Fundamentals of Information Management

Course Title Information Management

Module 2 Fundamentals of Information Management

Lesson 3 Information Resources

Object-ives 1. Explain the data to information to knowledge transformation process

2. Identify characteristics of superior quality information

3. Explain the process of the Information Life Cycle

4. Explain Records Management and how can it help the organization in reducing costs

5. Identify the stages of Decision Making

The discipline of business information management focuses on managing information

as a resource.

In our previous lessons, we stressed that distinguishing between the terms: data, information, and knowledge, is important for understanding the nature of business information management and toenable information to be managed effectively.

Let's take the example of ticket sales for the Lo-cost Airline Company (see Figure 1). Here data are recorded each time a customer buys a ticket as part of the sales process. The data will be automatically recorded in a digital form as customers or call-centre operators enter the flight booking via a web page. Since an airline will sell millions of tickets each year, in its raw form, these data have little value to managers in the airline. The sheer volume of data means they cannot be used to assess how well the processes are operating. The data need to be transformed into information using an information system for them to be used for decision making by managers.

Fig. 1. The data to information to knowledge transformation process

English (1999) defines the relationship between data and information as follows:

"Information is data in context. Information is usable data. Information is the meaning of

data, so facts become understandable."

With this information at hand, managers can use the information to ask different questions about the processes, for example:

* What is the split of revenue between sales to business and individual customers?

(understand markets and customers.)

* What proportion of seats do we sell on each route? (market and sell.)

* What is the profitability of each route? (produce and deliver products and services.)

It is apparent that to answer these questions, information systems are needed to deliver relevant, timely information which is at the right level of detail to answer each question. The information from millions of ticket sales will be aggregated or summarized to produce totals and averages across the entire year for different routes.

Ticket sales will also need to be compared to competitors who use these routes. Visualization using different forms such as charts and maps such as Figure 2 is essential to simplify the volume of data. Note that the FlightMapping service (www.flightmapping.com) is an example of an online intermediary website with a revenue model based on advertising and commission on referrals which has been created to meet online searchers' need to reduce their information overload. Of course a manual or paper-based information system would be incapable of delivering these information needs, so information and communication technology (ICT or IT) is vital to modern business information management. This ICT includes software applications to capture and give access to information, computer hardware to run these applications and networks to facilitate transfer of information within the organization and beyond.

While information from the information system will enable managers to answer the type of questions given above about processes, this, in turn, is of little value to the business if no action is taken. Managers need to apply their skills and experience to use the information to take decisions about how to change the way they use their resources to improve process performance. This application of judgment to take the best action is knowledge. For example, managers at the Lo-cost Airline Company will use their knowledge to act on information about unprofitable routes to attempt to improve their profitability. The concept of knowledge is less straightforward than those of data and information.

English (1999) builds on his definition of information to define knowledge as follows:

"Knowledge is not just information known, it is information in context. Knowledge means

understanding the significance of the information. Knowledge is the value added to information by people who have the experience and acumen to understand its real potential.

Knowledge has value only to the extent that people are empowered to act based on that

knowledge. In other words, knowledge has value only when acted on."

Figure 2.

INFORMATION QUALITY

The effectiveness of business information management within an organization is essentially determined by the quality of information. For information to be effective in supporting organizational processes, its quality, or 'fitness for purpose' is critical. In the context of information quality, 'fitness for purpose', means how well it supports the tasks performed by individuals and the decisions they take. If information quality is poor then tasks will be performed inefficiently, erroneous decisions will be made, or, perhaps worse, information will not be trusted and no decisions will be made.

Think about what characteristics make superior quality information.

The most important attribute of information to managers is relevance - the information must support them in their decision making. Accuracy is another prerequisite - accuracy must be sufficient to base a decision on it. If the same information is duplicated in different parts of the organization then there will often be a problem with accuracy if the different information repositories are not replicated to be consistent. Equally