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David Tyler: There has been much discussion around 'Where is the value-add going to come from in future for imaging resellers and service companies?', and in fact AIIM dedicated a webinar to the topic recently. I think our readers would be interested in your thoughts, especially given the number of large mergers and acquisitions in the last couple of years.

John Mancini: The value-add for imaging resellers and service companies will frankly be with those that don't think of themselves as 'imaging' resellers. The days of a technology focused sale are over. The value-add lies in solution providers who are experts in finance and accounting processes. Or contracts administration. Or human resources administration. Or compliance requirements in a particular industry. Or… well, you get the idea.

The value for users lies in what Document Management can get you, not what it is. And in mature technology spaces, the key critical competency is domain competency, either in the horizontal processes that run through every organisation or in industry-specific processes. That's where the value-add lies - and that requires focus and discipline.

DT: I wonder too to what extent you agree with Howard Frear's (of EASY Software) recent piece in Document Manager, 'No time to relax'? It argued that, despite the Accounts function seeing DM as almost a commodity service now, there is still a very large part of any business that 'doesn't get' DM at all - is anything actually changing? And is it maybe changing slower than we in the industry would like to admit?

JM: I agree totally that there is a huge part of any business that just doesn't get Document Management. That ties again back to the point that no one ever woke up in the morning, slapped themselves on the forehead, and said, "Gosh, I need some Document Management today". Changing this is occurring more slowly than we would care to admit. And that's because selling a mature technology requires not only technical competency. It requires domain/process competency, and that is a much rarer commodity.

Document technologies have only just come into the affordability range for small and mid-sized companies. These technologies used to be too expensive for all but the largest organisations. That's changed now. The technologies are affordable, mature and have a proven ROI. But they need to be sold in the context of processes, not technologies.

DT: We've also talked before about how mobile and social are 'pushing forward' demand from end users for more 'user-friendly' technologies/interfaces - how do you think the DM industry is reacting to this pressure?

JM: The good news is that there are now many, many flavours and price points for content management functionality. The bad news is that there are now many, many flavours and price points for content management functionality.

The landscape is pretty complicated right now. There are 'big process flows' content vendors. 'File cabinet in the sky' content vendors. 'Start with your multi-function device' content vendors. 'Just do it in your cloud application' content vendors. 'Double down on SharePoint' content vendors. Meat and potatoes traditional ECM vendors. And so on.

The point more than ever before is this: Start with processes. Understand those processes and how they work. Get educated about how content technologies can revolutionise those processes. Don't even think about sorting through where you belong on the vendor landscape until you understand this. That said - don't even consider a solution that does not have mobile and cloud functionality, even if you don't need it right now.

DT: On the subject of Content Analytics, it seems as though we're almost at the point of saying 'this is a whole new job role that all businesses will need to consider for the future'; where will this kind of specialist come from? Will it be a records management person, a business analyst, a metadata specialist? And how can a business make sure that this role aligns to the business objectives?

JM: The opportunities created by content analytics highlight the need for a variety of skill sets. On the one hand, organisations need people who understand the data side of the house - in large organisations, these are likely data scientists. These are people who understand these technologies and how they work. The explosion of demand for data scientists is usually where most articles go when they talk about the impact of big data. My colleague Doug Miles has described these people as those with 'their eye on the data and their ear to the business.'

But that's only part of the puzzle. We usually think that if data scientists are the 'yin' of the big data/analytics equations, then data entrepreneurs are a necessary 'yang.' These are people who understand business processes and what kinds of questions we should be asking of our data and content repositories - people with their eye on the business and their ear to the data. Big data and content analytics initiatives are ultimately not about the technology, and not even about how we use data to test business hypotheses, although that is a good place to start. The most far reaching big data and content analytics initiatives are using these competencies to change the very nature of the questions that are asked in the business.
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