When there are shaky periods in the markets it is the right time to get it all together. The Baltic Times interviewed the head of UAB Sekasoft, a well known digital content management solutions provider in Lithuania, Antanas Jankūnas, who described how the company provides businesses with more opportunities in these turbulent times.
The Baltic Times (TBT): UAB Sekasoft celebrates its 15-year birthday in 2009. What opportunities do you see for companies during a time of economic downturn, given your solid experience in the area?
Antanas Jankūnas (A.J.): In the context of information management, a decrease in the intensity of business is a good chance to take care of things you had no time for when the business was expanding. We have to prepare the business for a financial "spring," which will inevitably come after "winter," when management of information will be a serious competitive advantage 's there is not doubt about it.
TBT: What are the most common challenges of information management?
A.J.: Well, first of all, information management should not be understood as only the management of structured information (numbers in tables, simply put), which takes about 10 percent of all information. Unstructured information 's documents, emails, various records, digital assets, e.g. audio, video, web content 's constitutes the remaining 90 percent and in some companies the amount of such information doubles every few months. Businesses started to outgrow document management systems, as they deal only with documents. Thus, Enterprise Content Management solutions (ECM) naturally evolved out of it. We invest in preparing such solutions to meet the rising needs of our clients.
TBT: Are content management systems only relevant for commercial business enterprises?
A.J.: No, they are effective in the public sector as well, including academic institutions. We have recently implemented Open Text Livelink ECM in Kaunas University of Technology, and it is likely to be expanded in nearest future. We generally see 100-1,000 user institutions (public or private) as potential clients, but it really depends on the amount, type and importance of information the company is dealing with. ECMs can be useful anywhere where there are large amounts and flows of unstructured digital or digitized information.
TBT: How can ECMs help to save expenses and increase effectiveness?
A.J.: First of all, it helps to save time. Once the system is implemented, people can spend their time on actual work and not on searching for information needed for work. Thus, work productivity increases. Second, when an employee is better informed, the quality of services goes up. A person then makes decisions faster and based on information at a real time 's thus the effectiveness and competitiveness of the enterprise increases. Moreover, money and time for printing, copying and delivery is saved.
TBT: Why have you chosen to cooperate with Open Text as the supplier of content management technologies?
A.J.: Open Text is the biggest independent ECM vendor and ECM is its only business, while others (Microsoft, EMC, IBM, etc) have many products and services to offer. Choosing Open Text corresponds with Sekasoft business strategy, because we also want to remain specialized and platform-independent, offering information management solutions for wide range of customers.
For more about ECM, contact UAB Sekasoft
Kareivių g. 6, Vilnius
tel.: (+370 5) 210 27 20
S. Daukanto g. 23, Kaunas
tel.: (+370 37) 32 13 41
e-mail:
[email protected]www.sekasoft.com
