Jinfo: Jinfo for Professional Services

Jinfo for Professional Services
Jinfo Blog

30th March 2016

Abstract

After investigating how organisations actually consume information, including general and business news and commodity-type information about people and companies, it is time for information experts in professional services firms to reconsider their strategy for serving the best mix of information to communities of users.

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Jinfo's research topics in the last half of 2015, "All About Usage" and "News, and Other Commodities", set the stage for the current Research Focus, "Strategic Alignment of IS and IT", to be followed soon by "Source Expertise - What It Means in a Google World".

A DIY solution is what may be required to deliver the optimum mix of information.

Specialised sources within the broad collection of aggregated databases, niche content services licensed directly and free web resources can potentially be mashed together to meet very focused business needs. Armed with an understanding of usage data and patterns - for both licensed and free resources - you can curate a custom collection to enhance the productivity of your multiple user communities.

However, that DIY solution is likely to require support from your IT department: new platforms, new means of access, security reviews, and new ways of integrating the content at the desktop or via mobile devices. Given all the moving parts, a clean, straightforward user experience ultimately rests on complex technology.

Jinfo's research into the alignment of IS and IT uncovers helpful insights about why the relationship between these two departments which both possess information expertise is not always smooth. To overcome misunderstandings and ensure that both departments are working effectively together to deliver the best information, we share some of Jinfo's tips.

Take Action

Make a genuine effort to better understand how the IT department functions, including roles and priorities

Establish a common language. IS and IT use the same words (e.g. library, tools) to mean different things

Be sensitive to the way that requests are made of IT. Demands for "fixes" may provoke a defensive response, especially if what seems simple on the surface is actually a difficult programming task

Leverage IS expertise in vetting and selecting sources

Assume that both departments are working in the best interests of the organisation and when working together add greater value than when working at cross purposes.

Check out the most recent Jinfo resources of particular relevance to professional services firms - use the reference list of recent content below to jump to articles.

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