Turbo charging content delivery and value?
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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All organisations, public or private sector, are driving hard to reduce overhead costs in this post ‘financial crisis’ economy. Spending is tight – so what is new for the Information Service. Delivering timely and valuable content has always been a dilemma for the information services unit, but with even leaner business models it is time to step up to the plate once more. However, this time perhaps we can get a little more armed about processes and procedures to help inform and execute the decision making process.

A current white paper from ‘Reprints Desk, Inc, ‘Relieving information centre budget pressures through document delivery cost reduction and workflow re-configuration’, doesn’t exactly slip off the tongue easily. However it does spell out the overall message and statistics rather well. See http://digbig.com/5baxsf

I don’t think any of us are surprised that corporate expenditure may be flat-lining this year. However the real interest lies in who holds the budgets for delivering content. The white paper reports that 30% of information centres control less than half the information content budget, with around another 30% controlling only 50% of the budget in the organisation.

Obviously this highlights the question of control over delivery. Is it possible to do a good job without the full ability to influence, negotiate and control the full business process? Very rarely, so what do we do?

As information specialists we already have parts of the equation. We know that getting the most value out of content is a key component for organisational success. We also know that the technology tools are already there to help us deliver the content. But there is still a mismatch between content and technology tools, the internal and external stakeholders.

Business-wise not all the key stakeholders are on the same page. There are also some compliance issues, namely global copyright compliance. This has been an issue for some time and we as an industry are still grappling with the issues. Managing content workflow and getting ‘best value’ is an on-going issue.

If you have been struggling for some time to get focused in this area then there are a couple of activities to suggest. The Reprints Desk, Inc white paper is certainly worth a read and will get you thinking about your business situation; such as budget pressures, controlling outcomes, and targeting your service delivery. It also includes a self assessment sheet.

Consider also the Content Workflow 2010 event, http://www.contentworkflow.eu. This is a one day event, on 26th January 2010 in Frankfurt. There are four sessions focusing on STM (science, technology and medical) content, including global copyright compliance, with sessions on ways in which to inject high value content to where people need it and when.

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