Bambi Francisco, Editor, Columnist and Correspondent for MarketWatch, lead a panel of institutional content consumers that are benefitting from many of the changes outlined at the conference. While the focus of each of these organizations was distinct, the common theme sounded by all of them was that it's oftentimes challenging managing widespread organizations trying to integrate internal and external content. Barbara Saidel, CIO for Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc., a global executive recruiting firm, sees the value of farming out contend needs to vendors, trying to keep only that which is uniquely theirs, but this is not without its challenges. She gave the classic example of a new hire in Europe who signed a contract for a Datastar database that had just the leads that they were looking for in their local markets, leads that the central U.S. office was not aware of. It's not easy to balance central control with local knowledge of what content works best for their own operations. Still, she manages to keep a fairly tight rein on spending in her $15 million budget for information services, trimming LexisNexis where she can and relying more on the capabilties of "Google-trained users" who have trained both themselves and their corporate information providers to give them easy answers quickly rather than relying on researchers. Ralph Barber, CIO for Holland & Knight, LLP, a leading legal firm, focuses on "keeping the planes and trains moving." With over 20 million documents in 30 offices it can be a challenge for Barber to organize this content and keep it available, citing the importance of understanding the value proprositions involved in delivering content from a user perspective and then making sure that senior management understands those propositions. Holland & Knight is using content from both LexisNexis and Thomson, and Barber sees them trying to understand the needs of their users equipped with content management software, but "the jury's still out" as to whether these vendors really understand their users' needs.

Adriaan Bouten, VP of IT and Business Development at USA Today, takes a publishers' view of infrastructure, emphasizing the importance of multimedia as an emerging capabiltiy requiring his attention and support, which keeps him embroiled in six content integration vendors rather than pursuing all-in-one content solutions. His timeframes for payback are notably shorter on average than his non-media counterparts, with solid ROI expected within six months in most instances. In this sence he's part of the product management team, plugged in directly to contributing to the profit equation with both products and essential audience measurements. These are goals which pay off in immediate product quality, but they're notably shorter horizons than Bouten's corporate-oriented panelists. Perhaps there's a story to be told here as corporate technologists get the lion's share of long-term content investment while tradtional publishers struggle along with infrastructure whose payback much be fairly immediate. It's great to be segregating audiences and providing precise measurements of ROI, but the short horizons limit how an organization can address their needs. In all of these examples everyone seemed to be far away from a perfect answer in managing their content. As Marc Strohlein, VP and Lead Analyst for Outsell noted, "Effective content software is still in its early stages," with most organizations still having to cobble together solutions from multiple sources. It's a varied playing field for institutional content these days, but one on which well-financed organizations are investing in solutions that can pay back both for the short term and the long run, even as content supplier patterns begin to undergo significant changes. Good luck to all of these panelsts, the game of providing the best content available is getting easier in many ways, but not necessarily any simpler.