Leveraging the World of Information
Chapter 14
Information Systems Management In Practice 5E
McNurlin & Sprague
Introduction
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Document management: using new
technologies to manage the information
resources that do not fit easily into
traditional databases
Knowledge management and knowledge
sharing: using new technologies to
assist in capturing and sharing
knowledge among people
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Documents: Definition and Scope
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A document can be described as a unit of
“recorded” information structured for human
consumption”
Definition also accommodates wide variety of
documents used in organizations:
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Contracts and agreements
Drawings, blueprints, and photographs
Reports
E-mail and voice mail messages
Manuals and handbooks
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Documents: Definition and
Scope (cont.)
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Video clips
Business forms
Scripts and visuals from presentations
Correspondence
Computer printouts
Memos
Transcripts from meetings
New items and articles
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Documents: Definition and
Scope (cont.)
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A document is a snapshot of some set of
information that can:
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2002 by
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Incorporate many complex information types
Exist in multiple places across a network
Depend on other documents for information
Change on the fly
Have an intricate structure, or complex data
types such as full-motion video and voice
annotations
Be accessed and modified by many people
simultaneously
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Documents: Definition and
Scope (cont.)
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The Roles Documents Play
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Four fundamental roles for documents in
organizations:
 As a product, or support for a product
 As a fundamental mechanism for
communication among people and groups
within an organization and between
organizations
 As the primary vehicle for business processes
 As an important part of organizational memory
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Electronic Document
Management Applications
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Application areas that are particularly
susceptible to EDM are generic functions
in organizations that:
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Depend on documents as the primary
mechanism for getting work done
Are susceptible to emerging document
technologies
Have proven business value resulting from
the use of EDM technologies and
approaches
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
EDM applications that generate value
can be organized into the following
seven generic categories:
 To improve the publishing process
 To support organizational processes
 To support communication among
people and groups
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
To improve access to external
information
 To create and maintain
documentation
 To maintain corporate records
 To promote training and education
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Improving the Publication Process
 Documents are stored electronically,
shipped over a network, and printed
when and where they are needed
 Benefits result from reducing
obsolescence, eliminating warehouse
costs, and reducing or eliminating
delivery time
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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2002 by
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Supporting Organizational Processes
Use of technology to support these
processes generates significant
value in reducing physical space for
handling forms, faster routing of
forms, and managing and tracking
forms flow and workload
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Supporting Communication Among People
and Groups
 Primary value of EDM applications in
this category derives from the richer
communication offered by multimedia
or compound documents, and the
reduced time needed to distribute
documents electronically
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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Improving Access to External
Information
Two kinds of external resources are
time-critical information (news) and
reference material
 Ex: news wire items, newspapers,
periodicals, magazines, electronic
bulletin board items, books, video
tapes, etc.
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2002 by
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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Creating and Maintaining Documentation
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Documentation applications maintain the
“current version” of documents
Must be updated and accessed frequently by a
wide variety of requesters
Ex:
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Internal standards and procedures manuals
Engineering blueprints and diagrams
Systems documentation and operating manuals
Product documentation manuals and other product
information.
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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Maintaining Corporate Records
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Role of EDM applications in this area is to
manage this set of official corporate records by
providing archival storage and occasional
retrieval
Savings from digital image processing in storage
space and ease of retrieval are impressive
Additional value comes from:
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Reduced misfiling of important documents
Quicker and more accurate retrieval
Better access and sharing over geographic distances
Better version control
Improved retention management
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Electronic Document
Management Applications (cont.)
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Promoting Training and Education
 Continuous, sequential interaction over
time between the user and the
information through the learning
process, rather than a specific search
and retrieval event to obtain a
document
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Document Mining
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Document mining is the process of
analyzing a semantically rich
document or set of documents to
understand the content and meaning
of the information they contain
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Document Mining (cont.)
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The Value of Document Mining
 Valuable in many areas:
 Supporting the discovery process in
litigation: requires examining large
quantities of documents to find the
occurrence of specific topics relevant to a
trial
 Managing intellectual property: can help
analyze patent repositories
 Managing internal R & D: can be used to
analyze internal research reports and lab
reports to avoid previous pitfalls
2002 by
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Document Mining (cont.)
 Managing knowledge: repository of professional
services documents, white papers, and
presentations that can be analyzed to address
clients’ needs rapidly
 Business intelligence: monitor hundreds of
markets for technology shifts, emerging
competitors, and governmental regulations
 Organizing complex information: can select
relevant documents, cluster them into topics, and
visualize the relationship among them
 Managing customer relationships: analyze
customer feedback, etc., to establish customer
policies and procedures
2002 by
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Document Mining (cont.)
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Functions and Technologies
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Enhanced search and retrieval: improves the
process greatly because it’s based on the
structure of language
Summarization: based on lexical analysis;
“indicative summaries”: abstracts that indicate
content; “informative summaries”: contain
enough content to replace entire original
document
Visualization: often called “InfoViz” as an
analogy to data visualization or “dataviz”
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Document Mining (cont.)
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Categorization: automatically assigns a
document to one or more predetermined
categories; based on lexical analysis
Clustering: provides an overview of contents,
identifies hidden similarities and accelerates the
process of finding similar or related information
Genre identification: indicates the type of
document based on characteristics of language,
format, and content
Metadata extraction: process of identifying key
“features” and extracting them
Language identification: ability to automatically
recognize foreign languages
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Technologies for Document
Management
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Underlying Infrastructure: improve handling
information in any form; have attributes that
support document processing and management
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Stronger desktop workstations: permit display of
documents and delivery of nontext media
Storage media: hold large volume of bits required for
rich media documents
Networks: will interconnect workstations of most
workers, within and between organizations
User-friendly software: enable computer illiterate people
to deal more easily with documents on computers
Operating systems: increasingly document/object
oriented; shift focus from applications to documents
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Technologies for Document
Management (cont.)
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Document Processing Technologies
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2002 by
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Capture and creation: used to digitize
information
Storage and organization: determine how
documents are stored and organized
Compound document architecture: consists of
objects stored on different devices
Distributed storage: underscores the importance
of distributed document management software to
provide organization and access to resource
Integrating documents and databases: makes
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documents an integral part of information
Technologies for Document
Management (cont.)
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Hypertext: software that implements a hypertext
structure
Retrieval and synthesis: information retrieval, text
retrieval, and concept retrieval
Transmission and routing: functionality required for
business transport of electronic documents:
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2002 by
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Authorization
Authentication
Encryption
Filtering
Print and display: important technology is the wide
variety of digital printers and copiers on a network
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Technologies for Document
Management (cont.)
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Document Management Functions
 Status reporting: Who has a document?
 Access control: Who “owns” it?
 Version control: What is the current
version?
 Retention management: What are the
legal retention requirements?
 Disaster recovery: How and where are
the backup copies kept?
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EDM Guidelines for IS Executives
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Roles and Responsibilities
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
The IS department: responsible for evolving the
technical infrastructure
Records management: has valuable experience in
document management practices
Office management: files will be cross-referenced
among departments and linked with online databases
Library: external sources of information available
electronically
Print shop: more computer power
Training and education: based on multimedia
technology and computer-based courseware
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EDM Guidelines for IS Executives
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
An Action Plan
 Steps IS executives can take to
prepare for developing an EDM
strategy:
 Form a “document council”
 Form a document technology group
 Prioritize applications
 Develop an EDM plan
 Revise responsibilities
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Knowledge Management and Sharing
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Four stages that represent what people do
with knowledge:
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2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
Knowledge creation and capture: generating
knowledge
Knowledge organization and categorization:
creating best practices knowledge bases or
metadata indexes
Knowledge distribution and access: push-pull
Knowledge absorption and reuse: getting
knowledge into people’s heads
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Knowledge Management and Sharing
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The Cultural Side of Knowledge
Management:
 Behavioral red flags:
 Being seen as a whistle-blower or
messenger of bad news
 Losing one’s place as a knowledge
gatekeeper
 Hiding from others to prevent
knowledge sharing
2002 by
Prentice Hall, Inc.
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