML are the great equalisers of information: unlocking content stores, revealing previously unknown information, and linking it to related information stored both within an organisation and in other places, such as the Web or commercial information services. Organisations that put these technologies to use as part of their information strategy will gain competitive advantage."
Integrating content into workflow
Hart believes that simplifying the research step in the decision-making cycle is critical to effectively handling the resource challenge.
"Changing the current workflow process may require a cultural shift in the organisation, but getting relevant information to users within the context of their work will reap productivity and bottom line benefits," suggests Hart. "For example, a sales dashboard designed to simplify access to a cross section of internal and external commercial information will quickly educate a sales person about the day's client visits. If this salesperson learns that the first client of the day has acquired a new company, he or she may use this information to sell the product further into the organisation. Or, the salesperson may even discover months of unpaid bills, which may impact the negotiation strategy. In either case, quick and efficient access to relevant information helps assess new opportunities while reducing risk."
Intelligent tools understanding our needs
As technology becomes more and more advanced, the expectations of the user will increase commensurately. In the years ahead, Hart expects those who've cut their first teeth on video games, instant messaging, and the Web to be more exacting about the answers that technology delivers.
"They'll expect intuitive tools capable, not just of understanding who they are and precisely what information they need, but also capable of continually learning and recognising their new and changing interests.
"This will definitely not be the searching and tracking functionality as we know it to be today. It will be an individualised information experience driven by "who you are"-knowledge gained from a corporate directory that will enable ad hoc customisation and personalisation.
"Additionally, applications will change based on behaviour. The system will know you are, say, a marketing executive located in Australia and will know what you want to read and that you want to be notified when the latest issues are available. The system will also know if you are a Sales Account Manager and want pipeline reports on a weekly basis along with the latest news and company financials about the companies in the sales forecast."
Finally, Hart is of the opinion that text analytics and visualisation technologies will further enrich the user experience. According to Hart, such technologies rapidly recognise associations among textual elements and can then present them graphically.
"This ability will permit executives to identify trends at the early stages of development or display material relationships that might signal customer, partner or supplier activity. Acting quickly upon information will reduce risk and benefit the organisation. Without these technologies, this information might otherwise be buried in a mountain of information that would be impossible to navigate.
"It's clear that in 2004, we'll enter the early adopter stage of applications based on these developments. Successful organisations will align their information strategies with their business strategies, capitalise on these technical advances in information management, and more effectively deal with the business challenges that they face-thus creating competitive advantage."