Coradix

BI Think Tank Summary, February 7, 2012

2012-02-21T13:01:00.001-05:00

With a vision of Continuous Improvement in how CORADIX tries topositively influence the Business Intelligence (BI) situation in the FederalGovernment, we asked some of our top BI consultants to a brainstorming thinktank on the issues of identifying obstacles to success.

With over 200 years of experience in the room (we are not that old,but there was quite a few people present), this is a summary of what we came upwith in no particular order.

The method of procurement used requires you to understand the problem,before you actually do, in many cases.
There is a religious belief that the dominant ERP’s have all theanswers.
BI programs don’t really exist – they just call them that?
Systems are not designed to report.
BI is not considered an influencer.
Business is very separate from IT departments, and they do notcommunicate very well with each other.
Managers are not trained to think of the whole systems developmentlife cycle.
Boundaries are a big problem.
Definition of metadata is a huge problem.
Clients don’t give requirements; they give their version of asolution.
Clients don’t know how to express themselves/their requirements.
There is a need for better client sponsorship of BI programs.

We discussed the emergence of Agile BI from products such as Endeca, QlikTech,Tableau, and how these tools provide quick win solutions, and are succeeding inresponse to conventional BI programs that are failing. But, we mostly agreedthat we could take advantage of this technology to enhance conventionalsystems. By empowering the user, we help to promote the importance of goodquality data amongst the business users, and allow them to become bettereducated on their real requirements.

There was also a unanimous agreement on the need for the famous “purple people” coined in Wayne Eckerson’spresentation at theTDWI chapter meeting, describing the mix of a business savvyIT people, or IT savvy business people to cross the communication chasm betweenIT and business.

We identified the realities of dealing with federal governmentorganizations – like getting executive sponsorship on long term projects fromexecutives that are frequently on the move from one Department to another.

Please let us know if these are touching some of your buttons or ifyou have other ones we have overlooked.

Comments on the Value of the Big Bucket Approach, from Bruce Miller

2012-02-21T12:37:00.000-05:00

Bruce Miller, Founder and President of www.rimtech.ca shares his perspectives on thevalue of the Big Bucket approach to developing more effective and manageableretention schedules. He observed the following: “These are all good points youmake Andrew. With this Big Bucket Approach you’re actually placing a lessgranular (bigger bucket) version of the retention schedule “in front of” theactual, detailed schedule. Suppose we have the following (3) accountingbuckets:

Cost Accounting 4 years
General Accounting 5 years
Retail Accounting 6 years

We can replace all of them with a single biggerbucket simply called ACCOUNTING, and set the retention period to 6 years, thelongest of the smaller buckets. The consolidation has a profoundly positiveeffect on end user classification in a large EDRMS Project. Users can nowclassify faster, and easier. This leads to a big increase in overallenterprise-wide classification accuracy rate, which is crucial to the successof any EDRMS system.

Without a doubt this calls for some ratherradical rethinking of the modern retention schedule and the practicessurrounding it. There is no question there’s a price to pay for it – somedocuments will be kept longer than they need to be according to their original(shorter) retention periods. However that small price is more than worth it forthe huge benefit of an acceptably high classification rate.”

How Long Should I Keep My Records?

2012-02-08T19:48:00.002-05:00

The proliferation of electronicrecords imposes a daunting task on organizations to effectively manage theirrecords retention schedules. The challenge is how to strike a balance betweenlegal and regulatory requirements and a more manageable retention schedule byconsolidating similar or related record series into a fewer number of retentioncategories. A possible solution to this vexing problem is what is referred toas the “Big Bucket Theory” articulated by Susan Cisco: “Big Buckets for Simplifying Record Retention Schedules.” The premise of the theory is that aggregating record typesinto fewer retention buckets may result in a more simplified and accurateclassification scheme. Improvedclassification will in turn promote more efficient disposition, therebyreducing the propensity to retain records too long. From a legal perspective, astreamlined retention schedule may reduce the risks associated with having topotentially incur onerous document production costs in the event of a discoveryrequests.

On the other hand, the “Big Bucket Theory” requiresapplication of longer retention periods to records that constitute a largerbucket. This may result in having to retain records for longer periods than itmay be otherwise required and in increased risk of having to produce documentspursuant to litigation hold. Some argue that “the disadvantage in more complexenvironments is that this type of approach can result in the unnecessaryretention of large amounts of records, as retention “big buckets” default tothe longest retention requirement of their components.”

The potential application and value of the “BigBucket Theory” depends on a number of factors. Susan Cisco cautions that “In the final analysis, organizations need toweigh the odds of end users properly classifying content against risks ofpotentially retaining content longer than necessary. These risks are unique toeach organization and are based on its history of litigation and regulatoryscrutiny, its culture for risk tolerance, and its resourcing constraints.”

A New Report on Government of Canada Electronic Recordkeeping Requirements; an Assessment

2012-02-02T16:41:00.001-05:00

In a recent plenary presentation titled: Movingthe Federal Information Management (IM) Agenda Forward, Corrine Charrette, Chief Information Officer Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada stressed theGovernment of Canada IM strategy is to ensure that “information is safeguardedas a public trust and managed as a strategic asset.” The Library and Archives Record Keeping Methodology provides the tools and processes necessary toidentify value and control information resources of business value.

But what about an implementationmethodology and best practices associated with the development of electronicrecord keeping systems? What electronic records management standards must anelectronic records management solution support? What should the success metricsbe in measuring outcomes arising from the implementation of an electronicrecords management solution?

Treasury Board Secretariat has made itclear in the Directive on Electronic Recordkeeping that Canada has adopted the International Councilon Archives Module 2 requirements for EDRMS solutions. There you have it – allEDRMS solutions for GC must comply with the ICA Module 2 requirements.

To address these issues Bruce Miller thePresident and Founder of www.rimtech.cahas just completed an authoritative report. The report is entitled “Governmentof Canada EDRMS Requirements – an Assessment”. The report is a comprehensive assessment ofthe requirements from a vendor-neutral, independent expert point of view. Itanswers the following two questions:

1. Whatare the absolute minimum requirements that I will need, and which ones can Idefer?

2. How doOpenText and Microsoft SharePoint comply with the requirements?

We are making RIMtech’snew report on GC RK Requirements available for download here.

Hope youwill find this Report informative.

Geoffrey Moore on “Systems of Engagement and The Future of Enterprise IT”

2012-01-27T15:04:00.001-05:00

Geoffrey Moore widely knownfor his ground breaking and transformative analysis of technologyadoption life cycle (Crossing the Chasm) provides an incisiveanalysis of the impact of web 2.0 technologies on Enterprise IT. In his WhitePaper “Systems of Engagement and The Future of Enterprise IT” headvances the notion that that “Over the past decade, there has been afundamental change in the axis of IT innovation. In prior decades, new systemswere introduced at the very high end of the economic spectrum. Now it isconsumers, students and children who are leading the way, with early adoptingadults and nimble small to medium size businesses following, and it is thelarger institutions who are, frankly, the laggards.” He then makes a compellingcase that “What is transpiring is momentous, nothing less than the planetwiring itself a new nervous system. If your organization is not linked intothis nervous system, you will be hard pressed to participate in the planet’sfuture.”

Of particularvalue to IT professionals focusing on Enterprise Content Management (ECM) isGeoffrey Moore’s analysis of the interrelationships between what he refers toas systems of engagement (aka socialmedia) and systems of record. Socialmedia wants to be free, perhaps only subject to principle-based controls, whilesystems of record by their very nature need to be subject to controlledprocesses. Social media is designed to facilitate collaborative knowledgecreation processes, while systems of record are designed to transform thatinchoate, subjective knowledge into re-usable best practices in the form ofexplicit knowledge. Such explicit knowledge is deemed a corporate asset withinherent business and informational value which must be preserved and protectedas a record. Striking a balance between the transient and permanent nature ofsystems of engagement and systems of record is expected to create significantchallenges for IT organizations.

GeoffreyMoore’s observation is that “Best practices in this new world are scarce, thepressure by the business to implement is accelerating, a generation ofnetworked millenials is ready to enter the workforce, and connections back tothe familiar world of systems of record are tenuous. Our traditionaldefinitions of control and governance must adapt to meet the changes of thisnew world.” He provides highly practical and empirically validatedrecommendations on how to effectively integrate systems of engagement intosystems of record. He concludes that “The challenge now is that organizationsmust redefine how they deal with these issues and extend how they think aboutcontrol and governance in order to deal with social technologies that are muchmore distributed, informal, and ubiquitous than anything that we have knownpreviously.”

Hope you willfind the White Paper informative and helpful.

Interesting AIIM Research on the Management of Social Media

2012-01-19T17:24:00.000-05:00

The recently published Treasury Board Guidelines for the use of Web 2.0 provides a governance framework within the public sector. From an IT perspective the challenge is how to systematically capture, manage and control social media content as part of a formal system of record. The Treasury Board Directive on Recordkeeping provides for a broad and inclusive definition of a record as “published and unpublished material in any format”. This definition includes social media content. Provided that such content is created in support of government “programs, services and on-going operations” then it may be deemed as an information resource of business value which must be subject to formal retention and disposition rules.

A helpful resource to assist in the integration of social media content within a formal system of record such as an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system is the recently published report by AIIM: "Social Business Systems – Success Factors for Enterprise2.0 Applications". The report suggests three business drivers that necessitate controls over the use of social media: information governance, statutory/legal obligations and security/privacy considerations. The AIIM report suggests a number of IT approaches to mitigate risks: regular “sweep” of social media into a the corporate ECM, utilizing natively supported social media extensions provided by ECM system vendors that support the profiling, classification and retention of social media content, integration of social media tools to already in place workflows and use of social content analytics to monitor use, trends and sentiments. A companion AIIM survey "Managing Social Content to Maximize Value and Minimize Risk" underscores the primary impediment organizations face with the proliferation of social media. The survey found that less than 50% of organizations have formal record keeping best practices in place for the management of social content.

The implementation of effective social media strategy requires a balancing of what may appear as diametrically opposite interests. Social media is designed to facilitate dynamic and informal knowledge creation processes, while systems of record are designed to transform and control such informal processes into re-usable best practices in the form of explicit knowledge. The AIIM report concludes that “The challenge with social business content management is to achieve control and governance without inhibiting the free and easy exchange of social interaction.”

We encourage you to share your perspectives with us.

Welcome to the CORADIX Blog

2012-01-03T14:32:00.001-05:00

In the past few years CORADIX has spent a great deal of effort developing our practice areas, constantly trying to become better at what we do. Listening carefully to our clients describe their challenges, and analyzing how our consultants can help us develop unique approaches to those challenges. To meet this challenge, CORADIX has organized “think tanks” on a wide variety of IM topics. We quickly realized the power of these think tanks, which have been instrumental in improving our capabilities. Our communities of practice, both clients and consultants have been growing enthusiastically.

To this end, the CORADIX blog aspires to stimulate a conversation with you. Our goal is to help you remain at the vanguard of innovation by imparting insights, resources and helpful tips relating to information management best practices. For those who like to write, we welcome you to speak to the CORADIX practice managers about authoring a white paper, and have a chance to have it critiqued by a very knowledgeable audience.

Marshall McLuhan a Canadian icon who studied the impact of electronic media wrote some thirty years ago “We have extended our central nervous system in a global embrace, abolishing both space and time as far as our planet is concerned…” Social media transcends geographic and organizational boundaries. Information flow is instantaneous. We have witnessed the power of this technology; the human genome project that identified 25,000 genes in the human DNA, brought down corrupt dictators, and for some, solved really big problems like finding a mate. Social media also challenges the conventional wisdom of hierarchical management principles.

In such a dynamic environment information management can no longer be viewed in silos. Businesses and Governments recognize the strategic value of an integrated approach to Information Management. For example, the Government of Canada’s "Whole of Government Framework" is based on the premise that information must be “safeguarded as a public trust and managed as a strategic asset” that “provides the right information to the right people at the right time while ensuring proper e-record safeguards and policy compliance.”

The CORADIX blog is intended to explore these issues and hopefully provide a useful resource for our constituency of customers and for our valued network of consultants. To get us started you may find the linked CORADIX White Paper on “Enterprise 2.0: Where Social Media Intersect Systems of Record” of potential value. The white paper explores the challenges and opportunities associated with social media; provides tips and resources and includes a social media maturity survey to help you assess your organization’s readiness to leverage the value of social media technologies.

We invite you to join the conversation.