“Free Information” Series – Series Introduction

·      How is the concept of “free information” affecting those of us who used to charge for it?

·      Has providing “free information” become a cost of doing business?

·      Am I fast enough to compete in the Digital Marketplace?

Please watch this short “free information” scene on YouTube.com before reading…it's a scene from the Rookie...the video of Dennis Quad is a good image of how many of you may feel right now, not knowing if you can compete in this fast-paced, information-now marketplace. Since we are all still new in this arena, finding our entry in is the hard part, but if you have talent, and bring something to the table, like a 96-mph pitch, believing in yourself can be enough... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKAUhk5t3k

To deny that the online marketplace, our “new” business arena within the World Wide Web, is intimidating would be impractical, at best. Transformation of this magnitude affects us all, in all aspects of our lives. We are all learning together, at the same time…

Like “the rookie”, when we step up to pitch we must remember that our “old” measurement systems may not be properly calibrated to measure our extraordinary abilities.  

In the “Free Information” Series, I will uncover real concerns and struggles within many industries, as seen through the digitization of: newspapers, encyclopedias, books and references, music and videos, most of which are now provided as “free information” or by a “per click” fee basis. Join me for the next month in my exploration of the real value of “free information”.   

Monetized data: “Data with Value”

The real value of having data is in its use. Through the digitization process, businesses of all industries are increasing their assets by transforming their data into monetized data, or “data with value”. The value of that data is assigned by the tangible extension of their existing products and services into the vast Digital Marketplace. Data value is increased by the following:

1.   Usage by staff, resulting in new or supporting existing revenue streams.

2.   Enhanced service to existing customers, resulting in retention, therefore increased revenues.

3.   Exposure to new prospects, resulting in new revenues.

4.   Improved operational efficiencies, resulting in decreased costs.

The Library of Congress, strategically and physically located in three buildings on Capitol Hill, functions as the supporting organization for Congress, and serves as a national archive for the American public. Since 1800, this library has been the physical repository where massive data is housed for congressional research, critical to the governance of the U.S., including: all federal and state law books, foreign, international and comparative laws, all copyrighted material in the U.S., and the oldest and most comprehensive history of our country, and world. 

The Library of Congress houses 145 million physical items, and as a result of the massive digitization project underway, now includes virtual access to 19 million items within the Digital Marketplace. As a result, the value of this data continues to increase through the expansion of its usage. While this example refers to the Library of Congress, the principles can be applied to corporations, law firms, pharma, bio-tech, etc.

1. Staff benefits from advanced usage (i.e.) by automated cross-referencing of hand-written memoirs by past presidents, to historical accounts and economic trends of those time periods.

2. Existing members of Congress can more easily and effectively do their jobs, no longer required to travel, share, or wait for access. Congressional research can take place on a computer device from the office, during a flight home, evenings, weekends, or holidays even.  

 

3.  The Library of Congress accommodates approximately 1.7 million visitors annually. Through digitization, the customer base increases to 300 million Americans, and people all over the world, increasing the value of our assets and knowledge exponentially.

4. Staff is no longer involved in the access process; online access to this data eliminates all of the costs associated with retrieval, copies, fax, mail, mailroom, and tracking assets as they are viewed in physical form.

Library of Congress links, for your convenience:

Digital Collections: http://www.loc.gov/library/libarch-digital.html

Online Catalog: http://catalog.loc.gov/

“The farther backward you can look the farther forward you can see.” – Winston Churchill

Advantages to Monetized Data…from the Customer’s Viewpoint

In order to fully realize the monetary value of your digitized assets, and essentially find and maximize your opportunities in the online marketplace, the customer viewpoint holds the key. With countless large scale digitization projects underway, we no longer want open access to everything, we expect it. Therefore, the customer’s viewpoint is critical to the monetization process, and to the assignment of value to your data.  To use an everyday example, if I want to try a new restaurant for dinner, I simply type “seafood” and my zip code into any search engine on my laptop or phone, peruse pages of restaurant listings, and those with websites for menu items, pricing, and location, and then use the GPS in my car (or on my iPhone) to quickly and almost effortlessly navigate to the restaurant. Within minutes, any restaurant in my zip code, with an online presence had the opportunity to win my business, and generate new unexpected revenues. Advantages, from your customer’s viewpoint include: No physical boundary – more access, by more prospects, at the same time, from anywhere, as long as Internet access is available. No time constraint – around-the-clock access, regardless of time zone, time of day, or time. No waiting – shared access, by countless prospects, at the same time. Intelligent retrieval – unlimited access to all data, by accessing one element. "...soon it will be technologically possible for an average person to access virtually all recorded information." – Peter Lyman and Hal Varian, Information scientists at the University of California, Berkeley.

Blog Quote Reference: Akst, Daniel. (2003). The Digital Library: Its Future Has Arrived.

Monetization: What? How? Why?

Monetization, by definition, is the process of converting properties into a commodity; something useful with monetary value. In the world of digitization, monetizing assets means monetizing data; turning properties, both physical and digital into valuable commodities, not only reducing existing expenses, but creating new revenue potential.

Data monetization occurs through the digitization process, through the capture, storage, and application of that data into a valuable resource that can be used to generate new revenue streams, create operational efficiencies, and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Data monetization (and digitization) occurs through four phases:

1.  Identification of all existing properties, physical and digital born data.

2.  Storage and access of that data.

3.  Analysis, organization and application of business intelligence to data.

4.  Introduction of digitized data to existing customers and new prospects, often in the form of new vehicles of delivery (i.e. – website access, web and mobile applications, interactive smart response systems, etc.) 

Monetization of data creates internal benefits for an organization, often not fully realized until after digitization occurs. Management and employees, who understand their product and service offering, and work with company assets on a daily basis, now in the form of digitized data, are able to identify new opportunities to improve the customer experience and generate revenue, as their workflow processes change.

A newly digitized business can be to its staff, like a laptop with Internet access and the suite of Microsoft Office products is to a student who traditionally learned solely by use of textbooks, notebook paper and a pen. Both the staff and student have exponentially more data and tooling at their disposal for accelerated decision-making: more frequent and immediate decisions, versus delayed response. Improved decision-making, at all levels within an organization, leads to the discovery of new revenue streams, expense reduction, and improved operations, service, and retention. 

Of course all of this comes at a cost and needs to be done correctly.  Metadata, as we have learned in my previous entries is critical as well as the proper storage for your newly digitized assets.

Digitized data essentially evolves into legal tender. Benjamin Franklin once said, “The use of money is all the advantage there is in having it.” Like money, the real advantage in having data is in its use.

Offset Costs through Digitization & Monetization of Assets

One of the primary obstacles executives, archivists, and information professionals may face in the digitization of their physical assets is the cost. 

Traditionally, companies have used the supply and demand of physical properties from existing clients as a separate recurring revenue stream that directly affects the bottom line. By providing unlimited access to intellectual properties online, the ability to charge the same fees for access may diminish.  Additionally with the glut of digital assets available for purchase online, prices are diluted and similar content might be selected instead of your content.

Successful businesses already recognize that in order to keep up with the rapidly changing business world, they too must be willing to adapt and evolve. When a revenue stream is eliminated, the costs associated with that stream must be reduced or eliminated as well, in order to maintain financial solvency. Finding ways to reduce expense plays a critical role in the digitization process.

At LAC Group, we have an established team of efficiency experts that have been working with clients over the few decades analyzing, identifying, and advising clients on specific areas of information management and asset management expenses that can be offset or sometimes eliminated to create a return-on-investment as they re-invent their businesses in this new digital marketplace, whether through monetization strategies or reduction in physical footprint and inefficiencies/speed of information delivery. 

“Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing…layout, processes and procedures.” – Tom Peters

Marketing Advantages to Digitization

Marketing is one of the basic fundamentals of the “business of business” necessary to effectively identify and obtain new customers, and build strong relationships with existing customers to ensure retention. Effective marketing should not only convey your product, price and delivery methodology, but more importantly it is your tool to communicate the value you create for your customers, partners and society.  
Launching your business within the Digital Marketplace creates many new marketing advantages in product, price, promotion, and place, and positions you as a progressive and viable player in this new rapid-growth economic environment.

Products and services, with a digital footprint, demonstrate that your business is dynamic and evolving with the changing marketplace; that you are not only stable, but forward-thinking, innovative, and you are here to stay.

The Digital Marketplace may require changes and even creativity in product pricing methodology, but it also opens the door for effective communications with your customers that you are committed to add value and provide your customers with more.

Promotion is one of the most exciting aspects in digitizing and metadata tagging your intellectual properties, because it creates a new proactive channel for marketing your products, creating a broader and wider market appeal for you. The very nature of the Digital Marketplace places consumers at your doorstep, automatically reducing the time, money and efforts you have to spend finding them.  

Join me again next week as we explore the expense reduction offsets to digitization.

“If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Blog Reference:

SmallBizU: Marketing 101: Fundamentals

If You Want To Play Ball In The Digital Marketplace, You Have To Provide Information

Only a few years ago, we were all learning to embrace new online communication with our customers through emailing, and how to create a business website. Direct mail campaigns took on a whole new appearance, and more importantly so have we to our customers.

2010 Internet Statistics Email Accounts worldwide - 2.9 billion Emails sent on the Internet - 107 trillion Email messages sent per day - 294 billion Websites as of December 2010 - 255 million

In future blog entries, I'll review what my firm, LAC Group, is doing to address the need for enhanced communications, as email becomes the new snail mail.

By the time we embraced these new technologies and began realizing the significant improvements and cost savings to our business operations, the Digital Marketplace threw us a wealth of new tools to add to our arsenal in professional networks, multimedia, online news and publications, and smart links connecting absolutely everything.

Today’s consumer is not only smarter, but faster, a lot more resourceful, and a lot less patient... as a result. Consumers spend seconds perusing websites for the information they want or need, and quickly move on when they don’t find it through you.  

There is really no way around it, if you want to play ball in the Digital Marketplace, you have to provide information, and you have to provide it using multi-media, in real time. Digitization of your existing properties is fast becoming an expectation; the basic entry fee to successfully conduct business in today’s market. 

Join me again next week as we explore the marketing advantages to digitization.

“And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.” – Andrew Carnegie

Blog Reference
Pingdom: Internet 2010 in Numbers