By Brian KopackSo you are cruising down the highway and the check engine light pops on.Panic.Thoughts run through your head - most of them bad - about what to do next and how much it is going to cost.More panic. You start preparing for the worst.You get someone to diagnose the problem. It isn't catastrophic.Relief.Since it isn't major, the urgency to act is gone. The problem hasn't gone away, it just hasn't risen to the level of a crisis. You decide you can live with "not right" for a while. Maybe, a long while.We are seeing that same scenario play out in our little piece of the content management universe. When the warning light activates in business - and it is a major problem, companies spring into action and call us for help. In a crisis, access to information is vital and that access has to be instantaneous. Audits, product recalls, lawsuits or broken water pipes that damage files all fit into the catastrophic-fix-right-now-category.Who better to call? Our experience and agility allow us to hit the scene quickly to start on the corrective action plan.It's always good to have someone to call when you need expert help quickly.What about the other, less urgent problems? Those are a totally different process.A dependency on paper. Manual processes. People-centric operations. We are seeing more and more businesses dealing with the chronically "not right". There's no triggering event to force action so businesses limp along with the status quo knowing they will get around to a fix someday.The arc of these discussions follows a predictable path: problem identification, a series of discussions, demonstrations and prototyping, a solution proposal, agreement and then....delay. No resolution, just delay. The problem is still out there, and it probably gets worse - just not bad enough to actually do anything. The status quo used to enable business through stability. Today the status quo is an obstacle to progress.In a world that's becoming more digital every day, business needs to approach content management as a "need to have" instead of a "nice to have" concept. The evolution of technology in content management has accelerated the pace at which businesses must adapt to change.Disruption doesn't always happen gradually. There might not always be a warning sign. Sometimes circumstances force change immediately. The worst time to discover you have an information management deficiency is in a crisis.From intelligent records storage to expert document conversion to proven content management systems to transformative professional services, our focus is on providing ideas with an inspired user-experience built for tomorrow's challenges - because that what's ultimately important. A constant focus on continuous improvement - not just preventative maintenance.That's IOS.
