Every conference seems to have one topic this year: AI.
Which is slightly ironic, because many organisations are still trying to get to grips with information that's been accumulating for the last twenty years.
There's a temptation to think AI is the next step in digital transformation. In reality, many organisations are still wrestling with the last one.
Information lives in document management systems that have been customised over decades. It's spread across shared drives, line-of-business applications and archived repositories that nobody has looked at for years. Every organisation has that one system everyone is nervous about switching off, even though nobody wants to keep it.
None of this is unusual. It's simply what happens when organisations evolve over time.
The challenge is that AI doesn't replace those foundations. It depends on them.
The organisations seeing the greatest value from AI aren't necessarily the ones buying the newest technology. They're the ones that have already started bringing order to their information. They know what they have, where it lives and how it moves through the organisation. Their content, context and business processes work together instead of competing with each other.
That doesn't happen by accident.
It starts by understanding the information estate you've already got. Before migrating anything, it's worth knowing what you're moving, what's still valuable and what no longer serves a purpose. Good migration isn't about moving everything. It's about moving the right things in the right way.
The same applies to integration. Every disconnected system creates another place for information to become isolated. Connecting systems isn't simply about making software talk to each other. It's about making information easier to find, trust and use, wherever people need it.
Only then does AI become truly useful.
AI can only work with the information it's given. If that information is duplicated, poorly governed or locked away in disconnected systems, the technology won't solve the problem. It will simply expose it more quickly.
That's why organisations preparing for AI often find themselves doing something much more fundamental. They're modernising legacy content, simplifying complex information environments and putting governance back where it belongs.
In other words, they're creating the foundations that future technologies can build on.
At DigiGov, that's exactly the conversation Hyland and SynApps will be having.
Hyland helps organisations connect digital content, digital context and digital processes, creating a platform where information works together.
SynApps focuses on what happens next. Because great platforms deserve great delivery. Whether that's content migration, systems integration or preparing information for AI, the goal is always the same: helping organisations modernise without unnecessary disruption.
If you're coming to DigiGov and these challenges sound familiar, we'd love to meet you. Come and talk to us on stand I26 about the systems you're trying to replace, the information you're trying to connect and what you're hoping to achieve next.