The Information Capabilities Framework (ICF) is a strategic tool designed to help organizations maximize the value of their information assets through improved data management and integration. It emphasizes a capability-driven approach over technology silos and aims to enhance decision-making, agility, and compliance. The framework is intended to support organizations in evolving their information infrastructure over a period of 5-10 years for greater flexibility and effectiveness.

1. INFORMATION
CAPABILITIES
FRAMEWORK (ICF)
Albert Santiago, Alexander Y, Arsalan Khan, Guneet Gill,
Maryam Moussavi

2. Abstract
 What? ICF is a conceptual framework that is used to create
value from information assets
 Who? Enterprise organizations that want to utilize data within
and beyond their boundaries
 When? ICF should be considered at the Strategic Level.
Sometimes even before ECM & BI
 Where? We believe ICF is a strategic collaboration between
Business and IT
 Why? Effective utilization of information assets in a holistic
way. To make us plan for the future!
 How? Depending on your use case, you can utilize ICF
accordingly
 We agree with Gartner’s view on Information Infrastructure

3. Key Findings
People
 Adoption issues
 Resistance to change
Process
 Technical and non-technical governance
issues
Technology
 Tool technology dependent
 Not scalable technology platforms

4. Recommendations
 Use the ICF to identify the technologies that
contribute to your most important capabilities
 Move toward a comprehensive, deliberate
information infrastructure to allow for easily
accessed and shared, and lower-cost
information asset management and access as
the ultimate goal of modernizing your
information infrastructure
 Ensure capabilities that support big data can
interoperate with incumbent and emerging
tools to enable the robust quality assurance of
data

5. Overview
Organizations need to …..
 Describe
 Organize
 Integrate
 Share
 Govern data
in an application-independent manner in support
of info needs and business goals.

6. Maturity Model
Embryonic
Emerging
Early
Mainstrea
m
Adolescen
t
Mature
Mainstrea
m
Legacy
Obsolete

7. Technology in Depth

8.  Transition - “Information as a Byproduct” to
“Information as an Asset”
 Alignment - information capabilities to support
business model
 Integration - Move to a Cross-application-
enabling, Adaptive Information Infrastructure
 Inclusiveness - Ensure sources can address
the entire information continuum (internal,
external, Big data, etc)
 Leverage - the use of metadata to add value to
the business model
What ICF aims to do

9. How NOT to use ICF
 Silos - Should not lock information into individual
systems, rather use ICF to evaluate the existing
environment and guide the development of
solutions
 Ownership- Should not focus infrastructure on
“ownership” but rather on a “capability-driven”
approach
 Tunnel Vision - Should not be strictly followed
but used to question whether current capabilities
are appropriate instead of adding new silos
 Panacea – should not expect vendors to deliver
a complete ICF product, it’s a framework to be
customized according to each organization

10. Market Clock
ICF

11. Hype Cycle

12. Implementation Approach
Current State Transition Future State
• Determine challenges
• Determine context of
data
• Determine value of data
• Assess data capture
• Define
• Organize
• Share
• Integrate
• Govern
• Develop data strategy
• Develop cross-functional
usage
• Quantify and Qualify
• Reuse

13. Adoption
 ICF Adoption within organizations
 ICF Adoption across organizations
 ICF Adoption in the industry
 Key: Information = Strategic Asset =
Transformation
 Tools: No tool can provide all ICF capabilities
(Gartner) but there are data quality tools that
ensure data is fit for use within organizations

14. Magic Quadrant

15. Deployment Risks
 Risks with deploying ICF
 Organizational information synchronization should be a priority
 Figuring out which data to keep and not keep for current and
future use
 Collecting data just to collect data without understanding the
strategic consequences
 Key Data Indicators valued incorrectly
 Risks with not deploying ICF
 Ad hoc and haphazard ways of getting value from internal and
external data
 No competitive advantage due to lack of accurate responses

16. Competitive Advantage
 Enable business growth by:
 Improving the timeliness and quality of decision making through
access to a more comprehensive set of information sources.
 Improving the agility of enterprise processes for new context-
aware products/service introduction.
 Improving the ability to predict new opportunities or challenges
through pattern seeking, matching and discovery.
 Reduce/manage risk by:
 Improving enterprise compliance with regulations and policies
through improved information quality and governance.
 Reduce cost by:
 Reducing the cost of storing, locating and mashing information
through the information continuum.

17. Implementation Timeline
 Highly subjective and dependent upon
organizational understanding and adoption
 Phase 1 – Current & Future ECM & BI – 3
months
 Phase 2 – Current & Future Metadata, MDM–
3 months
 Phase 3 – PPT change and implementation –
3 months
 Total ideal implementation timeline = 9 months

18. Bottom Line
 ICF is a conceptual framework through which
organizations can evolve their information
infrastructure for greater agility, control and
value
 Information throughout the organization and
beyond needs to be defined consistently
 Focus on key capabilities in the information
infrastructure
 ICF is transformational within 5-10 years
 ICF is relevant to both old and new
organizations

19. Sources/Recommended
Reading
 The Information Capabilities Framework: An
Aligned Vision for Information Infrastructure
(G00215835)
 How to Use (And Not Use) Gartner's
Information Capabilities Framework
(G00215834)
 Microsoft Research – Data Explorer
 Digging for Treasure with Analytics