Content at Rest vs Content in Motion - What's good for your enterprise?

Enterprise's without a clear information management strategy invariably mange unstructured content by storing them in file systems,mail servers and desktops. Content objects are rarely searched and accessed. Once an employee switches jobs, the device and user account hosting  the content is erased as part of the off-boarding process leading to information destruction and loss of data. This is typically the life cycle of content at rest Content at rest = Risk + Static Enterprise. On the contrary, agile enterprises with a clear information strategy have content objects in motion.Content in Motion supports business intelligence, analytics, enable collaboration and workflow and deliver true customer service. Such organizations lead the marked in innovation, rank high  in customer satisfaction and are forward looking in terms of return on investments to share holders.Content in Motion =  Reward + Agile Enterprise. Craig Rhinehart from IBM  alluded to the Content at Rest vs Content in Motion  theory in detail in his blog http://craigrhinehart.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/content-at-rest-or-content-in-motion-which-is-better/.

Organizations can transform Content at Rest to Content in Motion through the following actions:

1. Identify Content : Inventory your current  content objects by systematically identifying all of your content objects across departments
2. Defensibly Dispose: Dispose content objects that are erroneous, duplicates and unused. Examples include stranded sharepoint sites, legacy file formats and documents no longer valid. Ensure that you keep objects that are relevant to current business process and legal and compliance requirements
3. Content Analytics : Work with you line of business leaders to study and analyze the content, understanding trends and patterns and incorporating the results in the decision making process.
4. Customer Service : Ensure that customer service associates are brought into the loop to use the intelligent content on day to day activities

The above mentioned steps need to be a repeatable process within organizations to put content into motion. I hope it's obvious by now that content in motion is always the winner in any organization. I have borrowed ideas for this blog from Craig Rhinehart from IBM and would like to thank him for his excellent blog post. I hope this fuels more organizations in putting their content into motion...Watch this space for my next blog on Content Analytics using Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to enable content into motion