If employees possess valuable knowledge, government needs to identify this early, define a capture and knowledge-sharing strategy, and close the loop to any vulnerability. Therefore commencing a KM program is a key component of this five year plan. 5.5 CLOUD COMPUTING A growing number of private and public organizations are turning to clouds or investigating the use of clouds to manage key applications, including basic word processing and spreadsheets through Google, CRM tools, ERP and databases. Many major enterprise application vendors have adapted or are adapting their applications to run in the cloud. Cloud computing is a new technology trend that has potential cost and other benefits for the government of SVG, and therefore needs to be investigated further. The Cloud Computing model is illustrated in Figure 17 below. Secure clouds may allow the government of SVG to create ICT resource pools across WANs, which can reduce the number of servers needed by the public sector, boost availability, and improve disaster recovery. This technology has revolutionary potential and therefore a technical team will be established by Government to evaluate the appropriateness, cost and benefits of cloud computing and the possibilities of deployment in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the OECS Sub-region or the wider Caribbean. More details can be obtained in Appendix 7. St. Vincent & the Grenadines National ICT Strategy and Action Plan P a g e | 73 EFFECTIVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Information is the key to success when organised, processed, and available to the right people in a form conducive to rapid accurate decision making enabling the desired results. Poorly structured information prevents accuracy of decision-making. Today, ministries and agencies in SVG are being challenged by ineffective information management, and citizens and businesses are impacted by this shortcoming. Effective information management requires the careful and deliberate blend of human skills, processes and technology. SVG will therefore begin the process of improving information management across the public service with the strategic goal of significantly improving the quality of decision making at all levels of employees. 5.6