Using Information Audit to prevent chaos

1. Using Information Audit to prevent chaos Chantal Marcoux Director, Information Service Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec cmarcoux@lacaisse.com

2. Table of content La Caisse and its Information Services Information Audit Experiences Next Steps After an Audit Focus on Alert Services Lessons Learned 1 2 3 4 5

3. La Caisse and its Information Services What is La Caisse ?

4. Background • Founded in July 1965 • Act of Québec’s National Assembly • Initial mandate to manage the assets of the Québec pension plan (RRQ) • Now manages the funds of 19 depositors: public pension and insurance plans as well as various other funds

5. A major fund manager • Largest Canadian investor on world markets • One of the largest portfolio managers in North America • One of the world’s 10 largest real estate asset managers • One of Canada’s main private equity investors

6. Asset growth since 1966 In billions of Canadian dollars - as at December 31, 2004

7. Breakdown of total assets under management: $174.7 billion In Canadian dollars – as at December 31, 2004 Caisse Equity Markets Fixed Income AbsoluteReturn Investment Analysis and Optimization PrivateEquity Real Estate $115.9 billion $10.7 billion $48.1 billion

8. Story of Information Services at La Caisse • 1991 : Records management • 2000 : VP Strategic Information and Intelligence • 2001 : Start offering Research services • Goal : implement a good and complet information management within the organization • March 2003 : a new direction was founded called Information Service • 15 information specialists in two teams : records managers, technicians, research analysts

9. Information Audit Experiences Experiences and Definition

10. Information Audit Experiences • Winter 2001 • Surveys and Interviews with Samson Belair Deloitte & Touche • Winter 2002 • Surveys and Interviews with Montreal University’s Students • 2002 • Complete Knowledge Audit with LGS : Identified needs for a Directorate responsible for information and knowledge management

11. What is an Information Audit ? Process to understand information flows, information assets and information needs of an organization, and establish the best correlations between them.

12. Information Audit Two ways : Formal and Informal

13. Two Ways : Formal and Informal • Formal • Surveys • Interviews : Sense-making methodology • Statistics on all information services • HR analysis • Inventories : Technologies and informations sources • Library uses analysis

14. Two ways : Formal and Informal • Informal • Analysing organization reports : annual report, website, internal newspaper. • Asking questions when possible. • Participating in important committees and projects. • Contributing to social committees. • Giving research results in person.

15. Information Audit Sense-Making Methodology

16. Sense-Making Methodology • Brenda Dervin, PhD • http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/ • Commonly use in Social Sciences and in evolution since 1972. • « Sense-Making is an approach to thinking about and implementing communication research and practice and the design of communication-based systems and activities. » • Mico-Moment-Time-Line Interview : Help to identify gaps in a process and find solutions.

17. Sense-making Sense-making "gap" gap

18. Micro-Moment Time-Line Interview • Micro-Moment Time-Line Interview provides precise information on the respondent’sexperience: • the respondent’s understanding of the situation; • what were the questions that came to his mind; • which strategies were used to obtain relevant information; • Were they succesful; • Was the information obtained helpful; • What obstacles the respondent faced while searching and obtaining information.

19. Methodology Processes • Interviews • Select a regular task • Events or steps • Questions and sub-questions • Results compilation • Categorisation of events, questions, and sub-questions • Analysis and recommendations • Compare events and questions • Identify hard questions to answer • List all used sources

20. List of the Sub-Questions • Did you asked assistance? • What was the answer? • How complete was the answer? • How relevant was the answer? • Which level of effort was required to get an answer? • Which sources have you used/tried/considered? • Which one provided you the answer? • What was the delay prior to getting the answer? • How important is your source? • Level of difficulty • Did the answer help you or not?

21. Data • Results were compiled in Excel. • To understand the data’s meaning, the results were reorganized into categories. • Presentation of simple results and cross correlation.

22. Conclusions • Although challenging, information research is a key process for analysts. • Analysts don’t have easily access to quality information sources. • Analysts are autonomous and have a busy schedule. • While there is a variety of professional at La Caisse, information needs are quite the same.

23. Next Steps

24. Next Steps • Strategic planning • Alert services Implementation

25. Next Steps Strategic Planning

26. Strategic Planning • Data Analysis • Which services are in place ? • Who uses them ? • How do they evolve within your organization • Mission • Vision • 2-3 major goals for the next three years • Annual planning following these goals

27. Products and Services by Clients

28. Products and Services by Clients

29. Products and Services by Clients

30. Strategic Planning 2004-2007 • Mission • Manage all the Caisse’s information resources, both internal and external, in a comprehensive and integrated manner according to the industry’s best practices and respond to the strategic and tactical information needs of the Caisse and its subsidiaries. • Vision • Consider information as an essential and manageable asset, and the Information service as the main force in obtaining the best results. • Management Philosophy • In order to create value, the Information service must be involved in making the decision process more intelligent, especially in investments. This is achieved through a global, accessible, profitable and competitive vision of the information assets and a true understanding of the specific information needs of the Caisse, its teams and its employees. In other words, provide the right information at the right time.

31. Strategic Planning 2004-2007 • First objective: To structure the Caisse’s available information to facilitate access and sharing. Strategies: • Implementing and coordinating the Electronic Document Management System within all the organization; • Developing an electronic access infrastructure linked to related internal projects, ensuring promotion and sharing of available information to support investment decisions; • Coordinating external information sources management to promote sharing within the organization, create purchasing consortium, and ensure compliance with laws.

32. Strategic Planning 2004-2007 • Second objective: Support the investment decision-making process with research activities and competitive intelligence. Strategies: • Develop our analysts’ information research skills, while building a Research and Information Intelligence Team ; • Create and coordinate competitive intelligence cells within several investment teams; • Develop infrastructure to share primary information (i.e. Directory of expertise)

33. Services offers • Research and Information Intelligence Team • Researchs Mandates • Internet Training • Competitive Intelligence and Alert Services • Subscription Management • Portal • Information Architecture • Content • Link with ECM system • Records Management Team • Records Management • Entreprise Content Management (ECM) System Implementation

34. Focus on Alerting Services

35. Alert Services Implementation • Pro`s • Automate research • Higher efficency • Frequent update on latest trends or events • Time optimization • One step to look on all information sources at the time • Con`s • Need a research team • Take a lots of hours to manage, analyze and compile results

36. Alert Services implementation • Analyze the information needs • Focus on specific and strategic information needs • Identify the best information sources and CI systems • Establish the strategies into it • Test the results • Test and define the product format with the client • Evaluation and update • Establish link between CI cells

37. Lessons Learned

38. Lessons Learned • Knowledge workers manage information many times a day • Info pros goals should not be to replace knowledge workers, but to help them improving these competences,. • Information audit is a complet process and is not limited to survey or interviews. • Information needs evolve • A close relationship with your customers is essential • Training is very important • Easy technology that organize all the information needed by your customers and technologies that enable them to find everything is not available yet…

39. Thank you ! • If you have any questions… Chantal Marcoux 613-236-1687 cmarcoux@lacaisse.com