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August 11, 2006
Information Democracy
Check out Howard Dresners new thought leader perspective on Information Democracy. He describes the goal for BPM and BI. Information democracy is about making sure all constituents inside and outside an organization have the right information at the right time and are able to align in the right direction. And, it needs to be actionable. In this piece, there is a call for action, starting a BPM Revolution. So if there is a revolution, where should we focus?
In order to be successful with the revolution and achieve information democracy, we need to be ready in our use of technology, our processes and in our culture. Lets start with the easiest one: technology. The idea of broad BI implementations, beyond the usual suspects of senior and middle management, is not new at all. Its been discussed since the mid 1990s. Unfortunately the technologies in those days were simply not scalable. They couldnt handle the amount of users and the size of data. The first attempts to reach a state of information democracy as we would define it now date back to around 1999, when the first web-interfaces entered the BI world. In most cases, sadly, it didnt work. The user interfaces may have been browser-based, but the underlying technologies did not scale and the user functionality was quite inferior compared to the Windows version. It has taken some 4 to 5 years, but the last 2 years we have come a long way. Reporting tools have merged with query tools, creating a flexible and scalable environment, and the use of dhtml and java scripting have greatly enhanced the web user interfaces. Today, technology is not the issue anymore.
Next to technology, the quality of our business processes is crucial to information democracy. In order to embrace the concept, you need to have the confidence that the insights you are sharing are first of all reliable, and second of all, you share the information with confidence and pride. If possible, youd like to show you are in control and perform with confidence. Although we may collectively not be there, the signs are hopeful. As draconian many of the compliance regulations are, and as much as the compliance projects are and have been a weight on our shoulders, it does help us to be in control. It makes information democracy easier, as it supports the old adage of be good and show it!.
But lastly, there is the topic of culture. Few would disagree that information is an asset that needs to be managed, like we manage capital, labor, raw materials, and production facilities. But lets put that belief to the test. As much as we say information is an asset, do we behave that way? Heres a set of question I often ask, when dealing with the subject: if you steal money or goods from the company, and you are caught, you will be ............ fired. Right? So if you withhold information from your colleagues so that you keep control over it yourself, benefiting from it alone, you will be ........... promoted! Information still equals power.
So, in reaching a state of information democracy, it is culture we need to focus on most. To end this post on a positive note: the technologies are there to help you, but success with information democracy is totally in your own hands!
frank
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at August 11, 2006 9:44 AM
