Is there a bad message for companies here?  Not really.  Each topic is worth exploring and every presentation in the fall conference season provides an opportunity for our clients to find that new nugget of wisdom to return to their companies invigorated and ready to achieve more with their programs.  Between ARMA (www.arma.org/conference/) , Content World (www.opentext.com/contentworld/2009/) , the SharePoint Conference (www.mssharepointconference.com/), and KMWorld (www.kmworld.com/kmw09/), Access Sciences has presented on and heard quite a lot about how to tackle the numerous information management and technology challenges organizations face today.  Between our pre-conference and regular sessions, round tables, and awards, our people were up on the stages of these conferences about 10 times.  So clearly we have a lot to say about managing information and the technology that helps make that happen.

Yet perhaps a simple mind-shift can underpin all of these aspects of an organization's information management and technology program and can help it take hold.  Perhaps that concept is so clear that you don’t need to travel far and wide to present on it or to hear it spoken by a Harvard professor.  Perhaps you might hear it in casual conversation over lunch with a respected colleague.  In fact, that is what happened to me just a few weeks ago.  Here is the simple guidance he offers his organization:

Manage your information as an asset.

Well, I’ve heard - and spoken - that message  before regarding information within and outside of our own organization.  And in another life I’ve even installed asset management systems.  But the foundational mind-shift this represents for the information management industry is significant.    Let’s listen to the words again:

Manage-Your-Information-As-An-Asset.

An asset.  What is an asset?  Let’s take a few things that might be assets:

• Cash?  Yes.
• Equipment?  Check.
• Real estate?  Uh-huh.
• Vehicles?  Sure.

So what do we do with assets in our personal life?  When we receive an asset do we just ignore it and let it sit unused on a shelf?  Do we keep track of whether we have it or not?  If it gets borrowed by a friend, do we pay attention to who has it and where it goes?  Do we keep track of whether it is earning anything for us, either by being put to good use or by earning interest income – or ideally both?

When organizations manage their assets (as in: their trucks, cash, and real-estate), do they do this ad-hoc, using spreadsheets and fileshares and other electronic “dumping grounds”?  Not usually.  Don’t they typically log their assets into a structured management system and track the use, life, value and disposition of the asset in a programmatic way?

Yeah.  That’s what I thought.  So maybe – amidst the many voices and perspectives in the industry conferences we help lead - a key message we can share is this simple:  Information is an asset.  A bit like cash.  Whether the organization's focus is on optimizing email, improving eDiscovery, sharing content, or managing records… perhaps these programs would be greatly enhanced if the organizations could treat their information as carefully as they treat their cash.