Information management strategies must be addressed - Datacentrix

Everything relating to information management is changing, says Charl Joubert, Datacentrix Business Solutions division MD, with social media, smart mobile devices and new collaboration tools, such as Microsoft SharePoint, creating a "big data" explosion.

The concept of "big data" is set to alter the relationship of data to information consumption forever. "Amidst all of this transformation, there is one certainty, and that is that it will be mandatory for organisations to plan information management strategies to absolutely address and embrace these trends," Joubert says.

"According to Gartner and IDC, employees within an organisation generate more than 3GB of data each year and this is set to increase by more than 600% over the next five years. The effect of this is that 30% of a typical working day will be spent looking for information or documents, meaning that a company with 1 000 employees could spend around R40 million in lost productivity.

Bigger focus on managing information

"Many organisations are hoping that a combination of knowledge workers, innovation and better access to information and expertise will get them through the current recession and into the next economy. Not only is this forcing business to be leaner than ever, but it is also stressing the need for a concise, accessible view of information in order to stay productive amid the constant challenge of information overload," he continues.

These requirements, together with the new Companies Act and the King III Report, are creating a greater focus on governance and risk management and how companies manage their information, processes and documents than ever before. This is known today as enterprise information management (EIM). "The impact on the IT environment is that it now needs to boost productivity, create value with automation, reduce costs and simplify the environment for end users," Joubert explains.

Most complete EIM solution

In order to deliver what it believes to be the most complete EIM solution on the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Platform, Datacentrix Business Solutions has partnered with Nintex, Panorama and ecspand.

"Nintex, a leading SharePoint workflow company, with more than 3 000 customers in 90 countries, has just signed a partnership agreement with Datacentrix Business Solutions, while Panorama has partnered with the company for several years now, delivering BI solutions for the Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 platforms. Panorama's Necto is the first socially enabled BI solution to be interoperable with the Windows Azure and Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Denali platforms while supporting both OLAP and BISM modes.

"ecspand turns Microsoft SharePoint into a complete EIM solution capable of offering DMS, imaging and document capture, rendering, compliance, advanced storage management, email management, as well as integration with ERP systems like Microsoft Dynamics and SAP," Joubert concludes.