Information management (IM) has become an
industry buzzword for the consolidation of information anything -
information governance,
information architecture, information integration. Executives
find themselves awake at night worrying about what's happening with
their information and where the value is. These concerns are
justified given the numerous stores of information, the different
places throughout a company where it exists and the recent raft of
related legislation.
But it would appear that their worries could soon be addressed.
New research suggests CIOs share a vision for successful
information management in order to obtain value from data,
competitive differentiation and market advantage. CIOs recently
surveyed by
Accenture have revealed they have their sights set on adopting
an enterprise-wide information management strategy within three
years.
CIOs are investing in information management to help them
outperform the competition, rather than merely helping them "stay
in the game", and they recognise the value that effective
information management brings to their business. The chief hurdles
they face in achieving their vision are funding and data quality,
with technology seen to be far and away the lowest obstacle due to
the maturity of the tools available.
When asked what the most likely driver is behind adopting an
integrated approach to accessing and analysing data, more than 60%
of CIOs surveyed said it was to achieve true competitive
differentiation through new markets, more revenue and a means to
innovate. When asked to rank the ways in which information brings
business value, "better analysis and decision making " was the top
choice among respondents.
Business intelligence and improving the management of data, in
particular, are seen as sources of differentiation. Nearly 30% of
respondents indicate that both business intelligence and data
warehousing, and data management and architecture will be afforded
significant investment in the next 12-18 months. The focus on using
data for advanced analytics echoes previous research.
So what does all of this tell us? This research backs up the
concept of an enterprise-wide and integrated approach to managing
and creating value from an organisation's diverse information
assets. It also underlines an approach that includes all types of
data, structured and unstructured, internal and external, while the
entire information lifecycle - from acquisition to storage to
cleansing to integration and, ultimately, analysis - needs to be
considered. There must also be full consideration of the technology
needed for managing information and ensuring security, governance
models, enterprise standards and practices (and the roles and
responsibilities associated with these activities). Last, but by no
means least, the integration of people, processes and technologies
have to be included if the plan is to drive long term high
performance.
An enterprise-wide approach is a recurring theme in Accenture's
research - from information integration to information security.
There is little doubt that a comprehensive information management
strategy enables companies to maintain a focus on both structured
and unstructured data, including not just the toolsets but the
supporting disciplines such as governance, security, access,
sharing and storage. We are seeing a shift away from the silo
approach towards a desire to introduce the kind of comprehensive
integration and information management capabilities that cultivate
a high-performance business.