It's about time "I" is set free from the "T" - Part 1

There was a baby monkey that was born at the zoo. From its earliest days it learned to drink water from a special bottle zookeepers brought. The monkey got so used to getting water from that bottle, that it would not drink from anything else.?

While it was water that the monkey needed, it could not see the value of the water, it only perceived the bottle as the water source. The bottle became associated with the water.

In a similar manner, most organizations historically have grown to associate data and information with technology. They focus on the bottle (technology) and often forget about the value of the water (information).?

In this article I want to make a case why information lifecycles need to be treated apart from technology lifecycles.

It is of course true that technology is needed to capture, store and process information. Yet, technology also creates boundaries and limits on how information can be used.?

For most people in my circles it's obvious that every business is a digital business these days - data and information are at the core of everything. Yet, most organizations struggle to take full advantage of their information assets.?

Let's look at what businesses really want.

First and foremost, they want to be good at whatever their business is. They want to win more customers and retain the existing. For that they need to build and nurture relationships. They want to understand customers' needs and help them address those.?

The more they are in touch with the customer, the better.?

Being "in touch" in the digital age means collecting and leveraging valuable information on customers, suppliers, employees and partners in such a manner, that all parties are confident that the relationship works to their benefit.?

Businesses also want to be well aware of their market and competition. They need to know what is going on in their industry, the environment and the economy at large. They want to be able to act early and decisively.?

Now, how do these wants and needs translate into information capabilities?

1. Organizations want the required information to be always at the fingertips of the personnel who need it. They want zero friction and ideally close to zero effort to obtain information that can be trusted and used right away.

2. They want to be able to use the information across their organization, in a responsible way, without compromising on security and privacy, and complying with all modern day regulations.

3. They want to be able to connect and combine information to synthesize more information.

4. They want to be able to create and use increasingly sophisticated and powerful intelligence (algorithms).

Organizations need to capture, process and produce information. They need technology only to the extent that facilitates (and not hinders) those needs.

To get back to the water analogy organizations need water, they don't necessarily need the bottle (maybe it's time to switch to a firehose, or a sophisticated irrigation system).

Technology capabilities should be used to support the information lifecycle, not the other way around.

People talk about "digital transformation" and the "digital firm", but most of the digitalization cases are just adding more and more layers of technology, without much regard to what happens to the information.

This was Part 1 of the article. Read Part 2 here .