20 years ago, iCognition opened its doors and transformed Canberra’s approach to Information Management. Now after two decades, founders Joe Mammoliti and Nigel Carruthers-Taylor reflect on iCognition’s incredible journey and the challenges overcome as they prepare to introduce a new generation solution to transform their client’s content management once again.
Winding back the clock to 2003, Joe and Nigel recognised the world was in the throes of an information revolution. The amount of information being created, circulated, and churned through the vast networks was making heads spin. Thus, iCognition was born with a mission to help clients manage their information growth and find and secure their nuggets of information gold.
Building the company from the ground up, team members were hand-picked, sharing a vision to become leaders in information management consulting and implementation. The team collectively designed an enterprise-wide Records and Information Management (RIM) solution with a single source of truth utilising a Canberra-developed Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system called TRIM, by Tower Software.
“The amount of information bombarding organisations in 2003 was recognised to be increasing exponentially, particularly electronic documents and emails, and social media was on the horizon. We realised that simply throwing technology at the problem wouldn’t solve anything – somebody needed to come up with a concept on how to manage that information using people, processes and technology,” reflects Joe, iCognition’s CEO.
iCognition quickly became a key partner for large government departments, councils, universities and not-for-profit organisations. Fast-forward 20 years to reveal the accuracy of their 2003 prediction, with the market experiencing a rapid increase in security, privacy, compliance and regulation requirements.
“Not only did the information explosion happen, but we’re now hit daily with significant information security risks – while in the past these risks focused on database information, now all content is a target for hackers,” says Nigel, Executive Director.
The situation became more complex recently as the pandemic forced organisations to pivot quickly to online collaboration and information sharing, especially with increasing concerns about privacy and compliance. Unfortunately, many organisations found their information fragmented, leading to most RIM strategies being turned on their heads. Suddenly, information was everywhere, and records were mostly uncontrolled.
“That’s why the days of monolithic, enterprise-wide ECM (Enterprise Content Management) are over. In this new landscape, ECM systems such as OpenText, formerly known as TRIM, need to adapt to become part of a more extensive content platform,” says Nigel.
Organisations are now turning to Content Services Platforms (CSPs) to create a holistic RIM environment to govern and manage enterprise-wide content ensuring security, privacy, and compliance under a single framework. CSPs enable users to manage content across multiple information repositories and protect sensitive information while allowing the business application to become a source of truth orchestrated with other systems.
“With CSPs, systems such as HR, case management, and finance can all become trusted sources of truth, managed under a single framework for compliance and records management purposes, while also increasing productivity and service delivery around content-related tasks,” says Nigel.
So where does this leave the next generation of content and information management?
“After 20 years, we’ve seen it all when it comes to information management systems and processes. Honing this knowledge, our next-generation solution ensures users don’t have to jump from system to system to work with content from across the enterprise.
“The content is delivered contextually to meet the information needs of the user at the specific point within their work task, while still abiding by the organisation’s framework of policies, processes, and governance,” says Joe.
Scheduled for release in May, iCognition’s new-age solution will deliver an efficient and secure records management environment where users won’t have to worry about where content is sourced or how it is managed.
Stay tuned for more information or talk to one of our experts today.