Running IT as a Digital Solutionary for Information Management

Information Management is a key differentiator between digital leaders and laggards, high-performing organizations and mediocre companies.

Information grows rapidly and it is one of the most invaluable business assets of modern organizations. Information does not live alone but permeates into everywhere in the business. Thus, the value of information is not isolated.  Information Management is a scientific management discipline for effective problem-solving. Those companies that proactively invest in information Management solutions today will be able to competitively leverage their own information going forward with accelerated speed to thrive in the digital era of hyperconnectivity and fierce competitions.


IT is a solutionary for Information Management: Information potential directly impacts the business's potential of the organization's growth. IT plays a crucial role in managing information to refine business insight for either solving problems or capturing growth opportunities. The art and science of information management are about how to connect wider dots, clarify data, information, content, context, optimize information usage and achieve its value. In practice, the comprehensive solution to a business problem requires breaking down silos and capture cross-domain information and knowledge. Ineffective information management is often caused by the lack of understanding of what the raw data the organization has to deal with; not knowing how to process the exponential growth of information and apply the worthwhile evaluation to reveal the inherent value of information, even sometimes get lost about why they do those things in the first place. Information is the means to end, not the end itself. Running IT as a solutionary for information management is to effectively manage the information life cycle and ensure the right people getting the right information timely to make the right decisions for solving the right problems. The digital ecosystem is complex and volatile, for complex problem solving, understanding information context is often the first and the important step in gaining insight, creating the relevant business context to make a more lasting business solution.

IT should become a digital solutionary to enable measurable business outcome: Information flow can further streamline idea flow, catalyze business growth and build differentiated organizational competency. You can only manage what you measure. From an information management perspective, the measurement you selected should be part of a link of cause-and-effect relationships, and ultimately affect the growth and long-term perspective of the organization. You should put efforts into defining and taking the correct measurement, collecting the data obtained, analyzing it, evaluating it, determining what needs to be improved, determining what the actions are to improve it; taking actions to perform, measuring up and making the adjustment for improvement. Always keep the end in mind, the insights obtained from data mining needs to be converted into an actionable plan and the outcome should be validated in terms of financial figures. The effective and productive Information Management activities scenarios should understand and deal with the complexity of management, know how to prioritize based on the business needs to solve critical business issues, communicate extensively, deliver visible business benefits and achieve the high-performance business outcome.

The role of IT is a digital transformer by mastering the information management cycle and delivering innovative solutions: Most organizations are in transitions, to spend most of time or resources on dealing with immediate problems or handling daily mundane tasks. Most IT organizations get stuck at the low level of maturity for “keeping the lights on” only. However, to make IT relevant for the long run, IT needs to become a strategic problem-solver and a digital transformer. Managing information well is a tough course which often does not show up on the bottom line or immediately drives the top line business growth. But it helps the business thrive and achieve long term prosperity. IT should stand out as a value-added function by managing information effectively and efficiently to abstract customer insight and business foresight, bring up innovative solutions to meet customers’ need, reduce the cost to market and implement cohesive business strategies. Information Management is a complex domain, involves the use of technologies and processes with the aim of solving critical business problems. It’s important to take a holistic approach, set the right priority, delicately balance and rebalance the results toward the urgent but hard to predict outcomes and optimize the business value that is generated.

In today’s digital business ecosystem, Information Management is a key differentiator between digital leaders and laggards, high-performing organizations and mediocre companies. The value of information is qualitative, measurable, and defined uniquely to an organization. Information Management is one of the most critical management disciplines. If done well, information achieves its value, and IT helps to unleash the full digital potential of the business and rise up to the upper level of maturity.

Posted in: Information/Data Management,IT Transformation,Problem Solving