The Business Productivity Programme – A Computing web seminar series in association with Microsoft

Programme Introduction:

In the modern IT-enabled organisation, success is determined by the ability to rapidly communicate with the right people, accessing the information you need, and supported by effective business processes.
To make this happen, an integrated IT infrastructure is vital to maximising the productivity of the people, processes and technology across the organisation.
In this series of three web seminars, Computing examines the emerging tools, technologies and best practices for improving your business productivity.

The programme will cover three key areas:

Web Seminar 1
How to improve business productivity through unified communications
Tuesday 5th February 2008 at 3pm

*This web seminar has now taken place and can be viewed on www.computing.co.uk

Web Seminar 2
How to improve business productivity through effective content management
Tuesday 4th March 2008 at 3pm

Web Seminar 3
How to improve productivity with business intelligence
Tuesday 8th April 2008 at 3pm

Event Overview

Web seminar 2: How to improve business productivity through effective content management

The combined knowledge of an organisation is found in an increasingly diverse and complex network of systems and processes. As much as 80 per cent of the information needed for effective decision making is unstructured – such as email, documents, instant messaging, web data, images, video or audio – and the volumes are growing fast.

The traditional structured database is no longer sufficient – nor sufficiently integrated with all these new forms of content. Managing all these disparate sources is vital to areas such as compliance, collaboration and innovation. And making sure that workers have access to the information they need be fully productive is an increasingly important business objective.

In this Computing web seminar, in association with Microsoft, we examine the tools, technologies and best practice for effectively managing corporate content, and discuss how it can improve business productivity. Put your questions to our panel of experts, and hear a case study from an organisation that turned content management into business benefits.

Who should attend?

• IT directors, CIOs, IT managers
• Content managers
• Information management executives
• Database managers
• Infrastructure managers
• IT integration managers

Why should you attend?

• Understand the business benefits that can be achieved from an integrated approach to managing your corporate content
• Learn from experts how to introduce content management technology in your organisation
• Put your questions to our expert panel
• Hear a case study of how one leading organisation approached its content management strategy
• Understand the emerging best practice in enterprise content management
• Understand how content management can help you to improve the personal productivity of your users
• Find out how content management technology can help you to manage and control your operations more effectively

Speaker Biographies



Steve Marsh – Technology Specialist, Microsoft Office Servers Group

Steve has worked at Microsoft for over 3 years as a technology specialist concentrating on various elements of the Microsoft Office system.  His current focus is the collaboration, search and enterprise content management capabilities of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Steve spent a number of years working on the research and development of novel semiconductor memory and flat panel display technologies at the University of Dundee.

Steve is a regular speaker at a variety of events and spends a large amount of his time working with Microsoft partners and customers helping them to get the most from Microsoft technology.

Jon Collins - Service Director, Freeform Dynamics Ltd

As Service Director, Jon is a member of the Freeform Dynamics management team and is responsible for looking after the company’s portfolio of services and alliances strategy, which are intimately linked given the open collaborative culture of the organisation.

Also an active industry analyst, Jon has an end-user background, having worked as an IT consultant, network manager and software engineer for companies such as Admiral Management Services Ltd, Alcatel and Philips Electronics. Through positions such as these, Jon has
accumulated significant real world expertise and experience in many areas of IT service delivery over the years, including IT service management, IT security, infrastructure management, IT architecture and application development.

Jon has worked as an industry analyst since 1999 for companies including IDC, Bloor Research, Quocirca and Macehiter Ward-Dutton. He is a widely published author and has acted as an advisor to leading vendors including Cisco, EMC, IBM and Microsoft; and to large IT user organisations in the Government, Telecommunications and Financial Services sectors.

Current Areas of Focus
Information Management, Information Security

Paul Marsh – Client Services Director, Content and Code Ltd

Paul has been involved in the multimedia industry for over 12 years. His interest in the industry started with a degree in Interactive Systems Design BA (Hons); a degree focused on delivering high quality multimedia to the desktop using CD-Rom and internet technologies. Skills learnt include depth usability, interface design, development and project management.  This foundation led Paul to develop media rich e-Learning applications for clients such as B&Q, Inmarsat and South West trains. 

Paul joined Content and Code in 2004 initially as a Project Manager, moving to Account Manager and then heading up the account management and sales team as Client Services Director.  Paul has day-to-day involvement in Content and Code’s key customer accounts including The Body Shop International, Penguin, Publicis (Ministry of Defence) and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen.