Why Expedite Is Different

 

Expedite is the world's first Information Asset Management System.    While other software products perform subsets of the functions provided by Expedite, there are 5 key differences that set Expedite apart.  All 5 of these requirements must be met in order for a product to claim it is an information asset management system.

 

The five attributes can be identified by the simple acronym:

B.A.S.I.C.

B.

Business Oriented.  The information and storage requirements are defined and specified by the business users of the information assets.  These are the ones who are attempting to run their organization using unstructured data.  Two key individuals are involved in each asset.  The first is the information owner.  This is a generally a manager who has been given responsibility to manage the asset.  The second is the information steward.  This person usually works for the information owner and has been delegated the responsibility to setup and maintain the processes around that particular asset.  These two people are the ones that decide how an asset will be identified, processed, exposed, and saved.

A.

Asset based.  The atomic unit of work in an information asset management system is not the individual file but the information asset. (Click here to see What is an Information Asset?)  Programs that force users to manage every file individually are NOT managing at the information asset level.

 

S.

Storage integration.  A key aspect of managing information assets is the knowledge and automation around storage management.  Functions such as setting the correct permissions on the asset components and being able to automatically recover a corrupted or deleted asset from a mirrored copy are just two of the required storage functions that need to be integrated within the system.  Many so-called data repositories leave storage management to someone else to manage.

I.

Integration.  All the pieces of the technology, from storage management to scanning paper to anything else involved needs to be integrated within the solution.  Integration can be further subdivided into the following four areas:

 

 A:  Automated.  The function should happen as part of the business process rather than having to be manually initiated by a user.

 S: Synchronized.  The function must happen at the right time during the process and conversely, not happen at the wrong time.

 I:  Integral.  The technology must be incorporated or tied together within the information asset management system.  There shouldn't have to be separate systems, user interfaces, security models, deployment options, etc., that add complexity to the system.

 C: Coordinated.  This means the function operates in the right sequence with all the other functions.  The different technologies should not fight each other but work together to ensure the integrity and productivity of the information asset.

 

C.

Cloud.  Today's business environments often require people outside an organization to be involved with the management of information assets.  Even internal employees need to access information while they are physically located outside an organization such as when they are at home, on the road, at a customer site, etc.  Consultants may need access to information assets while physically inside an organization but don't want to compromise the internal network.  The information servers may be located at a different site or at a cloud provider being accessed across a potentially congested network.  Remote offices have their own access needs.  An information asset system must not only support these different configurations but be able to control and enforce them based upon the specific requirements of the business and the specific states of the assets.  For example, it may be required to expose contracts to the customer involved but only to that customer and only after the contract has been approved.  Controlling the access infrastructure must be driven by the specific requirements of the information asset.