Web 2.x Blog

I recently had an opportunity to attend IBM’s showcase in Melbourne. I have never really been an IBM fan, but I thought it was a good time to see where the vendor monoliths are heading in the Information Management scene.

I will be releasing a small series of 2 blogs about the event. In the first blog, I will describe how I feel generally about the event, and how it went. The second blog will focus on Enterprise 2.0 in the world of Information Management.

The Event

The event started off with a local news star (Sandra Sully from Channel 10) giving an introduction. A scenario surrounding 911 was used to portray the chaos of the news media on that day and how information anywhere, anytime is becoming an important mantra in the industry we survive in today. 

The event followed on with a speech given by Bruce McCabe from S2 Intelligence. Bruce gave a stunning presentation on the future of Information Management, as well as the latest development in the computer science world. His presentation actually validated one of my earlier projections in the industry during my earlier Web 2.0 days, where the next frontier in Information Technology will be dominated by Artificial Intelligence. The word “Semantic Web” still rings a lot of bells in my head as this is where I believe the web is heading. One of the other key things surrounding his speech was about how spatial data is increasingly adding value to organizations (think of Google Earth). Web 2.0 technologies do get a good amount of attention and coverage as well. 

There were 4 streams of sessions that ran in parallel, namely Data Management, Information Integration, ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and Business Optimization/Performance Management. I attended the ECM and Business Optimization/Performance Management streams. So here goes…..

IBM’s approach to Information Management

Two of the key themes in IBM’s sessions lied in the following:-

1. Business Automation
2. Business Opmitization and Performance Management

Business Automation is really about the automation of processes that makes an organization operate more efficiently. Business Optimization and Performance Management is about leveraging all the analytical information (typically, reports) within the firm to make sound decisions or take proactive actions before the company is heading towards a plunge or a stall point. While I have been interested in the area of BPM (Business Process Management, which is really about managing processes/process engineering)  for a while, I am really interested in the Business Optimization field. In the consulting world, we call this Business Intelligence.

Strategic Solution VS Tactical Solution

Organizations in the past have very much focused on employing tactical point solutions to solve disparate problems. This typically involved organizations investing in off the shelf solutions to cater for specific organizational needs. While this method of solving problems are cost effective in the short - medium term, it may not be sustainable in the long term, given the amount of data growth that organizations are facing today.

IBM portrays their industry solutions as strategic, rather than tactical.

Enterprise Content Management

IBM FileNet was presented in this space. ECM works very well with the idea of the “Federated Enterprise”. With the explosion of information sources lying around (think of your SharePoint instances, WIKIs, Blogs), the enterprise would surely need a way to provide a “single point of access/management” of these dispersed information sources. Let’s face it, to have a single data source storing all of the information would be too idealistic at most, if not extremely risky. IBM’s FileNet ECM promises to provide that through the ability to integrate with all the different data sources under FileNet, with the ability to provide a single holistic view of the enterprise’s information assets. Within FileNet itself, there are also mechanisms that support information asset discovery (Enterprise Search).

A Federated Enterprise has a lot of benefits. Besides it’s uniform/ease of access to disparate information sources, the ability to do this means reduced risk to the total business when entangled in legal issues. Legal warfares between organizations are not uncommon in the industry today, and an organization wouldn’t like to lose a battle unnecessarily simply because it can’t locate “x” piece of information or on time. Better management of information assets will also lead to better risk and statutory business compliance.

While a Federated Enterprise often means you can access information from a single facade, it doesn’t necessarily mean that all the information sources are consolidated. For organizations having difficulty in maintaining a “single source of truth”, a Master Data Management or information consolidation strategy in place will further complement the idea of a “Federated Enterprise”.

Business Intelligence

IBM Cognos enables client to leverage all the metric/analytical information within an organization to quickly produce timely reports. These reports can vary from simple departmental KPI reports to financial reports that are exposed to shareholders.

The information contained within these reports are vital as it help organizations sustain/monitor performance over time. This helps organizations to become proactive instead of reactive to organizational issues. Being reactive may help the business in sustaining itself, but being proactive may well not only help sustaining the business, but also to GROW it. 

IBM Cognos is also tailored to different users with different reporting needs in an organization, ranging from the C-levels all the way down to a business analyst.

In Conclusion

IBM is equipped with big arsenals to take on the Information Management world. The addition of various product portfolios through their acquisitions over the years have positioned them strongly in the Information Management market.

Although the second half of the presentation is very much product-focused, it is nevertheless an interesting experience to study how various vendors strategize within the Information Management market.

So what has all this gotta do with Web 2.0, you may ask ?? Stay tuned for the next upcoming blog…..

Tags: Events, Information Management