Information management
Network storage systems are increasingly becoming "electronic landfill" in which the 10 per cent of useful information (at best) is buried in the 90 per cent that is pure junk, says Peel Region CIO Wiseman.
By junk, he means the inexplicable excess of such things as the same file being stored hundreds of times; files and entire directories that no one owns or even knows is there; useless information being backed up nightly or weekly and taking more time than is available in backup windows while slowing down searches for valuable information.
"Most of us are experiencing 50 per cent or more annual growth in storage requirements," says Wiseman. "While storage costs are continuing to decline on a per terabyte basis, accumulating information at this rate is not sustainable."
Information can be a powerful tool for service delivery, but one that can also trigger strong reactions when inappropriately managed, adds Langhout.
For example, service providers in the public and private sectors are looking for the "sweet spot" where information about the customer allows the service provider to alert them to products, services or special offers that are of particular interest and then enable them to easily self-select those options.
The trick will be to make the tools more sophisticated without raising security or spam control issues, says Langhout. Giving users control of the parameters for outreach and allowing them to customize their views will be critical.
Information must also be packaged in a user-friendly manner -- accessible through a variety of increasingly mobile computing technologies.
"The challenge will be to be precise about the information that will be most useful to the customer, and resist the urge to add additional messages," she says.
Wireless, mobile workers
With the office environment virtually saturated with computers and other devices, the next frontier is our mobile and outside workers, says Wiseman.B
Again, many organizations, industries and government organizations have already made significant investments in mobile technology but the actual use of this technology in the field is still a long way from the same penetration levels of a fixed office environment.
"For municipalities, consideration of a wireless infrastructure that blankets the municipality is receiving the same interest as did municipal fibre networks 10 years ago," he says.
Remote access technologies like virtual private networks (VPNs) that support teleworking or connections from anywhere should also see wider adoption as well as such wireless and field-based technologies as GPS and AVL.
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