Why Good Information Management is Central to Competitive Advantage
Jinfo Blog

By Constance Ard

Abstract

Information is central to today's business processes. Constance Ard explains how understanding how information is created, retrieved and applied can help businesses improve processes and obtain competitive advantage.

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Information is the rich resource of today's global business economy. Without the right information, decision-makers are overwhelmed and often rely on the wrong data to drive today's business actions.

With a comprehensive understanding of how information flows throughout a company and processes that will allow a business to retrieve the right data at the right time, competitive advantage can be achieved.

The Tools

Of course achieving those advantages requires a dedication to the selection of the right tools, the application of the best internal resources and an ability to adjust information management protocols to make the best use of the data they have at hand.

Information professionals who understand how to collect, manage and apply relevant analysis to data are critical assets in the achievement of this competitive advantage. Those with technical skills may find that mapping the flow of information can provide a structure to the related tasks and workflows that can be used to make information more discoverable.

The Professionals

Information professionals that are tasked with improving the process of content management processes are another central component to increasing the visibility and usability of an organisation's richest resource. Critical elements of a successful content management process are:

• Processes that are easy for end users to follow, with clear definitions
• Well-designed, successfully implemented, software solutions.

The Competitive Advantage

When all the workers creating, retrieving and using information throughout the organisation are working together to keep the information flowing good things happen. Silos can be broken down and collaboration will increase.

Perhaps the most imperative advantage for good content and information management processes within an organisation is related to the continued improvement of business processes. Through the collection and analysis of information about business processes, decision-makers can make necessary adjustments. This can improve real-time actions and make businesses more agile. The payoff will be discovered in realised competitive advantage.

Are your information and content management protocols supporting real-time results? If not, it might just be time to make some necessary adjustments.

Read Constance's in-depth article, Taking the Mystery Out of Big Data - Moving from Data Collection to Competitive Actions, to find out more about the challenges and solutions in making data-driven decision-making standard.

This Blog Item is part of the FreePint Topic Series "Making Information Visible". 

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