For the information a company generates and uses to add value, it has to be managed
Information is the most important asset in a company and, like human capital and material resources, it has to be managed.
We still find data generated by different areas and processes that becomes information at very high cost, through inefficient collection and validation processes before it is recorded in a management report. Nor is the absence of information management systems — Business Intelligence — a surprise.
We also find unused data consuming computing resources (databases, storage devices, servers) that could be put to more important functions. That is generally because the company has no policies or review procedures for cleaning up data, which results in poor-quality data that is difficult to administer.
The consequence is that the company will struggle to manage — let alone to bring in technologies that make it easier to process large volumes of data, or data mining and analytics techniques.
Part of the solution lies in bringing an information owner role into the company. Its focus is managing this important asset, promoting and implementing policies for recording, cleaning and governing the data lifecycle. This is not a technical role but a business one, assigned to a professional with detailed knowledge of the company's operations.
Richard Wang, currently director of MIT Information Quality (MITIQ), coined with other authors the concept of information as a product[1]. It holds that information inside a company should be conceived as a product — that is, just as when a product is described, information has to be clearly defined, has to be modified as the company's needs change and, like any product, has to be able to be withdrawn from the market.
That concept changes how information is managed inside a company: those responsible should not treat it as static, but always subject to improvement.
Wang proposes two main actions:
Understanding the information customers need at the different moments they engage with the company and its products. That means identifying the information they require when: (a) they learn about the products and services on offer; (b) changes are made to those products and services; and (c) the products begin to leave the market.
Treating information within the conception of a lifecycle: conception, design, development, maturity and retirement.
To give your information value — by using and processing it with technologies that support data mining and analytics — and to discover opportunities within it, reducing risk and increasing profit, you first have to be able to manage it.
[1] “Manage Your Information as a Product”. R. Wang, Yang W. Lee, L. Pipino and D. Strong. MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 1998.
