Jinfo: Jinfo for information strategy

Jinfo for information strategy
Jinfo Blog

4th May 2017

Abstract

How can you transition your information centre into becoming a true strategic resource rather than a transaction-focused service? Robin Neidorf identifies the essential steps to take.

Item

The best information centres position themselves as strategic resources rather than transaction services.

The professionals in these departments have successfully educated stakeholders to think of them at the start of projects and initiatives, to involve them in planning and to advise decision-makers on the right information sources and technology to deliver the value the business seeks.

From transactional to strategic

This is by no means an easy transition to make; the day-to-day intake, processing and response on research queries and other core tasks can take up an enormous amount of time and sap your creative energy, taking you away from the long-term planning and relationship-building that being a strategic resource requires.

You have to be willing to make hard decisions about what services you will no longer provide

You have to be able to inspire your team to move in a new direction

You have to retrain users to serve themselves, or ask questions in a different way, or use different resources to meet their needs.

When Jinfo Consulting works with information managers on strategic positioning within their organisations, we often spend at least as much time on how to shed lower-value work as we do on how to capture the attention of business leaders.

This is the mantra we start from: streamline, automate, outsource, push back, stop doing

For lower-value activities: the basic queries, the document deliveries, the alerts, the standard profiles and searches, how do we reduce their burden on the information team without shortchanging the goals of the business?

"We have to break down the 'public library' mentality, where every request is as important as every other request," one senior information manager in a professional services firm told me recently during an interview. "It's painful for many of us to learn to do, but we have to learn to say, 'I'm sorry, but your request does not fit with our strategic priorities'."

Take the first step to change

The first step is to articulate clearly exactly what the goals of the business are, and how the information centre fits into them. Then, analyse the range of tasks that information team members undertake. Which are the tasks that are best aligned with those goals? Which are the ones that only a trained information expert can do?

And for the others: streamline, automate, outsource, push back, stop doing.

Jinfo Consulting can conduct assessments of:

Your department's alignment with business goals

Volume and spread of work to identify opportunities to reduce the burden on your team.

...followed by recommendations for adjustments. For more information, contact me at robin.neidorf@jinfo.com, or complete our online form.

Recent Subscription Content of particular interest to our customers involved with information strategy:

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Current and upcoming research and events

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