Data Management and the Rent v Buy Model

Ownership and possession was once the goal.  This was at the time that possessions were hard to come buy and very hard earned.  As the 'wealth' of the average person increased the goal of possession became easier to attain.

However with the ownership of items came the relative devaluation of those items and in fact a negative aspect; clutter, disruption (potential loss) and lack of focus.  More items mean more work to manage them. (There are some noticeable exceptions to this such as home ownership in the UK where ownership fulfils a deeper security and stability need).

More and more people are now rejecting this model in favour of renting an item or service.  You only need to look at services such as Spotify for music or Netflix for movies.  Why own an item when, for a relatively low monthly charge, you can have access to whatever you need whenever you need it.  And most importantly, no storage, clutter and disruption for the other 364 days of the year that you don't.

In addition, the delivery of this information is through the web which arguably is available from almost anywhere rather than wherever the physical item is stored.

Is there an equivalent of this in the workplace?  I think there is and it centres around documents, data & information.  Working in an HR department, I have and need access to a whole host of information.  That used to mean cupboards and cabinets full of folders of information all neatly filed and stored for years to come.  It meant purchasing market data in books chocked full of raw data to be used once (if at all) for one off jobs.

Ownership meant management and potential distraction.  What I really want at work is an answer to my question, whatever question it happens to be at the time.  That answer will come from the information at hand.  I want it:

Unrestricted - Whatever data I need, is available, not just some of it
At point of application - wherever I happen to be at the time
In a timely manner - Accessible (& searchable) quickly enough to efficiently find what I want

(Some readers might find parallels in the above to the mantra, Right People, Right Place, Right Time)

This idea has the airs of "Paperless Office" but is more to do with "Online Document Management".  Although I don't think it will work in the corporate environment just yet, Evernote is a service I use in my home life which is accessible online, on a programme on my computer (for offline use) and on my mobile devices through an app.

This convenience is about unburdening yourself and therefore acting quicker and getting things done.

Have a think about it, do you really need to possess everything? Is a little bit of freedom and loss of burden in fact what you need right now?  What might you active instead!

Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.

(Photo by spykster via flickr used under a creative Commons Licence)