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Member Spotlight: Craig Shogren

By Jessica Lombardo posted 10-02-2018 17:03

  
Member Spotlight on Shogren
Former chapter leader and now organizer of the member-led Office 365 SIG, Craig Shogren has been dedicated to helping people connect through AIIM.  I personally met Craig almost 10 years ago--his support, industry knowledge, and leadership roles have truly aided the community and exhibit the best aspects of what AIIM stands for. So happy to share a little more of his story here. If you haven't connected yet, please do so here. And if using Office365, help start the conversation in the new member-led group.  

Name Craig Shogren
Position
Manager, Information Governance
Company
HBR Consulting Group

 

Where do you live in? Des Moines, Iowa

How long have you worked in information management?  Almost 20 years!

What does your work entail? Do you have company support? How are you helping drive the goals of your office through your work? 

I spend a lot of time on the road helping folks solve their information management problems. I’m blessed to have a variety of clients in numerous industries all tackling the problems at different scales, with different technologies and at different velocities. 

On the home front, HBR is facing many of the same challenges as our clients are so we’re providing internal consulting to our own Operations and IT staff.  Change is hard though, even for those of us who preach it! We have great support, though, as we strive to move away from the Word-and-email method that has gotten the job done for years, to a more integrated and holistic strategy.

What has been the biggest success in your career in information management? 

My time in government at the State of Iowa was very rewarding and helped start a lot of conversations surrounding a digital government in Iowa. It wasn’t always fun battling State Archivists as they rolled their eyes at the young, punk know-it-all trying to convince them that a scanned copy could in fact be a record.  We eventually made a lot of progress and many of those programs carry on today.

What’s your current biggest work challenge?

Right now, it is keeping up with the constantly-evolving technology landscape.  As technology is finally “working”, organizations are waking up to the fact that there are actual solutions to help clean up the mess we have gotten ourselves into over the previous decades, and correct it moving forward. Adding to that is the considerable amount of regulation and consumerization pressures we are faced with.  It is a challenge for everyone trying to keep ahead of the latest developments as well as anticipating future trends.

What does Intelligent Information Management mean to you?  

I think IIM (ēm?) as a term and acronym is brilliant. AIIM, John and gang have done a beautiful job laying out how we have gotten to where we are and what is driving this “new” phenomenon that warrants another look at what we are calling ECM.

Don’t think I haven’t caught on that you can’t spell AIIM without IIM though; as someone who cannot spell his name without IG, I won’t go down without a fight. :)

 You’ve been a long time AIIM member, what is the value in AIIM membership to you?

AIIM has brought value in different ways and at different times throughout the years. I’ve been thinking a lot about AIIM lately. One of my first introductions to AIIM was soon after 9/11. The chapter had considered, but thankfully did not cancel their meeting that month. Don Scott was speaking and, as he is known to do, started with a song, Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the U.S.A. There weren’t many dry eyes in the crowd afterwards, but we carried on and learned a bit about OCR. Not only did AIIM provide some normalcy during those times, it led me to the broader community, where I found help solving problems, and made some good friends along the way who didn’t mind talking about the benefits of scanning in landscape.

Your content isn’t too shabby, either.

You recently started a new member community focused on Office 365, what’s your vision for the community?

Microsoft’s customers are starting to get real about managing information in Office 365, and are rapidly pushing past SharePoint and Exchange in their implementations. Nobody can solve these problems alone, and if they do, newer, more difficult ones will follow right behind them. The AIIM member community contain some of the brightest, most engaged people I’ve met, it is going to be exciting to see what discussions come out of it.

If others are interested in getting involved, how do they join? (I can add a link—but any extra info you want to add here is good)   

In my opinion, the best conversations in any forum come from the unbiased input across a spectrum of participants. I hope this becomes inviting to a variety of folks and we start to solve problems. So, come in and give your two cents, or whatever you can afford.

Now that it is fall, what’s  your favorite fall activity with the family?

Fall for us is filled with dance, and my wife, three daughters and I spend a lot of our family time dancing and volunteering in non-profit (but fairly large) ballets and performances here in Des Moines. For me, I tend to stay in the background and dance “inside,” volunteering on anything technical or that needs muscle. I will be testing my artistic side over the next couple of months, though, as the kids waged a campaign for me to lead makeup for the next ballet. Knowing their backup plan was me trying out for the role of Mother Ginger, I agreed.  So, if you see another community pop up around dance makeup, please come help me!


Thanks Craig--poweirful first AIIM story.  And if you need help with makeup--my daughter's community theatre makeup was off the hook--there are definitely some kids in Michigan who can help you do it up! I'm sure the Iowa kids know their stuff too:)
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