Roem Limited

But in the past, storing, processing and sharing information within the department and with external stakeholders was inefficient – partly because of the organisational setup and partly because of constraints resulting from existing IT solutions.

Two years ago information management (IM) consultant Martijn van der Kraaj (pictured) was brought in to assess the difficulties and to write an action plan to address the issues he unearthed. The result is a plan that proposes an ambitious overhaul of the department's systems and its approaches, both to information sharing and skills development for BAM personnel.

Martijn – who has extensive experience in IM and KM (knowledge management) projects and has carried out work for a university library, an academic publisher, archives and other heritage organisations – explained:’ Contrary to popular belief, IM is about a great deal more than just IT, though of course IT is an important element.

‘For most organisations, there's actually a need to move information management out of the IT department and put it at the centre of business strategy, and this was also the case for BAM. My analysis always starts by understanding the overarching strategy or goals of an organisation.'

At BAM, Martijn identified a number of important business objectives. Information management strategy was needed to:

• Facilitate the work of the council (advise on building applications etc.)
• Enable the department to advise the public on building applications etc.
• Provide access for the public to heritage information
• Expedite research (to allow the team to advise and give access)

He said that BAM had suffered because information had been stored in very individual ways by people in different areas (building history, monuments, archaeology), and not shared in the most efficient way. Instead of using shared space, most people used personal disk space for storage of their work; hence, illness of an employee would usually lead to temporary unavailability of information about his or her work.

‘Information was stored following the logic of the separate areas, while day to day work was done in teams that encompassed two or three areas, which inevitably caused confusion and duplication,’ he said. The department had also adopted what he called ‘island automation’, whereby IT solutions were developed per area instead of per business process, with little regard for interoperability.

Martijn found that business processes were not described in sufficient detail: both the information input and output per process were not clear.

In addition, the department – which wanted to showcase its collections of archaeological finds and research data, etc., to the public – was constricted by city council policies regarding IT. BAM was supposed to use the same software as that of all other departments, but as BAM was the only unit with a collection to present online, its wishes were not met by the content management system (CMS) supplied by the council’s IT department.

Finally, it was clear to Martijn that there was a need for more in-house knowledge regarding IT, application management, information management and knowledge management. Without this knowledge, finding and implementing sustainable solutions would be difficult.

‘My information plan for the department, developed in close cooperation with the IT staff of BAM and the council, analysed these shortcomings and identified areas for improvement,’ he said. ‘The aim was to ensure continual alignment of information resources and solutions to the business goals.

‘IM is not only about IT, it’s also about communication and the flow of information –oral, on paper, or digital – through the organisation.’

He explained that an information plan normally has a scope of three to five years: ‘ Obviously, unforeseen items with regard to IM may arise during this period of time, but having a plan allows an organisation to weigh the necessity of new projects against the things it was planning to do. This provides a much-needed counterweight against the mainly technical hypes that will surely pop up.

‘It’s possible to set up information management without an information plan, by “anchoring” the necessary steps in other plans (ICT, personnel, strategy documents and so on), but this will make it quite difficult to monitor progress. It also tends to shift the emphasis to the technical side.’

In his plan for BAM, he identified two main areas of improvement. One concerned information sharing within BAM and with other city departments, while the second was about presentation of information to the general public.

To allow improvements in those areas, he concluded that a third aspect would also need attention, namely the development within BAM of information management skills.

Martijn proposed specific projects for these three areas, including estimates of costs and advice regarding priority. Given that presentation of information using the CMS provided by the city council was impossible, he advised BAM to give priority to improvements in the two key areas of information sharing and skills development.

Since the plan was completed, a great deal of work has been done and the benefits to the department are tangible. Improvements in information sharing have saved a lot of time, and the increased understanding of the need to look to business processes while developing IT solutions has led to much more time-efficient development, as there is less need for change after completion.

BAM’s IM and IT needs differ radically from those of other departments and the information planning process has also allowed BAM to make these differences clear to the city IT department.

Martijn comments;’ The potential of IM to improve the department’s productivity and efficiency is reflected in its decision to spend significant amounts of money – tens of thousands of pounds in fact – and to dedicate significant staff time to IM related projects. BAM has also committed to substantial ongoing yearly costs for the next four years, together with more staff input, so it obviously expects to ‘”earn back” more than this as a result of improved efficiency in the access to information.’


Information Management workshop

Cambridge 27 and 28 April 2009


Helping business people to develop information management strategy is the subject of an innovative two-day Information Management workshop, taking place in Cambridge on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 April 2009 and featuring Martijn van der Kaaij, who is running the workshop for Cambridge-based Roem Ltd.

Intended for managers with ICT responsibilities, process managers, ICT project leaders or specialists, and company librarians or archivists, it aims to introduce information management as the foundation for bespoke and cost-effective information services in an organisation.

The workshop, which takes place at the Sun House, Queen Edith's Way, Cambridge, costs £895 + VAT. It includes buffet lunch and refreshments on both days and a workshop handout, as well as one month’s post-course advice.

More information: http://www.roem.co.uk/IM_workshop.html 

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Contacts
Martijn van der Kaaij
martijn@roem.co.uk
mobile: +44 (0)7527 - 233407

Karen Roem
Karen.roem@roem.co.uk
tel: +44 (0)1223 214177