Consulting Services

Component Business Model for Digital Repositories

Receive an analysis of your current capabilities in ensuring future digital usability of your information.

IBM introduced the concept of Component Business Modelling (CBM) to structure the discussion of an organization related to: processes, services, organization and IT. The success of any long-term digital repository will depend upon multiple “open” services provided by a wide range of service providers.

CBM for digital repositories is very well suited to conduct impact analysis to discuss organizational structures, existing hardware and software solutions and business processes in the context of a digital repository. The approach is suggested as a way for other repositories’ instructions to manage and coordinate their activities, as well as complimenting current repository audit and certification activities.

Component Business Model

IBM has developed the CBM approach to help its clients to map business strategy to business components. Business components are the core building blocks of the organization. A business component identifies a cluster of activities that together implement some set of capabilities which are offered through services. Business components can be managed independently, and can be reused across the organization. CBM allows an organization to identify its core business components, and understand where there are opportunities to outsource and/or cooperate with 3rd parties. An individual business component contains the activities and associated resources – such as organizational structure, people, skills and technology – to implement specific capabilities (services) needed by the organization to achieve its goals.

The description of every business component should involve answering three questions:

• Why does it exists? – What is the business purpose of the component?
• What is it doing? – What are the core activities to support the business purpose?
• How is it doing it? – How are the activities to be preformed and what resources are needed, e.g. people and IT support?

The business components are clustered along two dimensions.
Horizontally, an accountability level characterizes the scope and intent of activity and decision-making. The three accountability levels used in CBM are Directing, Controlling and Executing:

• Directing - strategy, overall direction and policy
• Controlling - monitoring, managing exceptions and tactical decision making
• Executing - doing the work

Vertically, the major business competencies are identified. Business competencies are large business areas with common global objectives.

Digital Repository CBM Map

On a generic level five major competencies are identified which cluster the individual business components for an organization that has to manage a long-term digital repository:

• Service Management: Delivery of collection objects and associated services to the customers of the repository institute across the supported channels.
• Collections Management: Acquisition, processing and cataloguing of all publications, both for the research collection and the deposit collection.
• Preservation Management: Facilitating access to the different collections over-time, including addressing media decay and obsolete technology associated with each digital collection.
• Business Management: General management of the business of the repository institution.
• IT Management: Management of the overall IT infrastructure.

Service Management, Collection Management and Preservation Management are specific to organizations that manage digital collections, i.e. manage digital repositories. Business Management and IT Management are more generic and needed in any type of organization.

Figure: Digital Repository CBM Map

Our services

IBM’s Consulting Service- Component Business Model for Digital Repositories is designed to

• Identify long-term digitalization needs faced by your organization.
• Develop a strategy and roadmap by structuring your business along business components (see above figure)
• Provide a framework to articulate a transformation and improvement program
• Provide insides in strengths, weaknesses and gaps related to the effective and efficient management of a digital repositories in your organization

Your benefits

• Assess existing digital repository implementations: process, organization and IT
• Determine positioning of digital repositories in your organization
• Identify required services, sources and capabilities
• Get guidance during the transformation
• Complement existing audit and certification efforts like Trustworthy Repository Audit & Certification (TRAC) (PDF, 979KB)