AIIM18: It’s time to evolve our information management strategies
They say truly disruptive moments occur once in a generation. But for those in the technology space, we know that change is a constant.
And right now, we’re in the midst of a monumental change.
During his keynote presentation at AIIM18, John Mancini, chief evangelist at AIIM, discussed with attendees this very concept.
Evolution: From ECM to content services
That change is the shifting tide in the information management industry. As we heard more than a year ago, the term enterprise content management (ECM) no longer fully reflects the way organizations use key information, nor the expectations of users and the capabilities available. And with it came the evolution of new terminology, including content services and what AIIM refers to as intelligent information management (IIM).
AIIM showed it was all-in with this shift, changing its name from the Association for Information and Image Management to the Association for Intelligent Information Management.
And, as Mancini explained during his presentation, organizations must continue to drive the momentum forward regarding IIM within their organizations.
“Every organization is on – or should be on – a digital transformation journey,” he said. “The heart of this transformation journey is understanding, anticipating and redefining internal and external customer experiences.”
But less than one in five organizations feel like they are in a good spot with their digital transformation initiatives that deliver these experiences, according to 2018 AIIM research.
In fact, 53 percent of respondents in a recent AIIM survey said they are concerned about a serious disruption in their business models within the next two years.
As Mancini pointed out, this is most likely because “digital transformation is imperiled by a rising tide of information chaos and confusion.”
Despite major improvements in information management capabilities over the last decade, organizations have marginally kept pace with the new wave of big content challenges. As needs increase, the average number of content systems in use continues to grow, rising nearly 30 percent over the past five years.
While organizations continue to increase the number of content systems they use, a rising portion of critical business content remains outside those content management systems, which leaves room for other capabilities to manage this unmanaged content.
“This is behind the information chaos standing in the way of what organizations want to do with digital transformation,” Mancini said.
Monoliths no more
However, organizations are starting to embrace this shift in technology.
The monolithic model that characterizes ECM has been replaced by a desire to consume more content capabilities as needed, across multiple repositories. This falls in line with the very intention behind content services: To implement the technology needed today for a specific solution – not one content management solution for the entire enterprise.
That’s likely why 92 percent of organizations believe something has to change and they must modernize their IIM strategy accordingly.
And most already have plans in place to further their digital transformation initiatives in the year and years to come. Regarding where they plan to invest in the future:
- 51 percent said analytics and machine learning
- 37 percent said automating compliance and governance
- 40 percent said digitalizing core organizational processes
- 47 percent said modernizing the information toolkit
With these initiatives in mind – and their focus on specific aspects of information management – it’s no wonder we’re seeing this technological landscape (and its terminology) evolve.
“We’re in a very transformative time,” Mancini said. “It’s not too late to get serious about IIM.”
Curious to see how your organization stacks up? Check out AIIM’s State of Information Management: Digital Transformation to learn more about the current state of the industry and how different information management strategies support progress toward digital and business transformation.
