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Let us acknowledge that enterprise information management is a program similar to other programs that have been proposed over the past three decades. As such, you will likely find the following within your organizations:

• A perception that data initiatives (such as CRM and data dictionaries) fail all the time.
• A perception of wasteful spending on any “pure” information management projects.
• Hearty criticism of information technology area (IT)
• Ongoing complaints that the IT data is not “correct” and as a result, business areas need to create accurate data.
• A growth of stealth or shadow IT in reaction to the poor perception of IT.
• Plentiful evidence of projects that are implemented with shortcomings with the intention of addressing them later, and of course later never happens.

Rational people can look at the permutations of IT projects and say that they are of value. But the track record of prior projects makes full-scale EIM hard to swallow. The cruel fact is that without a good, solid, money-in-the-bank business case, EIM is a waste of time. History has determined that executives will not pay attention to petitions based on better access to data or single versions of truth. These were promised years ago, and the concepts are now part and parcel of corporate thought and myth. It’s sad but true. Just because the concepts are ingrained in corporate thought does not mean that a business leader will embrace EIM – he or she embraces the ideas that EIM represents. Barring any other influence, the business leader will craft those ideas into the image he or she needs at the time. That image has to be in the form of a solid business vision. To help create the appropriate influence for an EIM program that supports corporate strategy, a solid business case is required.

We know at some instinctive level that EIM is good, and we have talked about information enough to accept that it is an asset that needs to be treated in a formal manner. But due to the abstract features of information and data, we need to be creative in addressing the challenges of bridging those good feelings over to a business case.

Some components of EIM, like the technologies for data movement mechanisms, are, in effect, plumbing. Using an asset metaphor, they are infrastructure and could be valued across the entire enterprise. Other components of EIM or asset classes such as information handling and other applications lend themselves to direct business usage and business touchpoints, so we can likely tie some kind of benefit to their usage.

The asset metaphor therefore needs to determine how to make a solid business case that will focus and direct the entire enterprise and make EIM a philosophical underpinning versus a one-off program that delivers a “chunk” of information management.

Key IT and Business Considerations

The business case must also address IT failures and negative perceptions of IT departments. While perceptions may or may not be grounded in truth, they exist, and an ingrained perception that IT does not deliver will poison EIM. EIM should be delivered by the entire organization with causality spread between business and technology camps. Negative perceptions of IT can stem from many causes.

It is easy to blame IT. Information projects are sold with inflated expectations and therefore an EIM effort needs to develop a business case that not only manages but delivers realistic prospects. The case must also be business aligned and reflect directions required in current and planned business environments. Even if the component parts are plumbing, they need to be kept in the context of a larger organizational mission.

The IM road is littered with projects where IM staffs have locked businesspeople in rooms to draw models and define dimensions. These might be noble efforts, but they are not attention grabbers. To be realistic and accepted, the EIM effort must not be based on abstractions that depict business rules and models leading to nirvanas of business success. IM teams have been selling their techniques and tools as final products, but this is clearly the wrong approach.

Conversely, business needs to empower the IT function. The reality is that when IT projects are successful, IT often gets little or no credit for the benefits. . This particular view of benefits is a result of business not considering IT as part of the business. Nearly all initiatives require data of some sort. A business unit cannot claim all the benefits from an initiative if its objectives were enabled by data or information provided by IT. Even if the data is not from IT, it is still corporate data that cannot be claimed by a department. We should approach EIM with the mindset that benefits from data usage are global.

In cases where a business area leader really wants “better data,” and is willing to push hard and expend political capital, he or she rarely does so without a thoughtful business case that matches responsibilities across business and IT.

• The business case must address accountability. If the goals are not met, who is responsible? Historically, it has been easy to blame IT for failures to communicate, or to insist on business terminology that communicates requirements poorly. The business needs to share in the accountability of the project, even where execution falls largely to IT.
• Business leaders are poorly incented to do well at IM projects. We often hear that a good business sponsor is key to the success of an EIM effort, but sponsors also need to be invested in outcomes. The business sponsor can be as excited and supportive as can be imagined. But if, at the end of the year, his/her bonus or compensation is not tied to EIM-related goals, enthusiasm might not hold up to stress or business changes. The business case requires that business accountability be built into sponsors’ objectives and personal targets.
• Once IT projects are approved and undertaken, there is a tendency for interest to wane or old habits to return. Business areas need to understand that the investments continue beyond deployment, and that effort and will is required to sustain the project’s goals. Therefore, the business case must accommodate the costs and benefits of sustaining the effort and ensuring things change.

Principles