
Noise>Data>Information>Insight>Wisdom
(November 15, 2002) -
There is an old hierarchy that was once used to describe the various kinds
of inputs we receive:
Noise is unshuffled and unsorted signals.
Data is organized noise.
Information is distilled data.
Insight is sifted information.
Wisdom is concentrated insight.
Database Vendors sell noise. That's the best you
can say for huge volumes of input. Most of the product improvements in the
database sector involve improving the quality of the noise so that it looks more
and more like data. For the most part, volume providers have a difficult
challenge to face simply trying to give their deliverables a quality that is
more like data than noise.
Enterprise suppliers sell Information, Insight
and Wisdom (well, in the case of HR Enterprise suppliers, five year old wisdom
and insight) based on a platform that converts noise into data. The untested
theory that a database supplier can convert a dominant position in the noise
business into an "Enterprise Business" is flawed on its face. Noise is
a commodity business and while you can make mini-candy-cane-oreos in the
commodity business, it has little or nothing to do with the kinds of things that
go on in the Enterprise business.
It's also a mistake to see software installation
as an enterprise business. Successful software installations can be converted
into enterprise level relationships but only if the software vendor is free to
care about the needs, aspirations and objectives of the customer. In other
words, the enterprise business is really an extension of customer service
operations for a software company.
There is a huge need in our industry for an
enterprise firm that makes its living developing wisdom in concert with
customers.
The process of moving contemporary HR practice
into the next couple of years (the early stages of the final war for talent)
will involve significant amounts of real failure as we all learn to import
technologies and techniques from other disciplines into the HCM arena.
-John
Sumser