Our approach to Information Management

The benefits of Information Management

Organisations with IT Systems are moving away from a Technology focused approach to an Information one, putting Information firmly at the front of IT. This makes sense as it should be irrelevant what technology is used to deliver a solution, the important thing is that it brings a business benefit, either by saving time, money or both.

By better managing the Information of an organisation it is possible to put a value on pieces of data in a computer system. The list of customers in a CRM system used to generate £10,000 of business, the report for the Financial Director that saves four hours of the accounts team time a month and the web service that allows sales teams to work remotely saving thousands of pounds of travel expenses. All of these are examples of how an organisation can use Information Management to improve the businesses and all of them have different technical solutions.

Information Management can also be used to reduce the environmental cost of the business. If a baseline of carbon emissions exists for an organisation then the impact of a new solution can be predicted and environmental impact reduced if possible. Collaboration, document management and electronic data capture are all solutions with a proven track record of carbon emission reduction, if implemented properly. For companies with strong environmental commitment TMC can work on a project lifecycle environmental impact analysis, factoring in project staff travel, equipment delivery and packaging waste.

If you want to turn your Information into an asset to the business then contact TMC today.

Information Management Services

Our most popular Information Management Consultancy services are listed below but we are able to provide bespoke solutions if required.

Collaboration

"A structured, recursive process where two or more people work together toward a common goal" (Wikipedia). Under the Information Management banner collaboration is about getting people to work today regardless of their geographic location, time zone or the availability of other participants. Collaboration brings the information that people need to the place and time they need it, reducing travel, time spent searching for information and increasing productivity.

A TMC Information Management Consultant will discuss your requirements with you and look at suitable solutions. The final solution could be Microsoft SharePoint for document collaboration and information gathering, Microsoft Groove for disperse project teams across multiple locations and companies or Open Source solutions. If you have Microsoft Windows Server 2003 then you have access to the power of MS SharePoint allowing one of our consultants to quickly put in place a proof of concept trial prior to a final licence purchase.

If you have employees constantly e-mailing documents to each other, losing track of which one is the master or having to merge multiple changes into one document then a collaboration solution from Technology Management and Consultancy could be the answer.

Customer Relationship Management

Client Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, CRM, Contact Management, contact list, address book are all terms used to describe software that has one core functionality, collecting information about people and organisations. Initially the information in these systems is basic contact information, name, address, phone number, e-mail address etc. Over a period of time extra information is added, including order history, preferences, personal information (date of birth, wedding anniversary) and the information becomes a marketing tool. It's at this stage a number of CRM installations stall as the organisation loses sight of the value of the data and the goals of the system.

Full CRM systems have moved beyond basic contact management and into full sales and marketing processing systems. If you have a well documented sales process then a CRM implementation can turn that into an automated processes moving the opportunity to the right people at the right time, ensuring good marks for customer satisfaction at the end of the process. If you don't have documented processes then a Customer Relationship Management system can take your knowledge and turn it into a documented and automated process. The same applies to marketing and order processing.

Working with all of the people involved in getting an order from lead to paid invoice a TMC Information Management Consultant

A TMC Information Management Consultant can kick-start a stalled CRM implementation and help bring the buy-in from the users and Management team to ensure the system generates value to the business. If you're using your system purely as an address book then contact Technology Management and Consultancy to arrange a meeting with one of our consultants.

Business Intelligence

To be of value to an organisation the data on an IT System needs to be visible to the right people in the right format and to be accurate. Not reporting on information may cause less problems than inaccurate or poorly laid out reports. Business Intelligence takes the old approach of reporting and moves it more towards a business focus. Also known as Management Intelligence a good BI implementation can drive a company strategically while allowing Senior Management to look back historically at the same time, and quite often on the same report.

The first step in a Business Intelligence implementation is to define the requirements of every business unit involved in the business and identify the types of reports they require. A TMC Information Management Consultant will lead on this and ensure the implementation has buy-in from every person involved. In the next step the consultant will locate the systems the required data is held on and work on processes and routines to place the data in the right format and location for reporting on. Finally the required reports are created and passed back to the report owners for sign-off, along with any recommendations on how the report could be improved or what additional reports may be of use.

Our Information Management Consultants can work with a range of tools starting with Microsoft Excel for clients with basic requirements or with strong Excel skills all the way up to Crystal Reports, Business Objects and Cognos. Using server tools such as Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services and Integration Services our consultants can move data between systems, aggregate it and prepare Data Warehouses for better performance reporting.

If you have a graph and need a table, a table and need a graph or the figures in two reports don't match then contact TMC to talk to one of our Information Management Consultants about how we can help.

Workflow

Using IT systems to automate manual processes such that they become reliable, auditable and improve performance. The simple process of getting travel expenses paid in some organisations can involve five or more people, more than four pieces of paper and at least five working days. Workflow automation should reduce the amount of paper and time involved and with proper Systems Analysis could reduce the number of people required.

A TMC Information Management Consultant working with tools such as Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft BizTalk and Microsoft Office 2007 can create a potentially paperless flow of information that ensures the correct approval in the correct order with the benefit of full transparency, allowing people to see where their document is in the workflow.

Workflow can also be developed that integrates with client and supplier portals or in a way that gives external people access to only certain areas of the workflow.

Organisations that find work stalled because the piece of paper is stuck in an in-tray, unauthorised purchases are made or have people carrying paper from one person to the next will benefit from talking to a TMC Information Management Consultant about workflow.

Paper Reduction

Although it's unlikely a true paperless office can currently be developed it is possible to have an office where the paper produced is reduced and incoming paper documents can be shredded and recycled with confidence. This reduces the amount of paper in the office and the amount of storage required. Reducing the amount of paper used can also benefit any environmental reduction targets an organisation may have.

The most beneficial way to reduce paper in the office is to use technology to reduce the amount of printing required. This approach uses a number of the services under our Information Management banner, including collaboration to prevent documents being printed for sharing, but also adds on electronic paper (such as Adobe PDF and Microsoft XPS) and secure e-mailing. It is possible to invoice electronically but if the invoice is a VAT invoice then certain security measures need to be in place to comply with HMRC regulations.

A TMC Information Management Consultant will review your current internal processes to identify where savings can be made in printing and work with your organisation to implement the appropriate technology. Once the work on reducing printing is complete the consultant will then investigate how to reduce and recycle the incoming paper documents. This may be as simple as introducing A scanning procedure for incoming mail or it may required a full Document Management System as detailed below.

If you want to, or have to, reduce the amount of paper both being used and stored in your organisation then a chat with a TMC Information Management Consultant should be your next step.

Electronic Data Capture

This can be as simple as a web form or questionnaire to capture a viewpoint on a product or service or as complex as providing field users with equipment to speed up the process of getting data into back office systems. Electronic Data Capture is all about enter once process many times and should reduce both the time spent entering data and the time spent processing it. Using tools such as Microsoft InfoPath and Microsoft SharePoint one of our Information Consultants can not only capture the data but also process it using Workflow.

An Electronic Data Capture project can be implemented independently of other systems and work to resolve one particular problem. A TMC Information Management Consultant can also work across the areas of collaboration, paper reduction and workflow to bring an organisation wide, holistic approach to how information is moved around the business units. A combined approach like this can deliver huge benefits and an almost paperless office.

Capture data once and at the most relevant time and place by talking to a TMC Information Management Consultant about Electronic Data Capture and a combined approach to Information Management.

Document Management

A Document Management System moves an organisation from a simple scan and store system using Windows Explorer to an integrated scan, translate, index and store system. Using this technology all paper documents are scanned but then OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and other similar technology is used to create a computer readable version of the image which is then indexed and filed. The document is filed according to specific rules and available by typing in keywords or browsing folders.

Some Document Management Systems come configured for specific industry sectors (such as legal, financial and medical) and link to client record systems allowing client files to be stored in one place and indexed once. True Document Management Systems should make it possible to shred and recycle every document an organisation receives, subject to permission from any relevant compliance body.

For companies that have a folder tree for client documents, a member of staff who scans and then saves incoming mail and a good naming convention but still find it difficult to find the right document quickly a TMC Information Management Consultant can advise on the suitability, benefits and costs of a Document Management System.