Look out for value,customers and culture

Editorial Board expands

Scott Brown has recently agreed to join our Editorial Board. We are delighted to welcome him as an additional international member. Scott is the owner of Social Information Group, an independent information practice focused on the effective use of social tools for sharing and finding information as well as helping organizations make sense of their environment by providing outstanding information services, best-in-class research, intelligence and analysis and content curation. With over 20 years of experience across corporate settings, public and academic libraries, as well as consulting and coaching work, his experience and his network of US contacts will be invaluable to Business Information Review (BIR). Scott has also been a valuable contributor to BIR in recent years and is the author of the following articles:

No need for pessimism

Your editors are constantly on the lookout for evidence that information matters and that the skills of information professionals contribute considerable value to organizations. Persuading senior managers (the ‘C’ suite) to take information provision seriously is one of the most frequent challenges expressed by business information leaders. However, we are beginning to wonder why this challenge persists when a steady flow of reports is signalling the value of information to organizations. In this issue, Initiatives selects two that need to be read in depth by BIR readers (whether content or information service producers), when considering how organizations should perceive their significance.

We also know that more potential value can be added to the bottom line. Gartner’s research into ‘infocentric companies’, https://www.gartner.com/doc/2773818/differentiation-assetcentric-companies (with a reasonable price tag and summarized in: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gartnergroup/2014/07/21/the-hidden-shareholder-boost-from-information-assets/), demonstrates the outperformance of companies treating information as a vital corporate asset. International Data Corporation’s (IDC’s) report, The Knowledge Quotient: unlocking the hidden value of information, http://www.attivio.com/resources/research/white-papers/the-knowledge-quotient-unlocking-the-hidden-value, also reinforces why being able to exploit the range of internal and external unstructured content ‘locked up’ in an organization is critical. Unstructured information often forms as much as 90 per cent of all digital information. Unified information access is the campaign message – and one area where professional information skills are essential. The report identifies organizations that are able to extract more value out of the information available to them using a knowledge quotient model to assess relative capability. Use IDC’s critical success factors to assess your own organization and your own role: Are you involved or leading in:

If not, why not? These areas are the future for information management leadership – and already part of the information strategies of successful organizations. So what are we waiting for? In a similar vein, do look at http://www.cmswire.com/cms/digital-asset-management/library-science-not-library-silence-026230.php. Whilst we prefer the term information professional to librarian, the message here is that our skills are essential for good digital asset management, but we have to market this position. Two quotes about the ‘profession’ struck us particularly – and neither of them is positive:

Many smart people, like information professionals, imagine the way things ought to be and they refuse to accept anything less. Rather than adapt and capitalize, they cower and complain. Or just cower “………………………………………….” In fact, they make the same giant marketing mistake that is made by so many companies: They assume that marketing is silly or beneath them, or they say they just don’t have the time. Some have even admitted to me that they wouldn’t know where to begin to learn to market themselves.

However, the blogger, David Diamond then goes on to redeem himself. ‘Preemptive Intelligence Analysts’ are what we are and our roles in digital asset management (DAM) include:

• Taxonomy construction – Where does one start? What has worked for others? Which categorization methods lead to corners? Which are most scalable?

• Metadata perspective – What are some best practices in use of structured metadata, including menus, controlled vocabularies, etc. When are free-form text fields better?

• Policy authoring – What does DAM policy look like? What happens without it? How does one monitor and measure it?

• User education – Until DAMs get to the point where they are more advanced and intuitive, some training will be involved. Good training curriculum flows as an extension of user experience design: What the UniversaI Interface can’t make obvious, the training covers. But who’s going to do that training or write those how to guides?

• Vendor advisories – Do vendors really know how controlled vocabularies should be used? Vendors listen to users, but users aren’t always experts. Don’t leave industry analysis to industry analysts. The information professional is the right person!

  So get your capabilities recognized!

The value and challenge of measurement

The research presented by Gartner looked at whether businesses that demonstrate that they are taking information seriously (i.e. demonstrate infocentric traits) deliver better shareholder value. The answer is ‘yes’, and measures such as ‘market to book value’ and ‘ shareholder value per asset’ demonstrate this. IDC’s study shows that ‘organizations that explicitly measure their information access and sharing efforts are much more likely to gain significant benefits than those that don’t’.

As we said earlier, the challenge of proving value from investment in information services and products is very much with us as is selecting the best technique for measuring the impact of knowledge management (KM). One of the articles highlighted by Martin White in this issue’s Perspectives column presents the evolution of KM measurements and a taxonomy of these methodologies; a good starting point for knowledge managers to consider whether they are using the most appropriate metrics for the way in which knowledge is being managed and used in their organizations.

Further practical insight into KM measurement is the focus of Susan Hanley’s article. Her mantra? Measure what matters! The experience Hanley shares is, in fact, relevant to the measurement of any service or a product. ‘The only true sustainable measure of value for a KM solution is business impact – how the solution helps to grow revenue, increase profit, “advance the mission,” satisfy customers, or improve business operations’. The advice that all information professionals need to note from this article? ‘If you don’t have an important or valuable business problem that your KM solution or program addresses, then you need to go back to the beginning to find that problem’. We cannot reinforce this message too strongly and Hanley’s guidance is founded on this premise.

The importance of customers

Information on customer management comes fast and furious, with technology suppliers fighting for pole position and organizations increasingly placing the attraction and maintenance of customers at the centre of their attention. For a review, see http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/customer-experience-is-everyones-job-026178.php. Dan McAullife argues that ‘customer experience is everyone’s job’. Business information professionals are rarely ‘jobs worths’ – the passion to provide value and service guards against the trait. But it can happen, and this article argues that empowerment and encouragement within a company-wide (or departmental) customer experience ‘code of conduct’ can ensure excellent customer service.

Whilst much of what is published on customer management is technology focused – effective contact centres, unified digital experience across contact platforms, the importance of mobile and social channels, customer analytics, the developments in new customer relationship management (CRM) systems and so on – the importance of the staff who deal directly with customers remains paramount. Listening skills are the key competence for call handlers! It’s important to recognize that apparently loyal customers often jump ship. Are there other pointers from the body of knowledge on CRM from which information service providers can learn?

Denise Carter in her article, ‘The Power of “Know” and “No” in Effective Customer Service Delivery’, builds on the concepts of CRM and customer experience management (CEM) techniques used by externally facing sales and marketing teams to consider their relevance to information service teams. She notes that these have particular challenges – internally facing, not income generators (though in large organizations they may recover costs) – and finding it difficult to quantify or measure service or deliverables in ways that their organizations can recognize. ‘The view of the information service function may be that of a business asset – but it may not be seen as business critical’. Carter’s messages are not dissimilar to Hanley’s:

Much to consider in this article – and our experience confirms the wisdom of its content.

Read more, absorb more

Roger James, in Out of the Box, posits, on the basis of good evidence, that a tariff of 10,000 hours or 2000 books is the investment needed to acquire mastery of a new subject. Directing 40 hours each week at the task equates to 4.8 years. This may be fine if we’re considering formal education at school and degree levels but frightening in a work context. Many of us work in fast-moving fields and/or provide information support to customers that do. We are only too aware of the risk of delivering more than clients can absorb with understanding – hence our research services aim to filter, analyse and distil with flair. Information obesity affects the information professional too. So whilst technology enables us to deliver more information and acquire reading ‘heaps’ ourselves, is it enabling the reading process. Data and text analytics help us make sense of large volumes of unstructured information – we still need to read, absorb and interpret it for ourselves. Will technology take up this challenge – or must we rely on speed reading and new tools. Is Spritz an answer?

Culture and team working are all

The generosity of experts who share their experiences openly and with authority is a source of power to others. Paul Corney can accurately be described as a jet-setter. Working internationally has convinced him of the importance of developing a deep understanding of the way an organization operates and the cultural norms that influence working practices and the context in which his clients work, for example, their technical infrastructure. Corney’s perspective is that of consultant; his lessons learned cover acquiring and undertaking business – and getting paid. Among his advice are the many risks of miscommunication from language, instinctive behaviours and approaches to meetings. Communicate, communicate, communicate is his concluding message. Martin White in Perspectives considers research into meeting behaviours in Arab cultures including the risk of working via translators.

Working internationally can be the norm for consultants and for employees. Teasing out the elements of organizational culture intrinsic in other countries is essential but not necessarily easy. White has also selected research on how international assignments can facilitate the sharing and development of knowledge of organization culture in multinational enterprises, often differing substantially from the headquarters modus operandi. Further articles deal with the role of an intranet in providing opportunities for adults to learn organizational culture – essential for effective working anywhere; how teams can learn how to work effectively and develop trust with virtual team members and insights into the knowledge boundaries that can impede team working.

Finally, this issue’s Initiatives column features a particularly rich mixture of news on big data, workforce mapping, consumer behaviour and key information products, including reports of a digital skills shortage in the UK and changing patterns of news consumption and multi-device ownership.