photo attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cobalt/

I’ve just got back from a couple of weeks relaxing leave, much of it spent in the sun reading classic literature – well maybe not ‘classic’ but fun all the same.  I have wide literary tastes but I do like a bit of escapism and I got through most of the Ian Fleming James Bond novels and short stories and I found them fascinating on many levels.

Firstly, they are a historical record of sorts – the language is dated, the tensions of the cold war are something that many of us have forgotten (or we were not even born) and the prevalent attitudes are a million miles away from today’s (and this from words that were written less than 50 years ago).
Secondly, the stories are intriguing and totally different from the films – no gadgets, no silly bond girl names – in a nutshell, more believable.

Thirdly, the way that technology and the information age have transformed all of our lives is instantly apparent (I also read the books on an Amazon Kindle).

And finally and more importantly, the impact that this has had on the work of the security services (I’m assuming) must have been phenomenal…

Some things, however, don’t change and three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet, shaken until it’s ice-cold, served with a large thin slice of lemon-peel tastes as good today as it must have in 1953…

So what does all of this have to do with the Documentum World? Well the Vesper Martini probably has very little to do with Content Management except to say that a lot of ‘grey matter content’ has been probably been lost by me personally as a result of it (although I can’t remember whether that’s the case or not ).

But the other points have an impact or have been impacted by Content Management.

Historical Record
The words and attitudes portrayed in the books are charmingly ‘politically incorrect’ and I have to wonder how long it will be before the shops stop selling books (like this) that don’t conform.
Of course, it is easier in the digital age to ‘modify’ content and while I am writing this I’m reminded of Winston Smith in George Orwell’s ‘1984’ changing back issues of newspapers to reflect the new ‘truth’ of the constantly changing political environment.

Records and Information Managers must be horrified at the thought of changing records but re-writing of history is not new and EDRMS could be used for good or evil in this regard – Bond’s arch nemesis, Ernst Blofeld and SPECTRE would have loved to get their hands on the mechanisms for manipulating historical data, especially given that the official historical record is regarded as ‘gospel truth’ by society and if it could be changed then who would recognise it as such?

(more…)

Case Management · Documentum · ECM · Enterprise Content Management

Panasonic has recently been ordered to pay the ACCC’s legal costs after it was found guilty of misleading consumers. The full story is here.

I can sympathise with the plight of Panasonic – the road to hell is paved with good intentions but as a consumer I have also been on the receiving end of the dreaded ‘freebie by redemption’.

The court has insisted that Panasonic take process related steps to ensure compliance but surely that’s only half of the answer?

In the words of ACCC Chairman, Graeme Samuel “this outcome sends a warning about inducing consumers by offering free or bonus goods as ‘cash-back’ or ‘redemption’ offers and failing to deliver”.

But what would you do as Panasonic’s Compliance Officer?

Documentum xCP would enable Panasonic to have an ideal tool for managing compliance around these kind of programmes (which are a feature of consumer electronics retailing). In addition it is flexible and would be easy to tailor in-house as the offers and marketing campaigns change.

For example, by implementing a Documentum xCP solution for managing this particular marketing campaign, the consumer would be in a position to initiate a ‘case’ via an email. This would enable both the customer and Panasonic to track the progress of the case through a web interface, adding information along the way such as serial number, purchase invoice, customer details and cross referencing that against the retailer’s records (including purchase date), the lodgement date, the delivery date and allowing the system to automatically reject non-complying claims (claims not lodged within 14 days of purchase for example), approving complying claims, providing workflowed manual approval for contentious claims (such as where delivery date was greater than 14 days after purchase date) and detailed reporting both internally and externally.

This would potentially have allowed Panasonic to avoid the legal costs whilst improving customer satisfaction and gathering valuable data about the customer base that could be used in the future for direct marketing, warranty, market analysis (the list goes on) all of which would be stored in the Documentum Content Repository for future re-use.

In addition, Documentum xCP would allow Panansonic to build future campaigns around the same infrastructure and the same data with minimal expenditure.

If there are any compliance officers out there struggling with how to respond to situations such as this then feel free to drop me a line….

Documentum · ECM · Enterprise Content Management · legal cost

No, the title doesn’t refer to the Wallabies third and fourth Bledisloe Cup tests – although it could do

The title actually refers to a presentation that one of the IIG Consulting Team, Dalibor Ivkovic, gave at a recent RMAA InForum Conference on the Gold Coast.

Entitled ‘Postcard from Hong Kong’ it described recent field experiences consulting to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Efficiency Unit.

It aimed to compare and contrast Records Management trends, drivers and approaches in Hong Kong and Australia – with a focus on information continuity…

As I said, the presentation was on the Gold Coast, one of Australia’s premier holiday destinations; famous for its sun, surf, shopping, nightlife and theme parks.
With regard to the Gold Coast’s ‘white knuckle’ rides I particularly like Dreamworld’s ‘The Claw’. It is described on their website as “a stomach losing, sky high-swing, packed with adrenalin, and a big dose of fear” – does this sound like a Records Management project
to you?

Back to the RMAA presentation. The case study looked at the key drivers for Hong Kong government, such as its rapidly aging population of civil servants and the impending large scale loss of corporate memory. The presentation explored how the consultants approached their brief which covered records management, collaboration, knowledge management and call centre management. It also analysed how the need to capture and preserve evidence of decisions was balanced with the need for a practical business system that was simple to use and adopted by the entire department.

The presentation is included here and it raises some serious questions about how much Asia is looking to mature markets such as Australia for best practice and what we are able to offer in that regard. The flipside of that is whether the Records Management (or even broader Content Management) community can learn from some lessons from Asia…

Case Management · Documentum · ECM · Enterprise Content Management · records management · RMAA InForum