Working to deadline

Getting Enterprise Information to you, the reader, on time every month is a process very much driven by deadlines. But this month’s issue, it seems, is more focused on deadlines and targets than usual.

For a start, this month’s cover feature looks at the October 2006 deadline for UK social services departments to have implemented an electronic social care records (ESCR) system. The reason behind that is simple: in order to give children the best possible care and protection, local authorities – along with the police and health workers – need to capture and record all details of their interactions with these children.

But, as our feature finds, meeting the government requirements for ESCR will, for many social services departments, take a considerable shift in thinking and a major long-term investment in IT – and even the most prepared are unlikely to make the October 2006 deadline as a result.

Similarly, this month’s case study looks out how pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca uses a massive data warehouse – in conjunction with some sophisticated data mining tools – to ensure that drug development projects can be completed to meet ever-ambitious deadlines.

Finally, for this month’s Q&A, we chatted to Pat Farr, new media development manager at Guide Dogs for the Blind. Pat is in the middle of a project, and is therefore working to deadlines of his own, to produce an intranet that can not only be easily navigated by the entire Guide Dogs workforce (many of whom are partially sighted themselves), but also to which everyone within that workforce, regardless of their visual capabilities, can publish content.

We hope these articles go some way to helping you meet your own pressing deadlines and ambitious targets. And if there is any issue that you would like to see covered in the magazine, don’t hesitate to contact me at jtwentyman@ark-group.com

Jessica Twentyman,

Consulting editor

Features

Workshop: Realising the value of lessons learnt Free
Though many organisations have processes in place to identify and capture lessons learnt, most such knowledge assets tend to end up on a physical or virtual shelf gathering dust. Instead, they should be used to create rich and engaging content.

Workshop: Managing outsourcing agreements Free
Organisations should not have to accept sub-optimal performance from their outsourcing arrangements. But effective management is vital if outsourcing is to deliver its full value potential.

Workshop: Digital asset management strategy Free
There is a common misconception that digital asset management (DAM) is only of concern to certain types of company: publishers, broadcasters, record companies, film studios and other ‘media creators’. That may have been true at one time, but these days, many non-media companies are also benefiting from better management of their digital assets.

Feature: In good hands? Free
Vulnerable children have a right to expect the very best care and protection that their local social services department can offer. In order to deliver on that promise, local authorities are under pressure to capture and record all details of their cases electronically by October 2006.

Case study: AstraZeneca Free
At pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, a data mining application has given project managers access to the information they need to run drug development projects more efficiently, to get better use of available resources and to pay closer attention to cost control.

Regulars

Opinion: Take it to task Free
Over the past year, I’ve noticed a shift in the way content is organised on websites. It appears the old function or organisation-led way of categorising content is in its final days and the popularity of tagging and the other kinds of user-led content organisation prevalent on social networking sites has begun to influence business behaviour. And thank goodness for that!

Last word: Mind the innovation gap Free
No company is capable of stimulating and capitalising on innovation on its own. Each must close the gap between itself, its customers and its partners, making every effort to collaborate effectively. That was the underlying theme at IBM’s recent Business Leaders Conference.