Table of Contents
A definition of information
Virtually any organization values information, which we can roughly define as data that is useful in a given context. The two most obvious reasons that information is important, are to govern an organization and to support operations. Business Information Management is a discipline that helps to collect, store and analyze data.
With this definition, useful means that it has certain aspects what makes the data valuable or worthwhile. To know when a train departs is not useful when you don’t need to travel by train. This data is useless to you in this particular context.
Some examples on when data can be information to a particular person:
- Data about sale trends, if you know why a product sells well, you have a better idea on how to improve on a product.
- Customer satisfaction, a higher satisfaction usually means more loyal customers. If you don’t know why you under-perform, you don’t know where to focus on for improvement.
- Information about the capacity of an information system, including the trend. If you can be proactive on installing more resources, you can avoid capacity problems.
- Knowing how to troubleshoot an incident means a system that can likely be restored/recovered more quickly.
The right information, on the right place, on the right time and in the right form. The way to organize this, I my opinions sums up what business information management entails.
Information
Information can come in many forms. It can be an email, a scientific article, a book, operational statistics, but also physical documents or instruments like a ruler or a thermostat. Sometimes information is knowledge that is in the head of a certain individual. Experimentally gained knowledge, like an innovation, or a way to do something more efficiently, can also be (important) information. Sometimes it can be difficult to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.
The right information
With the right information, I mean information that is useful (to someone) in the context. Therefore, we can evaluate a number of quality properties of information. Each example (not exhaustive) compromises the quality property in the way illustrated in the parenthesis:
- Integrity: The accuracy and consistency. (E.g. an incorrect/inconsistent spelled name)
- Validity: The extend to which information reflects reality. (E.g. 100% of the people that drink water will die. Although technically correct, water is not the causative agent)
- Reliability: The extend to which information is factual and reliable. (E.g. compromised when two information sources that contradict each other, which one can be trusted?)
- Actuality: The relevancy of the information. (E.g. a specific resource is depleted or increased in price)
- Relevancy: The degree to which the information is relevant to the situation. (E.g. sharing accurate and consistent data with a person who has no use for it)
- Completeness: Is all required data for a specific cause is present. (E.g. buying a product while forgetting that there will be a legislation soon that makes the use of it more expensive).
“Let’s stick with the train traveling analogy to make it clear: The properties above can compromise the quality of the information if you want to take a train from City A to City B on a specific date and time.”The right information, is the actual accurate time and place that you need to be to successfully travel with the train to City B. If the price and travel duration are important to you, then that is also the right (useful) information to you in this context.
The right place
To make this clear I will adjust the analogy a little. Let’s say your friend needs to travel by train from City A to City B for you to deliver a package. If you have the right information to make the trip but your friend does not, it seems the right information is there, but it is not in the right place yet. The right place (or person) is your friend in this case, is necessary to make the right information useful.
The right time
Next is the right time. The right time overlaps somewhat with the actuality property of the right information. The quality property “actuality” tells if the information is outdated or not. If the price of the train ticket increased yesterday with five dollars/euros, the old price is not actual anymore. The right time, in this context, means that your friend needs this information early enough to actually be able to make the trip at all. Two minutes before the train departs is probably not early enough. If the right information is in the right place, but not in the right time, it might still not be useful.
The right form
Information that is not interpretable to this other or too expensive for the business, is likely not the right form. When data should be private, encryption would also be part of the right form. For casual communication, an e-mail would likely be a better form than using Morse code.
Information Technology
IT offers great possibilities to manage business information. With computers, applications, databases and other tools, hardware or software, getting the right information in the right place at the right time and in the right form can be a lot more convenient.
Without computers, humanity relied on physical archives, and a stagecoach or maybe a carrier pigeon for transmission. These have certain disadvantages compared to computers (obviously), considering speed, accuracy, mobility, but also the possibility to store, retrieve and send (share/broadcast) and receive information in bulk (mass messages to thousands of persons at the same time, almost instantly).
To be complete, computers (and the internet) also have some downsides or disadvantages. It needs a great amount of electricity, infrastructure and technology to use and maintain computers and digital devices. This also impacts our planet.
Management with the use of Frameworks
With Business Information Management, the challenge lies with how to get the right information, on the right place, on the right time and in the right form. How to manage the processes that achieve this? There are certain frameworks available that can help with this task.
ITIL
You have probably heard of ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. There are several best practices suitable to arrange business information management processes with help of the ITIL framework. It helps to align IT with the needs of the business.
COBIT stands for Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies is a framework created by ISACA. The COBIT framework is for IT management and governance. It helps in risk management, cost reduction and gives insights into processes and information.
BiSL or Business Information Service Library is called DID (Digital Information Design) nowadays. It is a framework that focuses on managing the information provision for the business, while occupying the IT department of the same organization. While ITIL focuses mainly on infrastructure, BiSL focuses on the business needs.
Conclusion
The right information, which has certain properties and requirements. In the right place, accessible where needed. In the right time, when it’s not too late. In the right form, cost-effective, interpretable. With these four met, you are on your way to provide information effectively. To be effective overall, the human factor should be considered as well.
Business Information Management helps to collect, store and analyze data among other things. There are frameworks that helps manage this.
If you work under architecture, the architectural principles should be guidelines on how to shape Business Information Management.