Overcoming the data disadvantage.

Companies today are operating at a huge data disadvantage because they are unable to capitalize on their rich storehouses of information to increase productivity, reduce response times, or improve customer service.

Eighty-five percent of the information that businesses need to operate does not fall into structured formats of automated spreadsheets or databases. Instead it exists in a wide range of unstructured content, such as e-mail, graphics, or video. With so much diverse information, employees spend roughly 25 to 35 percent of their time looking for the information they need to do their jobs. This disadvantage is only likely to increase since experts expect that over the next three years businesses will create more information than has been created in all of history.

The ability to rapidly disseminate information worldwide is the basis of CNN's entire business. Over the next few years. CNN is converting its news archive containing video of 21 years of significant news events into a digital library. This online digital library provides producers and journalists clear advantages in speed and flexibility. By converting 120,000 hours of video from tape reels to digital format, staffers can quickly search and retrieve news footage from their desktops anywhere in the world. In contrast, locating video clips from tape reels requires time consuming manual searching at headquarters, and must be physically sent out if needed at remote locations.

With digital content, staffers can edit, add new content, collaborate on stories, then distribute their work electronically worldwide. The digital library becomes a virtual file cabinet for working journalists and producers. Just as important, CNN's archive of historic news events, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela from prison, and the Millennium celebrations, can be preserved for the future, and no longer subject to deterioration as tape reels are.

In a similar fashion, The Coca Cola Company is creating a digital library of its advertising archives, containing more than a century of enduring images that defined its brand from Norman Rockwell Americana to Olympic TV spots. The ambitious project is integrating three extensive marketing and advertising archives: 9,000 print graphics, 25,000 TV commercials, including its memorable "Hilltop" ad, and important internal documents, and metadata with information on credits, and rights or restrictions.

The integrated archive at Coca Cola can be accessed by employees in more than 200 countries via its internal network. For example, a member of an advertising team working on a new holiday campaign can key in the words Christmas or "Santa Claus" and electronically search the entire spectrum of previous work on the same theme, and then share the results with colleagues regardless of location. The team can review low resolutions images that can be sent quickly over the network, and can also retrieve high resolution graphics for actual editing. The Coca Cola Company's online archive becomes a powerful business tool that allows employees to work together anytime, anywhere, which will boost productivity as it reduces costs.

Here are three proven strategies that can help companies capitalize on their data:

1 Integrate all systems, and be certain critical information is digitized, so employees can access every form of content, and share it, wherever it is stored. The Coca Cola Company, for example, is integrating graphic Images, video, and text documents to create a comprehensive archive of all its advertising and marketing programs.

2 Use open computing standards so systems operate on any vendor's server platforms, database systems, or content repositories. "Open means being able to use off-the-shelf applications, or legacy systems, providing maximum flexibility to add to systems as business needs evolve. without being locked into using any one product or vendor.

3 Deploy robust systems to manage all current content, as well as accommodate future volume, while maintaining fast response times.

With these winning strategies companies can overcome any data disadvantage and use their knowledge and information to achieve operational excellence.

Janet Perna is general manager for the data management solutions group at IBM (Armonk, NY).