Information management

Successful businesses require collaborative systems that enable them to work with technology partners, suppliers and customers to meet the demands of todays challenging markets.      

Enterprise content management continues to evolve to meet the demands of the agile enterprise and many now have the ability to automate the classification of information.              

The challenge for organisations to manage increasing volumes of information has never been greater, legislative compliance and pressure to improve process efficiency requires the healthcare market to understand the strategies and technologies needed to deal with this key area. Documation UK is the only place to source solutions and technology for efficient and cost effective information, content and document management.
    
Latest tools and technologies
Documation UK, in partnership with AIIM, is the UK’s only dedicated end-to-end content, business process and information management event. The show brings together professionals who are actively seeking how best to manage their business information with the industries leading technology and service suppliers.
    
It addresses today’s business and technical issues in an unrivalled, free-to-attend education programme and showcases a comprehensive range of the latest tools and technologies enabling you to manage your business information efficiently and cost effectively.  
    
AIIM research shows that as more and more documents spend their entire life in electronic form, the existing document and records specialists within most organisations are failing to meet-minds with the IT departments over issues such as security, access and long-term records archive. IT staff will not generally be trained on the classic records management issues of classification and retention periods, and probably think little about the long term issues of application-independent formats and media lifetimes.
    
"With over a quarter of managers’ time being taken up searching for information, most companies will benefit from upgrading all aspects of information management.   Documation UK is the event where forward thinking organisations can compare the most comprehensive range of solutions for business process, information and content management. The event brings together both suppliers and end-users of technologies that retain, store, capture, retrieve, manage and deliver information more efficiently and cost effectively,” says Claire Sellick, Event Director for Reed Exhibitions.
    
Education programme
Documation UK offers a comprehensive education programme that involves keynote and seminar sessions given by some of the industry’s top experts. The Education Programme at Documation UK covers both business and technical aspects of business process, information and content management.
    
With leading independent commentators, industry thought leaders and end-users from several industry sectors speaking at the event, the programme at Documation UK is a comprehensive and up to the minute opportunity to learn about content management from the experts.
    
This year there is a wide variety of technical and business keynote sessions, chaired and presented by some of the industry’s top experts. Here is an overview of what is on offer in the Business Strategy Theatre seminar program: David McLain, Senior Associate, Pinsent Masons leads a panel debate on E-discovery that concentrates on the issues of prosecution and execution. E-discovery refers to any process in which electronic data or metadata is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case from a single point computer source or network. Electronic data lends itself well to legal recovery, as once information is within a system, it is very hard to destroy – and with broad new legislation on the bounds of E-discovery, this could mean you are called open to produce for evidence literally hundreds of thousands of documents from spreadsheets to emails. Other members of the panel are Vijay Magon, Technical Director, OIT UK Ltd and Dr Johannes Scholtes, Chairman UK, Zylab.
    
ERM
Marc Fresko, EDM & ERM Consulting Services Director, Serco Consulting leads a debate on why electronic records management is good for business, which will cover the rationale for adoption and importance of ERM. The number of Global 2000 companies that will have enterprise wide Electronic Records Management by 2010 is anticipated to have increased by 25 per cent from 2005. ERM adoption is slow due to the cost of organisational changes required, but increasingly regulatory drivers and good business practice are encouraging the adoption of ERM strategy.
    
The drivers for ERM include compliance – both that that is substantiated by record keeping, and regulation relating to the manner in which records are kept, effectiveness and efficiency - saving money, sharing and finding records, and business continuity – ensuring the continuity of recorded information after a crisis. Other speakers include Helen Donato, IT Director, StoretextFM and Hillary Small, Pre-sales/Business Development Manager, Capita Business Services
    
Atle Skjekkeland, Vice President, AIIM the Enterprise Content Management Association, will investigate best practices for deploying content management.  Whether your goal is to meet increasingly more complex regulatory requirements or to gain faster access to your information, planning is the key to deploying content management technologies.
    
AIIM has with the help of subject matter experts in Europe and North America developed a 12 step program for successfully implementing content management. This presentation will provide a practical approach to implementing ECM programs and projects, and recommend steps and processes for Information Governance, Concepts of Operations, Information Audit, Business Case, IT infrastructure details and After-Implementation Management.

Business issues
There is a huge choice of other business issues facing information management including: Llewellyn Thomas, Manager, BearingPoint, who will reveal how working styles have changed as a result of collaboration. Increasingly collaboration is supported through a variety of devices and channels, both for real time and asynchronous communication.
    
Collaboration platforms are the components that allow individuals to find the information that they require, and communicate together to achieve common business goals. From team collaboration to messaging, real-time communications to wikis – collaboration is becoming a vital tool for the workforce to have in its armoury. Dr Paul Duller, Director of Consulting – Information Management, Tribal Group and Leslie Paul, CEO, Datum International will expand on how collaboration tools are underpinning the way that organisations function today, and will function in the near future.

Lively debates and discussions
The Technical Theatre seminars will include lively debates and discussions including a panel led by Alan Pelz-Sharp, Principal, CMS-Watch discussing ‘When E means Enormous’ that will investigate very large scale projects for ECM.  
    
For some organisations, the management of content is a colossal undertaking, and requires multi-site global processes that are on a different scale from the majority of organisations. There are some unique challenges around the governance, ownership, collaboration and interoperability of content management. There are some considerations that are peculiar to large-scale projects, others that have vital lessons for organisations of all sizes. In this session the panel, which includes Liz Ure, Head of Information Strategy, Support and Development for the Scottish Executive, will review case studies to look at what best practices and considerations should be in place when managing content on an enormous scale.

Hot topics
There are also sessions on other hot technical information management topics including Bob Plumridge, Director, SNIA who will chair a panel on “Should Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) or Enterprise Content Management (ECM) come first.” ILM and ECM are frequently confused terms that necessarily co-exist within a company.             

Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) is based on the theory that not all information is equal. Over time, the value of information will increase or decrease – depending on time since creation and value to the business.             
Based on its changing value to your organisation, your information requires different levels of accessibility and protection. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is the term used to describe the technologies, tools, and methods used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver “content” or “information” across an enterprise or organisation. At the most basic level, ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organisation’s unstructured information, wherever that information exists.
    
Unstructured information means letters, emails, reports etc as opposed to databases or accounting systems, which contain “structured” information. Hanns Köhler-Krüner, Director Global Education Services EMEA, AIIM, will help explain the real definition of these terms, and why one exists as a platform for the other – while answering the eternal question – which should come first?

For more information
Held at Olympia 2, London on the 17th – 18th October 2007, Documation UK is co-located with Storage Expo, the UK’s only dedicated data storage event. Visitors to Documation UK will also have free entry to Storage Expo, held next door in the National Hall. To register to attend or for further information please visit www.documation-uk.com