1 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance IMARK Investing in Information for Development Information Dissemination Products and Performance © FAO 2005

2 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance At the end of this lesson you will: be aware of the importance of gaining a comprehensive insight into your current products and services; identify some criteria to analyze the capacity of your organization to disseminate information effectively and efficiently. Learning Objectives

3 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Introduction while designing an information dissemination plan, it is important to examine: the products and services in your organization's current portfolio; and the resources and management procedures that your organization has in place to create and disseminate them.

4 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Key questions The key questions concerning these issues are: Which products and services should you continue to offer? Which are candidates for elimination? Are there new ones that you might add? Does your organization have the personnel, infrastructure, and budget to generate and disseminate new types of information products and services? Does it have the management flexibility to adapt its structures and procedures to a new dissemination environment? Management Resources Products/services

5 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services Lets start with the consideration of current products and services. Your analysis should centre on four themes: CONTENT MEDIAQUALITYPARTNERS

6 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services: content What type of content does your organization include in its products and services? The content should be analyzed carefully. This will help you to ensure that the content matches the needs of your audience. Content could refer to one or more of these categories: Agricultural activities Resources Technologies

7 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services: media and channels How are your information products and services disseminated to audiences? The medium and the packaging should be analysed, and then related to: (a) the nature of the audience(s); and (b) the nature of the content.

8 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services: media and channels Now lets consider the channels used. What are the products and services that need improvement in that respect, or the new ones that need to be introduced? These questions will help you How often do you disseminate the information products or services? 4. What dissemination channels are used? 5. In what condition do the products/services reach the audience? 2. Are the products and services reactive or proactive? 3. How long do the information products take to reach the audience?

9 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services: partners Now partners. Which parts of the chain does your organization perform weakly in? Which organizations could be brought in as collaborators to handle the weakest aspects? Which parts of the creation, packaging, and dissemination chain can your organization do best?

10 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Products and services: quality High quality is important for all three of the issues that we are considering: Content. Low quality output will not meet audience(s) needs. Media. Some types of media will be unusable if commonly-accepted data standards have not been adhered to. Partners. Current collaborators will turn to alternative suppliers and distributors if outputs are of questionable quality.

11 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance Lets now examine the issues regarding organizational capacity and performance. These are the areas to consider: STAFF TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT COSTS

12 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: staff Lets start with Staff. Do your people have the skills to create and disseminate new digital materials? Will training of existing staff be sufficient? Will you need to think about recruitment of some new staff? Will you bring in some external consultants? What investments will you need to make? What is the situation in your organization?

13 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: technology The next area to consider is technology. How much should your organization invest in Information Technology to support information dissemination? Two general principles regarding such investments are: A wide user baseEconomies of scale

14 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: management Now management. Some revisions to your existing organizational structure might be necessary, because of new positions, new functions, new technologies, new products and services, new media, and new audiences.

15 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: costs The last issue is Costs. Adequate budgetary planning for the production and dissemination of information is important. Therefore, it is paramount to know in advance both the costs of each of your activities, and the budget available. How much money does your organization currently spend on information dissemination?

16 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: costs For an organization that provides its products and services for free, and does not have revenues, it might be difficult to systematically assess its costs and budgets. However, some common costs regarding human resources, equipment, material and activities can be used as a basis for assessment.

17 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Organizational capacity and performance: revenues One way to recover some of these costs is to charge for selected products and services, even though it is hard to charge for products and services destined for audiences less able to pay (e.g. farmers). It may be useful to include a business plan for each product or service in the dissemination plan.

18 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Summary To analyze the internal aspects of your dissemination plan: o examine products and services that you have in your current portfolio, and the resources and management procedures that you have in place to create and disseminate them. o analyse issues such as Content, Media and Partners, keeping in mind that your audience(s) needs determine both the content and the media used (and not vice-versa). o assess the quality of the products and services of your organization, and see how are they disseminated or shared with the users. o analyse your organizations organizational capacity and performance.

19 of 18 Information Dissemination Products and performance Services/ products Costs Annual ReportWebsiteMarket Information BulletinMonthly Farmers Magazine Human resources 1. Staff time 2. Training Equipment 3. Software 4. Hardware 5. Maintenance 6. Equipment(including depreciation) Material 7. Production materials 8. Stationary Activities 9. Communication 10. Distribution (mailing, providers…) 11. Travel 12. Promotion & Advertising 13. Consultancy Others