Quantum² : InfoStars : Margareta Nelke

Margareta Nelke

Tetra Pak's Margareta Nelke

Margareta Nelke is Manager Technology Intelligence for Tetra Pak. With around 19,000 employees, Tetra Pak develops, manufactures and markets systems for processing, packaging and distribution of liquid food around the world.

Margareta is committed to making sure that Technology Intelligence plays a very real part in managing information and making it accessible and useful to all Tetra Pak staff.

"I have been making a very special effort to drive end-user sorting issues within Tetra Pak," explains Margereta. "I believe the user should have every opportunity to search for information themselves without the need to go through some kind of intermediator. The Technology Intelligence team are working hard to ensure that Tetra Pak interfaces are increasingly user-friendly, so enabling the user to choose the right database and facilitate their searching. We utilize Dialog's Intranet Toolkit, for example, to tailor search forms so the user can more easily retrieve information."

But Technology Intelligence also offers a number of other essential services to aid the end-user. It provides a support function to aid end-user searching, undertakes comprehensive training programs and demonstrations, and acts as an informal helpdesk.

"I have also been expressing my strong belief that the information specialist should use their competence in services that add most value to the corporation," continues Margereta. "For example, instead of purchasing, we have developed order tools that the end-user can use to order things directly. This frees us to focus our resources on product and technique application development.

"We also use our resources to push actively for technology scouting, that is, to monitor the external world for new technologies and new partners that we can utilize in our development work. We have currently prioritized around ten technologies that we monitor systematically and continuously."

Tetra Pak derives great benefits from the team's commitment to deliver the best information management service possible. In world where change is happening at a bewildering rate — and where competition is so intense — Margareta believes that an organization should use what it has discovered from the outside as well from the inside. "That is one of our major contributions here. We are able to give guidance and advice on how to access external information as well as carrying out information searches ourselves, which I believe saves time and development costs."

And for Margerata the award promises its own benefits. "I am personally very honoured and pleased. As for my professional career I look forward to enlarging my network so that I can get some really good contacts. It's also very inspiring for me."

Of course being an InfoStar is not a solitary achievement, as Margereta is quick to point out: "None of this could have been possible without the input of dedicated and competent staff — there are only four of us in the team and I am very dependent on each one of them."

In the near future Margareta will continue to focus on improving end-user searching, making it even easier to carry out data-base searches. She will also play a role in the development of Tetra Pak's Intranet, an increasingly important tool for a global company in a global market place.

And Margareta's advice to the ambitious information professional? "It's always important to think 'out of the box' and to find opportunities in everything. There are always opportunities when things are changing, whether it involves technological or market changes. I've also found it very useful to network, to really talk to colleagues, and to visit them. And of course, reading is essential! Not only books about information sciences but also other business literature. And finally — be proud of what you are doing!"