There’s nothing you can do about yesterday. But tomorrow? All things are
possible.
As I write, the Dow has eclipsed 10,500. Many are
the alarmists, talking heads, and short-sellers who are saying that it’s
“irrational.” It may well be – but the Dow has beaten its way back from a low of
nearly 6,500 in just nine months – which means that if you sat on the sidelines,
with no money in the market, you just missed out on one of the most profound
wealth-building opportunities in the history of Wall Street.
Frozen with fear
To add injury to injury, many of my
friends who sat on the sidelines are the same ones who moved their 401Ks from
equities into cash near the bottom in February and March of ’09. Many are still
standing idly by, frozen with uncertainty, unable to make a move.
Now: I’m not suggesting you listen only to Kudlow and Cramer, because not
only will they elevate your blood sugar to dangerous levels, you'll also not get
the full picture any more than if you listened only to the pessimists.
What’s happening in your market?
This editorial,
however, is not about the stock market – but about your market. It’s not about
Wall Street, but about your street – where you live, or where you do business.
These have been a tough couple of years. But there are indications that things
may be getting better. And, if the entire history of The Republic is of any
lesson, things always have gotten better.
Yes, if your business was overextended when the economy tumbled, it was a
painful blow, to be sure. But don’t allow negativity to blind you to the future.
If you're not "in the market" when the economy returns, you could miss out on a
terrific opportunity. And the best part of it is that while being "in the
market" for stocks requires real money, all you need to be "in the ECM market"
when the economy returns is information.
Want the best intelligence at the lowest cost?
Where do
you find that intelligence? A great place to start is on page 8 of this very
magazine. AIIM’s info 360 international exposition + conference in April offers
a truly mind-boggling array of AIIM training, conference tracks, and advice from
your peers, including experts at Forrester, the Jet Propulsion Lab,
Bristol-Myers Squib, Boston Scientific, Presbyterian Healthcare, and the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.
Bone up on Business Process Management, eDiscovery, Electronic Medical
Records, SharePoint, Web Content Management, and so much more. And, thanks to
sponsor underwriting, conference registration fees have been slashed this year
by more than 50 percent!
You cannot, will not, find more valuable information in one place anywhere
else at any price.
One of my very best friends, buddy No. 1, is notorious for utterly
stewing in regrets about having missed out on great opportunities in
the stock market. A much healthier attitude comes from buddy No. 2, who is
always of the opinion that “When it comes to stocks, there’s always another
opportunity. But if you focus on the past, you won't see the very opportunities
that are right in front of your eyes today.”
I think it’s great advice – and for a lot more than stocks.
Benjamin L.
Herring is the editor-in-chief of Infonomics.
The healthcare industry is especially good at confusing terminology. Consider
labels such as ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) or its cousin ADD
(Attention Deficit Disorder) or OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) or DSPS
(Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome). Or ED, which I won’t define further because the
joke potential is far too rich for a technology magazine. However, judging by
the volume of ads on television, ED must be the single most pressing issue
facing humanity.
Conditions are sometimes identified and labeled quickly in order to apply a
cure that masks a great deal of complexity.
Usually these simple labels and their proposed cures are accompanied by a
torrent of facts and disclaimers that belie the very simplicity the label was
supposed to imply. The long string of rapidly spoken legal and health
disclaimers at the end of any drug pitch have brought a whole new set of
embarrassing and uncomfortable subjects and conditions right into our living
rooms. (Just between us guys – would you really wait 4 hours before seeking
medical attention?)
Which brings me to that string of initials used to describe in our industry.
You know the one I mean. It's OK to say it. Don't be embarrassed: ECM.
ECM and ED have a lot in common. Hah – I bet that's never been said before.
Looking at the fine print in a newspaper advertisement this morning, I noticed
that a side effect of ED pharmaceutical remedies can be "a decrease or loss of
vision or hearing – sometimes with ringing in the ears and dizziness." At times,
I've heard end users describe ECM sales pitches in similar terms.
Gosh, there’s rich joke potential here. But my wife insists I resist the
temptation for a string of cheap jokes and get to my point. So here it is:.
“ECM” – too simple for a complicated space?
We have
spent a decade collectively trying to apply a very simple label to a very
complicated technology space. When we all started down this path, it was driven
by the need for a more expansive term to describe the changes going on in our
industry.
We all knew what we were talking about when our industry consisted of these
discrete parts: 1) document management; 2) imaging; and 3) workflow (limited
solely to the workflow of documents). But as the industry began changing about a
decade ago, we needed something more comprehensive to describe the industry we
were becoming.
Hence, ECM. The goal was a label like ERP (enterprise resource planning), or
CRM (customer relationship management), that could provide a shorthand reference
point for who we are and what we do.
This begs the question of whether we are a single industry anymore or more
accurately a collection of technologies in search of a business problem to solve
(i.e., a mainstream set of technologies). But let me put that question aside for
a moment.
Of course, like any simple term used to describe a complicated set of
conditions, those selling solutions in our space attached all sorts of
qualifiers and explanations to the ECM label to describe what they were really
talking about. All of which has had the effect of baffling many potential
customers. Because while describing a "space" is important to sellers and
analysts and is certainly a handy shorthand, users usually couldn't care less.
A data point to consider.
A few years ago we did a survey in which we
asked a sample of user organizations outside our industry whether they knew what
the term ECM meant. We even gave them some clues. The result? Less than 30
percent knew what we were talking about. I don't think things have gotten much
better since then. This same set of users place a huge value on the importance
of effective management of information to their longterm strategic success. What
a disconnect! So I have a question for our readers. In asking it, I don't
necessarily want to jump to a conclusion, but launch an ongoing conversation for
the next few months: "Is the 'ECM' label helpful for our industry, or
counter-productive?" Please chime in on the "ECM" question. Here's a link to
post your comments on my blog
: Join the conversation.
John F.
Mancini is president of
AIIM. He can be
reached on Facebook, Information
Zen, and LinkedIn, or followed on Twitter at
jmancini77. His blog is Digital Landfill
.