Digital Landfill

Imperative Number 5 of 6 Facing Information Professionals

Commit to the cloud: Break down monolithic "enterprise" solutions into more “app like” solutions that can be deployed quickly independent of platform and in the cloud.

The spread of consumer technologies over the past decade that has driven the move to Systems of Engagement has also migrated expectations typical of consumer technologies (easy to use and deploy and available on multiple devices) into the enterprise IT environment.

• SaaS and cloud-based content and process solutions are creating opportunities to deploy solutions more quickly and cheaply than ever.
• "The business" is increasingly demanding that IT staffs produce solutions that take advantage of the cloud and that are: 1) responsive to new demands to engage customers, suppliers, and employees; 2) quick to deploy; 3) more agile and modular than monolithic (i.e., more like an "app").
• To make things even more challenging, "the business" is demanding that these new initiatives be paid for by savings in legacy systems.

Data points:

• Cloud computing spending among SMEs (1-1,000 employees) will double between 2010 and 2015 from $6.3 billion to $13.3 billion (In-Stat, http://www.instat.com)
• 28% feel constrained by their ECM/workflow system when it comes to making process changes, and for 15% it has limited their ability to achieve an enterprise-wide solution. [AIIM – State of the ECM Industry]
• The total size of the public cloud market will grow from $25.5 billion in 2011 to $159.3 billion in 2020. The market for virtual private cloud solutions will grow from $7.5 billion in 2011 to $66.4 billion in 2020. The market for private cloud solutions will grow from $7.8 billion in 2011 to $15.9 billion in 2020. [Forrester, Sizing the Cloud]
• 60 percent of organizations are ready to embrace cloud computing over the next five years as a means of growing their businesses and achieving competitive advantage. The figure nearly doubles the number of CIOs who said they would utilize cloud in the previous 2009 study. [IBM Survey of 3,000 global CIOs]
• 28 percent of US organizations currently using cloud computing. [CDW Cloud Computing Tracking Poll]
• 1/3 of organizations still unlikely to use cloud-based or SaaS solutions. [AIIM – State of the ECM Industry]
• Terminology confusion abounds - 13% of those who say they would not store content on the public web nonetheless use Salesforce. [AIIM – State of the ECM Industry]
• 41% open to idea of cloud or SaaS records management solution – once security and reliability are “secure” [AIIM – Records Management Strategies: Plotting the Changes]

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The First 5 of 6 Imperatives...

1. Make everything mobile: Redefine content delivery and process automation to take advantage of mobile devices and mobile workforces. 
2. Digitize processes: Drive paper bottlenecks out of processes and automate process flows.
3. Make the business social: Integrate social technologies into processes rather than create stand-alone social networks. Connect internal and external stakeholders to tap into unexpected sources of knowledge.
4. Use automation to ensure information governance: Acknowledge that the paper-based records paradigm no longer works in the digital workplace – if it ever did -- and use automation to ensure governance and disposition.
5. Commit to the cloud: Break down monolithic "enterprise" solutions into more “app like” solutions that can be deployed quickly independent of platform and in the cloud.

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 AIIM's Certified Information Professional designation was developed by a team of subject matter experts in conjunction with AIIM, in accordance with ISO 17024 methodologies. The purpose of the certification is to establish a core body of knowledge relevant to the needs of content and information professionals. The certification exams are independently administered by the global Prometric testing centers. Free certification prep kits and sample exam questions are available now from AIIM.

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