Five good monitoring practices
As the key to information and business intelligence, monitoring or watch "is an information tool that enables you to stay continuously connected to your environment, whatever it may be. It's a process of information analysis that enables you to know in order to predict and act with aplomb". Cogniges not only offers monitoring services, but also personalized training. Whether you're interested in one or other of these services, or are simply curious, here are five best practices in monitoring.
A 5-step monitoring cycle
Cogniges has been part of the Communauté de pratique de veille en santé et services sociaux (CdPveille3S) since 2018. The information professionals who are members of the Community have adopted a watch cycle model that includes five stages :
- Planning
- Research, monitoring and collection
- Analysis and processing
- Distribution
- Evaluation
During an annual conference, the Community published a poster on best practices in monitoring, divided into the five stages of the monitoring cycle [1]. While these practices are all relevant and important, for the purposes of this article we have selected one essential one for each stage.
1. Planning: supporting your organization's mission
To qualify as strategic, monitoring must meet your organization's strategic information needs, while at the same time harboring the potential to become actionable knowledge for you, the clients of this watch [2]. This dual linkage enables you to achieve the expected objectives, i.e.: anticipate developments, better understand your environment, adapt to change, draw inspiration from best practices, fuel your thinking, stimulate innovation, reduce uncertainty, legitimize or support your decision-making and control your organization's reputation.
2. Research, monitoring and collection: using objective criteria to evaluate sources and information
Once the monitoring project has been aligned with your organization's strategic objectives, the sources of information that will feed this project must be rigorously selected, as must the information drawn from these sources [3]. Here are the essential criteria that will weave the sieve: relevance, target audience, authority and credibility, reliability, validity, accuracy and timeliness. Information professionals are duly trained to perform this critical analysis and deliver quality results.
3. Analysis and processing: adding value
Once it has been fed with judiciously selected information, the watch selected records are polished to optimize their added value and become actionable knowledge. This polishing involves "drafting deliverables adapted to the profile and information practices of the recipients and to the type of watch concerned: benchmarking, situation reports, summary notes, etc.". [4].
4. Distribution: supporting the monitoring product
When the monitoring product is ready for distribution, it will of course be distributed to all the product's direct customers. While this distribution is essential, it is only one part of the winning strategy for achieving the overall objectives. Here are just a few of the complementary components that need to be deployed:
- Regularly present and represent the project and the product in person internally, to maintain a continuous link and interest with the target audience. To do this, don't hesitate to team up with intermediaries or contributors [5].
- Use all internal channels to announce and preview each deliverable: intranet, collaborative tools, cloud computing, newsletters, etc.
- Use the organization's website and social networks for external promotion when the watch product is available to the general public.
- Use and enrich the communication plan associated with the project.
5. Evaluation: elicit customer feedback
Your monitoring project is on track, and the product is regularly delivered to the target audience. To ensure that monitoring remains strategic, it must be evaluated. In concrete terms, this means that the team must not only collect key performance indicators, but also solicit feedback from customers, through questionnaires or meetings, to ensure the relevance and sustainability of the project, which is then continuously aligned with needs [1, 5].
In addition, while respecting ethical rules and the confidentiality of mandates, watchers benefit from participating in peer networks - such as the CdPveille3S - which constitute "inspiration pools" for best practices in the service of their respective clientele [5].
References
[1] Communauté de pratique de veille en santé et services sociaux du Québec. (2017). La veille à valeur ajoutée : nos meilleures pratiques [affiche]. Congrès des professionnels et professionnelles de l’information, Montreal, October 11-13, 2017. https://praxis.encommun.io/media/notes/note_865/affiche_cdp_congrescpi_2017-10-10_final.pdf
[2] Drevon, E. (2023). Les utilités de la veille stratégique : une étude par théorie ancrée. Études de communication, 60(1), 37-54. https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-de-communication-2023-1-page-37.htm
[3] Cogniges. (2023). Criteria for choosing information sources wisely. https://cogniges.com/en/article-disp.asp?i=15
[4] Association des professionnels de l’information et de la documentation. (2023). Veilleur.euse analyste. ADBS.
[5] Dupin, C. (2022). Comment dynamiser son dispositif de veille. Archimag, Guide pratique « Réussir ses projets de veille », 8-10. https://www.archimag.com/le-kiosque/guides-pratiques/gp-72/reussir-projets-veille/PDF