A Call to Arms
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| "Information is at the heart of any marketing activity.
Not only that: it's also the basis on which a company's marketing
either succeeds or fails." |
| Regis McKenna |
Born in the 1960s, at the dawn of the information age, the discipline of
marketing has always had information at its very heart. In the late 20th
century, marketing embraced technology, and the concept of data-driven
marketing became integral to business, impacting both the operational,
through the inexorable rise of Direct Marketing, and the strategic, with
ever more sophisticated use of Business Intelligence.
Successive waves of high-concept IT developments have transformed business.
Billions have been spent on projects to implement DSS, ERP, Data warehousing,
SFA and CRM. Yet at the threshold of the 21st century there is an uneasy
feeling that something is missing. The symptoms can be seen in the trade
press in endless articles citing alarming 'failure' rates for IT projects;
within organisations in perrenial complaints about poor data quality; among
customers in a widespread perception that standards of service are actually
getting worse, not better.
The problem with Information Technology is that we invested in the technology,
we invested in a whole new function within organisations to look after
the technology, and we assumed that information would somehow magically
be produced as a result.
Now it is time to recognise that we need to invest in information, we need
to invest in a whole new function within organisations to look after the
information and we need to develop the disiplines to manage information
actively and systematically to deliver value.
If you believe that Information Management is an essential function, yet
is missing or vestigial at best in most organisations, you will find support
and ammunition on this site to help you take your case to senior management.
I believe it is time for a movement led not by big IT vendors, not by big
consultancies, but by the people in organisations who work with data and
information every day. A movement to make the management of information
as legitimate an activity as managing the money, the people, the plant
and facilites or any other resource of the business.
Led by real people, grounded in their real concerns, with no agenda to
sell hardware or software, such a movement need not cost millions, but
it will create them.
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"...an invaluable
compendium of information on the most pressing challenge in
business today"
Sean Kelly
Comhra |
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"At last! Something
on data even an old Luddite like me can understand!"
Drayton Bird |
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"...a really useful resource to understanding all issues relating
to data management"
Prof Derek Holder
Institute of
Direct
Marketing |
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"...a down-to-earth, no-nonsense site designed to cover the
new practices and theory of Information Management"
Simon Lawrence
Information Arts |
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