As 2008 begins, TFPL consultants reflect on the projects we have worked on over the past 12 months and outline the key information challenges that our clients have asked us to address as a pointer to the trends for the coming year.
Content management
Our consultants were involved in several intranet redesign projects as well as taxonomy strategy and development projects. The common theme was intelligent information architecture, making content better organised and described to bring it and users together in a more natural and efficient way – to the benefit of the business AND the user.
Intranets are key resources for organisations, and TFPL helped a number of national organisations review and redesign theirs to work both as a communications channel for the business and as an efficient business application, serving up everyday information. This process needs skills to look at both the user-focused (i.e. the layout of pages) and the content-focused,( i.e. the metadata profiles and attendant controlled vocabularies) elements.
Taxonomies continue to be important: there effective design allowing users to manage and navigate content systems and aids retrieval using search engines. Extending these classification aspects with resource discovery and dynamic publishing of content we are beginning to allow Information Discovery with content related to other similar content through well created and managed metadata.
Aligned to information architecture work has been a growing need from organisations to manage the complex task of migrating unstructured web content from disparate sites into centrally managed content management systems. We have managed content migrations for a large government deparment and a global law firm. TFPL have developed a methodology to assist our clients through a content migration, covering:
- content audit
- migration planning
- user review
- automatic, rule-based migration
- quality assurance
Knowledge management
There has been much interest this year in the development of information and knowledge strategies to support the business objectives resulting from changing trends in external economic, social and technical advances. These drivers have led to:
- Downsizing the workforce and workspace
- Flexible work patterns, with more and more staff working from home
- New technology (web 2.0) and more robust communication networks to improve knowledge sharing and learning across organisations
We have conducted information and knowledge audits and strategy development projects for government agencies, local councils, and the not-for-profit sector. Organisations are reviewing how they manage and deliver information to ensure that K&IM strategies and services are aligned with business objectives. They are looking to rationalise the procurement of published material and working to deliver internal information effectively as well as seeking to avoid silo working
Our consultants spend time talking to staff across the organisation, using a variety of methods to better understand:
- What information they require to carry out their jobs
- How they want to work
- How best they would prefer to access and use information
- What where the key issues and barriers preventing them from doing so.
In nearly all of our client organisations we found that people were spending too much time trying to find the information ‘they knew was there somewhere’. . Clients were also interested in how other organisations have addressed these issues so that good practice methodology can be adopted straight away.
The range of our IM/KM work across all the sectors has enabled TFPL to share experience and know-how with our clients and to work with them to build a vision for information and knowledge management.. In many cases TFPL has gone on to support clients through the implementation and evaluation of the projects.
Information service reviews
We have worked with in-house information services to ensure that the services and products offered are fresh and relevant. Challenges facing information services include:
- Detachment from target audiences
- Remoteness from senior management
- Hesitation over service development
- Subjective spending decisions
Records management
The demand for records management consultancy during 2007 remained very strong across the government sector and clearly re-emerged in the private sector as organisations realign their information and records management programmes to meet changing external demands and set out to realise the benefits of technologies. Building good RM practices into the electronic records management arena still poses a challenge for many and TFPL is supporting a number of EDRM designs and implementations.
Small to medium sized organisations are attracted by the Microsoft Sharepoint offering which is considered an attractive alternative to traditional RM applications and are showing increased interest in using collaborative and social media tools.
Bringing sense to the e-records environment still requires the understanding of the connectivity between the governance frameworks, information architecture, user friendly corporate fileplans with appropriate metadata frameworks and controlled vocabularies. TFPL is meeting the growing demand for making sense of and integrating legacy records into the new e-environment through migration and rationalisation of applications that hold records. Developing and applying retention schedules for legal and regulatory compliance across all organisations has also featured in this year's consultancy projects.
2008 is widely expected to see a tightening of belts across all sectors. In this climate, efficiency in business is essential and good decisions can only be taken with the right information at hand. TFPL consultants can help your business put it's Information Management strategies and practices in order.
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