The CIO as “Chief Information Officer”: The Synchronicity of the Information Management Cycle

Compared to the physical asset, Information Management should be managed more holistically as a corporate asset.

The abundance of information brings both unprecedented opportunities and risks to businesses today. Information is useless if it is not being used to achieve the business purpose. The aim of modern Information Management has often been described as getting the right information to the right person in the right format and medium, at the right time, to make the right decisions. The synchronicity of the information management cycle builds the foundation to run a highly responsive, hyperconnected, and high-performance digital organizations.

Information intensity: Information is the lifeblood of the digital business, and its lifecycle is complex. With the fast pace of changes, the challenges will only intensify. If not properly managed, it’s the underutilized organizational assets or even a business liability in the worst case scenario. Thus, IT leaders should make an objective assessment: What kind of information do you have, in what format, in which location, and method it’s held. The synchronicity of the information management cycle enables real-time information access and analysis by breaking down the silos so the information value will become readily apparent and quantifiable by association. The organizations who proactively invest in strategic information management solutions today will be able to competitively going forward by handling information intensity effectively and capturing business foresight and customer insight timely.

Information fluidity: Information and technology catalyze today's digital powerhouses with the power to respond to change quickly and innovate relentlessly. Information does not stand still, it flows into the company, it gets stored, processed, refined, and hopefully flows to the customers of the company in terms of products and service delivery. Information does not live alone but permeates to everywhere in the businesses, thus, the value of information is not isolated. Think of information collection, cross-functional coordination, strategy alignment, service categorization, goal mapping that are all derived from modern IT organizations. Information flow can streamline idea flow, catalyze innovation, and build the business competency. The synchronicity of the information management cycle enables the organization to improve the speed of the business transaction, idea-generation, decision-making, innovation, impacts the velocity of capital flow, and thus the business responsiveness. The real-time business insight and foresight enable organizations to capture business opportunities and prevent risks accordingly to improve the strategic management success rate.

Information Management Integration: The biggest misnomer regarding IT is that it is "just technology." This is the pigeon-hole that most digital professionals try to paint IT people into. The matter of fact is that a huge percentage of IT is about the identification and advancement of information and knowledge for the enterprise and its people. Information is a key enabler to help you achieve strategic business objectives – having the right information to make informed management decisions to develop the right products for serving the right customers. Thus, information management strategy needs to be integrated into the organizational strategy to allow the organization to serve, deliver, innovate and ultimately excel in business returns. The synchronicity of the information management cycle is about processing data, synchronizing information, and capturing business insight to guide the company forward by determining the strategic objective, identifying and assessing risks and adjusting the business speed. With IT consumerization trends coming along, organizations shouldn’t be led and handled with ignorance of what IT is fully concerned such as integration, governance, or risk management.

Compared to the physical asset, Information Management should be managed more holistically as a corporate asset. The synchronicity of the information management cycle accelerates the digital speed. An organization can approach such a flow zone when people are ready for moving to a fluid structure, and digital leaders are eager to set stages to drive a frictionless, immersive, and relentless digital transformation.

Posted in: Information/Data Management