Nearly all knowledge management professionals will tell you there is no universal definition for KM. It's too broad to explicitly define it or to agree upon a definition. Instead, we have individual ideas of what it means to us and our organizations.
In some respects, I think the same can be said of enterprise content management (ECM). It's another broad, umbrella term that's difficult to define. It seems the industry largely agrees it encapsulates a range of technologies, strategies, and methods for managing content that moves across the enterprise. It can be broken up in sub-categories, which can vary depending on who you're talking to.
For instance, in Ron Miller's assessment, these sub-categories include document management, Web content management, and business content management. Ron has been writing about this lately on Fierce Content Management. His most recent article talks about we're moving away from the umbrella term of ECM, and moving towards the idea of having different types of ECM to address various pain points. One in particular is information silos.
Global pharmaceutical company improves R&D collaboration, reduces costs with Presto
We have another client on the record. Our latest case study covers how one of the world's top 10 biopharmaceutical companies is using Presto to gather, organize, and manage its vast library of product and health information. We think you'll find the results compelling, and encourage you to give our case study a read. Feel free to download, print, and share it with colleagues. We have a few more case studies the the pipeline, and will be rolling them out on the blog soon, so watch this space.
Economy accelerating cost-effective collaboration solutions across sectors
There have been more 2009 recaps and 2010 predictions than you might care to count. However, Paula Hane's Review of the Year 2009 series (part one, part two) caught my eye on InfoToday. Partly because InfoToday is geared towards info pros in the library space, a community Inmagic has been a part of for more than 25 years.But also because I think it's interesting that technology trends in a relatively niche market, such as the library space, are a fairly accurate representation of the broader enterprise market at large.
In some capacity, we're all dealing with the mobile Web, enterprise social networking, open source solutions, book digitization, cloud computing, information overload, etc. It just goes to show that the impact of two important e's of 2009 (economy and E2.0) do not discriminate, and have actually affected us all in similar ways: How do we do more with less; get creative to drive revenues; and use technology to improve people, processes, and competitive advantage?
In part two of Paula's series, again the "what's hot/what's not" is very apropos across industries. HOT: adoption of E2.0 tools, collaboration, and discovery. NOT: desktop PCs, e-mail, and fax machines. These issues can be seen in pharma, engineering, financial services, government, etc. AND in practices within those industries, such as competitive intelligence, marketing, product development, innovation, etc.
In general, we "want what we want, and want it now," no matter where you hang your hat. With mobile apps on the rise, there is a certain level of expectation about information access. Paula's series confirms that expectations are carrying over into the enterprise, where being held back by information silos, old technology, or antiquated business processes is no longer acceptable.
AIIM points out three-step approach to Enterprise 2.0 and collaboration strategies
I think this paints a three-step approach to an E2.0/collaboration strategy:
1. STOP. Identify your organization's business goals and requirements.
2. COLLABORATE. Foster a culture of sharing knowledge and collaborating. This starts in the C-suite.
3. AND LISTEN. Probably the most important of the three, understand collaboration means to your organization.
I think Bob is spot-on when he speaks of "a portal without purpose was a portal failed." How true with any technology, process, or business for that matter, as we saw with the Internet bubble. And even though people need time and experience to apply E2.0 and find their own way of collaborating, there still needs to be an end goal, or purpose to bring it full circle.
Gil Yehuda to keynote Center for Business Intelligence conference
The Center for Business Intelligence has several dozen conferences lined up this year covering the pharmaceutical/biotech, medical devices, and healthcare sectors. Feb. 8 marks its Bio/Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Forum on Knowledge Management for Medical Affairs.
Gil Yehuda, whom we've featured a few times on the blog as you probably know, will keynote the show. In his address, Knowledge Management in a 2.0 World, Gil will provide an overview of Enterprise 2.0 concepts and trends. He'll answer key questions surrounding social media's implications on bio/pharmaceutical organizations today, including, is E2.0 supplementing or replacing KM?; what exactly is Enterprise 2.0?; and are companies actually implementing it?
To register for the show, visit the conference Web site. And be sure to join Gil for his presentation!
Gil Yehuda, whom we've featured a few times on the blog as you probably know, will keynote the show. In his address, Knowledge Management in a 2.0 World, Gil will provide an overview of Enterprise 2.0 concepts and trends. He'll answer key questions surrounding social media's implications on bio/pharmaceutical organizations today, including, is E2.0 supplementing or replacing KM?; what exactly is Enterprise 2.0?; and are companies actually implementing it?
To register for the show, visit the conference Web site. And be sure to join Gil for his presentation!
Context is the king of enterprise content
Context has a tremendous impact on how we understand data. Take something simple, like weather, for instance. V Mary Abraham penned a post on her blog, Above and Beyond KM, about how even metrics surrounding weather need context.
"... would you wear a sweater if it were 50 degrees Fahrenheit in September? Yes, most probably. Now think about a 50 degree day in March. In New York City, you’re likely to see folks wearing shorts and T-shirts," she writes. The time of year provides crucial context to how one might dress.
I agree. But I'll take that analysis one step further. As I wrote in my comment, imagine if weather data was socialized. For example, say those other people who were about to head out the door commented about their choice of light jackets and shirtsleeves. It might have given you pause to think of that data in another way, with a new perspective.
Let's translate this to the enterprise. Say a proposal is in the works for a major client. The proposal is about to be finalized, when someone looks at it and notices there’s a missing piece of crucial data -- one that the author had not thought to include.
If the proposal is stored in a social knowledge management system, the astute employee can leave a comment about the missing data. Other people can see the comment, reply in agreement or disagreement, tag it ... and the proposal is now stronger than the original.
Just as the metrics by themselves don’t tell the complete story, neither does most enterprise content. But the community can socialize content and provide the context needed to make content valuable and actionable.
"... would you wear a sweater if it were 50 degrees Fahrenheit in September? Yes, most probably. Now think about a 50 degree day in March. In New York City, you’re likely to see folks wearing shorts and T-shirts," she writes. The time of year provides crucial context to how one might dress.
I agree. But I'll take that analysis one step further. As I wrote in my comment, imagine if weather data was socialized. For example, say those other people who were about to head out the door commented about their choice of light jackets and shirtsleeves. It might have given you pause to think of that data in another way, with a new perspective.
Let's translate this to the enterprise. Say a proposal is in the works for a major client. The proposal is about to be finalized, when someone looks at it and notices there’s a missing piece of crucial data -- one that the author had not thought to include.
If the proposal is stored in a social knowledge management system, the astute employee can leave a comment about the missing data. Other people can see the comment, reply in agreement or disagreement, tag it ... and the proposal is now stronger than the original.
Just as the metrics by themselves don’t tell the complete story, neither does most enterprise content. But the community can socialize content and provide the context needed to make content valuable and actionable.
Enterprise 2.0: A pitch for every professional
Enterprise 2.0 is used by various levels of an organization differently. While a CEO might use it to drive innovation, a CIO might use it to increase security. Alex Williams covered this on ReadWriteWeb on Monday, pointing out that different "elevator pitches" are required when advocating E2.0 to CEOs, CIOs, HR, middle managers, and experts.
As I wrote in my comment, I thought he provided an interesting overview, because it tells me a few things. One, it confirms that E2.0 is not a one size fits all solution across organizations, nor is it a one-size-fits-all solution within an organization. Now that’s something to chew on when you’re thinking about deploying an E2.0 solution. It’s not like the big purchases of yore (ECM, CRM, BI), which have large footprints and are typically standard across departments.
E2.0 is a different entity altogether, and should be implemented, used, and managed as such. At Inmagic, we talk about E2.0 in terms of social knowledge networks (SKNs), as many of you know. A SKN is a highly fluid collaboration and knowledge sharing application which can be dropped into a department (or departments) and tweaked with relative ease to that department’s needs. End-user friendliness is a key aspect for communities that want to get up and running quickly without intervention from IT.
The best technologies -- and those that have the best E2.0 pitches -- will be flexible and transparent, and create a social business through cross-departmental and organizational collaboration.
As I wrote in my comment, I thought he provided an interesting overview, because it tells me a few things. One, it confirms that E2.0 is not a one size fits all solution across organizations, nor is it a one-size-fits-all solution within an organization. Now that’s something to chew on when you’re thinking about deploying an E2.0 solution. It’s not like the big purchases of yore (ECM, CRM, BI), which have large footprints and are typically standard across departments.
E2.0 is a different entity altogether, and should be implemented, used, and managed as such. At Inmagic, we talk about E2.0 in terms of social knowledge networks (SKNs), as many of you know. A SKN is a highly fluid collaboration and knowledge sharing application which can be dropped into a department (or departments) and tweaked with relative ease to that department’s needs. End-user friendliness is a key aspect for communities that want to get up and running quickly without intervention from IT.
The best technologies -- and those that have the best E2.0 pitches -- will be flexible and transparent, and create a social business through cross-departmental and organizational collaboration.
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