iCognition Celebrates 20 Year Information Management Journey

Two decades since consultancy iCognition opened its doors, founders Joe Mammoliti and Nigel Carruthers-Taylor reflect on the unique new challenges in information management today, and those that remain the same.

iCognition was founded in in 2003 in Canberra, the epicentre of Australian federal government, and now provides consulting and implementation services to government and enterprise customers across the nation.

The firm was founded in recognition of the information revolution that was sweeping the world and making heads spin, with the vast amount of information being created, circulated, and churned through corporate networks.

iCognition was born with a mission to help its clients manage an ever-increasing quantity of information and find and retain nuggets of information gold.

“The amount of information bombarding organisations in 2003 was recognised to be increasing exponentially, particularly electronic documents and emails, and social media was on the horizon. We realised that simply throwing technology at the problem wouldn’t solve anything – somebody needed to come up with a concept on how to manage that information using people, processes and technology,” reflects Joe Mammoliti, iCognition’s CEO.

An Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system called TRIM, developed in Canberra by Tower Software and keenly adopted by Australian federal government, was an easy choice to form the foundation of iCognition’s practice.

This was extended and enhanced with iCognition’s own IP to develop an enterprise-wide Records and Information Management (RIM) solution offering a single source of truth.

Through the many changes in name and ownership of TRIM, now OpenText Content Manager, iCognition has stayed focussed on helping clients achieve compliance with governance and security frameworks.

iCognition quickly became a key partner for large government departments, councils, universities and not-for-profit organisations.

Fast-forward 20 years and the market is experiencing a rapid increase in security, privacy, compliance and regulation requirements.

“Not only did the information explosion happen, but we’re now hit daily with significant information security risks – while in the past these risks focused on database information, now all content is a target for hackers,” says Nigel Carruthers-Taylor, iCognition Executive Director.

COVID ushered in more complexity as the pandemic forced organisations to pivot quickly to online collaboration and information sharing, despite increasing concerns about privacy and compliance.

Unfortunately, many organisations found their information fragmented, leading to most RIM strategies being turned on their heads. Suddenly, information was everywhere, and records were mostly uncontrolled.

“That’s why the days of monolithic, enterprise-wide ECM (Enterprise Content Management) systems are over. In this new landscape, ECM systems need to adapt to become part of a more extensive content platform,” says Carruthers-Taylor.

Organisations are now turning to Content Services Platforms (CSPs) to create a holistic RIM environment to govern and manage enterprise-wide content ensuring security, privacy, and compliance under a single framework. CSPs enable users to manage content across multiple information repositories and protect sensitive information while allowing the business application to become a source of truth orchestrated with other systems.

“With CSPs, business systems such as HR, case management, and finance can all become trusted sources of truth, managed under a single framework for compliance and records management purposes, while also increasing productivity and service delivery around content-related tasks.”

So where does this leave the next generation of content and information management? Scheduled for release in May, iCognition is developing a new RIM solution that offers an efficient and secure records management environment where users won’t have to worry about where content is sourced or how it is managed.

“After 20 years, we’ve seen it all when it comes to information management systems and processes. Honing this knowledge, our next-generation solution ensures users don’t have to jump from system to system to work with content from across the enterprise,” said Mammoliti.

“The content is delivered contextually to meet the information needs of the user at the specific point within their work task, while still abiding by the organisation’s framework of policies, processes, and governance.”

To learn more, contact iCognition