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A conversation with AIIM President John Mancini about why we need to be thinking about revolutionizing our business processes. With the pace of technology change; half measures aren't enough to keep up. Embrace the changes and reap the rewards.

Duhon: Revolution is a strong word; why is a revolution in business processes needed?

Mancini: A revolution is needed in thinking about technology because the technology itself has changed so dramatically.

After 40 years of Moore's Law, we have reached the point where the cumulative impact of technology doubling over and over . . . and over every 18ish months has changed the nature of the game. It has opened up new possibilities of getting work done to workers and created customers in markets that were previously thought unreachable. Technology is increasingly capable of performing tasks that were previously thought of as impossible for machines to perform – tasks like complex pattern recognition, translation, and nuanced interpretation of information. Andy McAfee calls this the “Race Against the Machine,” and if we hope to remain competitive, we need to view our processes through a revolutionary filter.

Duhon: Document imaging and capture tools have been working and available for at least two decades; why do we still have so much #$(%&#)$*)#*$ paper?

Mancini: I think we still have so much paper primarily because change is difficult. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. However, as we push Systems of Engagement in our organizations, as we engage customers in increasingly transparent and direct ways, all of the weaknesses in our backend systems are suddenly exposed. And that exposure is driving organizations to overcome inertia and get serious about the #$(%&#)$*)#*$ paper.

Duhon: Social this, social that; why should anyone care about social – especially in the context of a BUSINESS process? Who in their right mind friends their boss anyway?

Mancini: In the next five years, we will look at the idea that email – a tool that was designed for one-to-one or at best for one-to-many communication — could be a useful tool for collaboration as crazy. The digital dial tone of our organizations for communicating with our customers and with our employees will not be email. It will be social. But the future doesn't just lie in bolting on social layers to existing systems. It lies in those organizations that can reconfigure themselves to BE social businesses. 

Duhon: Why is being a T-shaped person even better than having a 6-pack (at least in the world of information professionals?

Mancini: Nothing is better than a six pack. But once we get beyond that, being a T-shaped person is a pretty important thing. What we mean by this is a person that has domain or technical competency within a particular area or technology, but who leverages this deep competency by utilizing it within the overall context of how information is managed and how business is conducted. That is what the Certified Information Professional program is all about – giving people the tools to make their technical competence more meaningful to the business.

Duhon: What will attendees learn at AIIM's Content Management Boot Camp?

Mancini: Every revolution starts with a Manifesto. And attendees will get our Manifesto for Process Revolution. Without giving too much away, we believe there are 6 demands that organizations need to make of IT – but really, need to make of themselves — in order to compete in the next era. Attendees will get a brand new ebook -- #OccupyIT: A Technology Manifesto for the Cloud, Mobile, and Social Era. And the most amazing thing is that the first 100 attendees in EACH of the cities will get a voucher to take the Certified Information Professional exam FOR FREE. That's worth $265. Frankly, I'd go to the event just to get the voucher!

Duhon: We have our official, 10 reasons to go; in your words; why should someone take the time out of their hectic schedule to spend a day with AIIM?

Mancini: The status quo no longer works. Geoff Moore summarized it well in the white paper on the Future of Enterprise IT that he wrote for us last year – "Why is it that in terms of technology I feel so powerful as a consumer and so lame as an employee?" It's time to do something about it, and it starts by being a Process revolutionary in your organization.

...If you are business executive struggling with how to get value out of all information you are gathering...

...if you are an IT manager looking to remain relevant at a time when technical knowledge alone seems to be becoming a commodity...

---if you are a compliance officer or a records manager worried that the old ways of managing information risk are drowning in the torrent of information hitting your organization...

THEN YOU ARE AN INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL, AND THIS BOOT CAMP IS FOR YOU.