Quantum² Highlights
A newsletter of the Thomson Scientific leadership development program for information professionals

Dear Quantum² Member...
Summer is unmistakeably upon us! Whether you prefer the cool of the pool or soaking up the sun, we hope you will take a few moments to register for a session this summer and read our latest e-brief on marketing your information services:

http://quantum.dialog.com/q2_resources/ebriefs/

Using Quantum² Competencies Contest

STILL ONE MORE MONTH TO ENTER! Remember that our contest on how you are using the competencies in the Quantum² Leadership Circle at http://quantum.dialog.com continues until July 31, 2007, so you still have plenty of time to enter to win an Apple iPod Nano.

The 10 Quantum² competencies are –

• Environmental Analysis,
• Knowledge Culture Vision
• Perception Analysis
• Relationship Management
• Management Buy-in
• Needs Assessment
• Service Definition
• Marketing
• Performance
• Measurement

It's simple—just tell us how you've used any one of the 10 competencies in a couple of paragraphs—no more than 250 words. Be sure to tell us if you went to one of our sessions first and then put into practice what you learned. You can submit your entry via email.

Entries will then be voted on by other Quantum² members during the month of August, and the winner notified on September 1, 2007.

So why not give it a try? You never know—it may earn you an iPod and a nomination as a future InfoStar!

Quantum² Topic of the Month
Defining Value: Communicating Service Benefits

As Quantum² members, you may attend sessions, explore the resources that surround the competency framework of the program, and, hopefully, use what you’ve learned to support your various projects. But, do you ever think it would be nice to have a definitive process to help you define the value, the benefits of your service?

What follows is a process that each of you could use to define and describe the value-add your information center provides to the organization and its clients, i.e. how it differentiates itself from the competition and improves understanding of its service benefit across the organization.

There are essentially 6 steps in the process:

1. Work with customers to elicit and prioritize their needs

To achieve this, you might first brainstorm with your information center colleagues. Then surveys and personal interviews, as well as ongoing feedback, can further inform your core ideas. Sometimes this is as simple as asking “what one thing that would make this service more valuable to you?”

2. Identify the services provided which address those needs

In working through this process, you will probably find there are three major activities that you provide to address customer requirements: selecting & delivering the best information solution, managing information solutions, and, finally, providing the training and support for information. You should categorize each of your services into these groups.

3. Link to service metrics

This is when you look into your projects for meaningful measurements to justify the cost of your information services. These metrics can be gathered whenever information services are consumed. Here are some tips to help in this task:

• Measure transactional services at point of use
• Allocate subscriptions and other fixed costs to projects or departments
• Collect portal or web site metrics
• Track researcher time by project
• Assess value consequence of user not finding or accessing info without Information Center intermediation

4. Craft clear language to describe the service offerings and features in terms of the customer benefits

Defining benefit requires defining the value of the service from the customer’s perspective. Think in terms of the value to the whole organization. In essence, you are connecting money spent to value gained. This is derived from tracking the actual metrics and by collecting feedback from your customers.

The point of this process is overtly stating the “Impact” of the service on the organization.

And the elements to include in an impact statement for an information center, for instance, are:

• The nature of the Information Center effort (e.g. searches)
• Who benefits (not just who was billed)
• What business/organizational work this effort contributed to
• The cost to the enterprise—what is being tracked

5. Decide what communications vehicles are required

Some of the possible vehicles you might choose are brochures, presentations, an open house, whether physical or virtual, or a well-crafted elevator speech. You might take a look at the marketing ebrief we mentioned earlier for additional ideas in this area.

6. Iterate over time to refine as needs change

Finally, you should remember that this is an ongoing process, one that you need to build into your daily workflow in order to be consistent in always communicating the value of your information services.