The blog post discusses Question #2 of the SWOT+4 IM/IT Planning Model, which focuses on assessing an organization’s Information Management/Technology resources. It emphasizes the importance of inventorying existing IM/IT assets before acquiring new ones, and explores the complexities of determining what qualifies as a valuable resource, introducing the concept of a “grey zone.”

Question #2 of the SWOT+4 IM/IT Planning Model asks: ORGANIZATIONAL IM/IT: How can/does/should Information Management/Technology (IM/IT) support or impede what is important to the organization; does the organization have the right IM/IT and if not, when will it get it?

The Inventory of IM/IT Resources

Although there is a lot stuffed into this question, in this blog I want to focus on a small but important part of Question #2, what do you currently have for IM/IT resources?  If you have read my prior blog, you will note that this is an area managed by Step 13: IM/IT Fleet and Resoure Management of the IM/IT Lifecycle Model.

Before dashing off and building new IM/IT resources, should organizations not know what they have in the cupboard to start? Over the past twenty years, I have been amazed at how hard this question is to answer. So, to find it out, let us define the problem, “what exactly are we counting when we inventory the systems?”.

What’s in a Count?

Does the organization count its office productivity software (e.g. Microsoft Office)? If so, how many times should it count it? Once for the organization, once per user or once per every file created? Is a memorandum written in a Microsoft Word file an IM/IT resource that should be inventoried as a resource?

Likely most people would tend to say no to a Word file. Okay, how about a Word Mail merge file that supports an organization’s marketing effort? Perhaps this file has had thousands of dollars of custom Visual Basic scripts developed for it and links and performs unique functions within the organization. Would this Word file now count as an IM/IT resource? This mission critical ‘application’ is now entering the “grey zone”.

The Grey Zone of an Inventory

The grey zone is when IM/IT resources go from a commodity (e.g. Microsoft Office) to an operational, tactical or strategic resource for the organization. In developing an inventory of applications, the following graphic is my current thinking about what to count, including what I would see as the grey zone.

Purpose X Difficulty = IM/IT Inventory Placement

The horizontal axis asks the question, what knowledge is necessary to make changes to the application? As you move left to right, there is increasing technical knowledge needed to make a system change. The vertical axis asks the question, is this a purpose built application or one that was created specifically for the organization? Applications at the top are purpose built; those at the bottom are common to any organization or user.

Next Step – Mapping Systems to the Matrix

This blog is a teaser and in the next one, I will overlay applications your organization may have lying about on top of the model. One cautionary note, this blog was originally written in 2014. I am cleaning it up in 2026. In the intervening years, Software as a Service (SaaS) has taken off and the role of AI may very well blur things.

Let me know your thoughts, do I have the right measures or are there more than two dimensions that should be measured?