What is Information Management

Information Management is to make sure that the right information is shared with the right persons at the right time at the right place. 

Information nowadays is a big resource and asset for organizations, and assets need to be managed successfully! When dedicating to managing business information for a couple of decades, shall CIOs go back to the fundamental, to ask themselves: What is Information Management theoretically, philosophically, strategically and tactically, anyway?

Information Management is to make sure that the right information is in the right place at the right time and shared with the right persons: Managing the information and the information position of an organization is what ought to be called Information Management. Information Management means: managing that the business has the information, that the information has the right quality (actual, right, complete,...), that the information is used properly, but also that the means to manage information (the information provisioning) is a strategic imperative. Today the recognition of information management is maturing with boards being educated on the power of information adding to the bottom line & top-line business growth, and, of course, the increasing cost as there's more of it.

Information needs to be available for consumption: Information is consumed by customers to make decisions. Internal customers use it to grow the business or better manage systems or keep people engaged. External customers use the information to make decisions to buy a product or service. Information Management is a service delivery business which is very important to all businesses and industries. Information Management is to gather, collate, validate, transform, load, and keep maintenance of controlled data into a controlled environment at the same time not compromising with the budget. Information Management includes a set of integrated management processes and services that enable and support the capability of collectors, producers and users to store, locate, retrieve and transform information, allowing it to become the right information in the right form and of adequate quality to satisfy the demands of the organization.

Information Management is the overall process of aligning the use of information through management, assurance, and exploitation: Information Management means by which an organization maximizes the efficiency, with which it plans, collects, organizes, uses, controls, stores, disseminates and disposes of its Information, and through which it ensures that the value of that information is identified and exploited to the maximum extent possible. The aim has often been described as getting the right information to the right person, in the right format and medium, at the right time. Information Management is the overall process of aligning the use of information through the MANAGEMENT (What data you have, in what format and the location & method it is held?), ASSURANCE (Data held is safe, secure and processes are legislatively compliant) and EXPLOITATION (Collaboratively enabled and fully support the business objectives).

Setting key principles to ensure Information Management effectiveness: Information management entails organizing, retrieving, acquiring, securing, maintaining, updating, distributing, sharing, publishing and finally archiving information. It is closely related to and overlapping with the practice of data management. The key principles to ensure that Information Management activities are effective and successful:
* recognize (and manage) complexity
* focus on adoption
* deliver tangible & visible benefits
* prioritize according to business needs
* take a journey of a thousand steps
* provide strong leadership
* mitigate risks
* communicate extensively
* aim to deliver a seamless user experience

* choose the first project very carefully

Information is used to educate, inform and provide decision making for people who use it. Information Management is the systems and processes which are implemented to access/publish the information. The key to IM is integrity. The information has to be approved and as up-to-date as practically possible in a system which can be accessed by people who need it.

Posted in: CIO Debate,Information/Data Management,IT Branding,IT Transformation