Information management is a set of processes and tools to manage the structure and delivery of information. It ensures that data and information are available, accessible and used effectively throughout the organization.
It also supports the development of appropriate infrastructure, architectures, policies, and practices to support the full information life cycle.
Information is the lifeblood of a business
The flow of information is vital to the success of a business. It allows a company to keep track of its data and make decisions accordingly. If the flow of information is disrupted, it can result in miscommunication and a loss of productivity. It also raises the risk of error, which can lead to a chain reaction where one mistake leads to more errors.
Businesses need to have an effective information management system (IMS) in place to organize and manage the data they receive from customers, employees, and vendors. This includes ensuring the quality, accessibility, and utility of information. It also involves establishing clear channels of communication between departments and encouraging feedback.
Whether it’s the number of hammer and saw sales that a point-of-sale system tracks or the hours worked by a staffer, information is created by many activities. It can be collected from within an organization or from outside sources, such as weather trends, news reports, and hourly road conditions.
Information is a competitive advantage
Information management includes a series of organizational activities that deal with acquiring, storing and delivering information to stakeholders. It is important to note that these activities are not just related to technology, but also with the organization of unstructured data and other external sources.
Accurate information is needed to make effective business decisions. MIS is an excellent tool to help businesses keep track of important performance metrics and identify weaknesses. It also helps managers make better choices based on accurate data.
The process of information management includes the collection and processing of data into useful, relevant information. It also includes the storage and sharing of information with different recipients, as well as archiving obsolete information. It also includes determining the level of access to information for each stakeholder group, ensuring that they are able to use it for decision making purposes. It is also necessary to establish version control to ensure that information is not accidentally superseded.
Information is a liability
Information management involves recording, analysing, disseminating, archiving and destroying data. It also involves establishing a protocol for controlling information in its life cycle to reduce costs and increase the value of the company’s assets.
Workplaces that don’t have an effective information management system can waste time and money looking for the information they need. It can take hours to find a document that should be easy to locate in seconds. Productivity suffers.
Companies need to develop a process to protect their critical proprietary information from hackers, system failures and natural disasters. IM also helps them establish an institutional memory that will help them plan and make strategic decisions in the future. This helps them derive maximum value from their intellectual property. It can also reduce their risk of legal and financial penalties from accidental breaches. It also protects them from information leakage to competitors. The value of a business’s information must be balanced against the risk it poses.
Information is an asset
Information management incorporates general concepts such as planning, organizing, structuring, processing and controlling the flow of information. It also aims to reduce or eliminate unnecessary risk and increase the value of an organisation’s information. It is an important part of the business strategy and provides a critical tool for the success of any organisation.
When designing an IM system, it is important to consider the 4 “knows”. These are people (both creators and users of data and information), processes and policies, and technology. It is vital to have clear processes in place that manage information throughout its lifecycle. This includes version control and ensuring that new assets are created without superseding existing ones.
It is also necessary to determine how much content will be grouped into an information asset. This should be based on the value of the data and whether or not it will be used for a business process. For example, program source code, research documents and strategic slide decks should be grouped together to form an information asset.