A Practical Approach To Information Management (Symantec)

‘I hear I forget

I see I remember

I do I understand’

Galileo

Information is the fundamental connecting fabric of businesses today. Businesses rely on information technology and systems to run their business and help to drive new opportunities, as well as to operate efficiently and comply with corporate governance practices and industry regulations. (A Practical Approach to Information Management, Symantec)

Nowadays businesses create and use big quantities of information, making it a valuable asset for the company as its serve day-to-day business operations, decision making and almost any business function in a company.

Almost every person in a company needs to be able to explore data and to conduct their own informal queries to support their

In terms of business objectives, information systems fall into three major categories: operational, tactical and strategic.

Operational systems. Information systems of this type concern those operations carried out by the organization in its normal trading environment. These systems perform necessary routine activities and include applications such as stock control, order processing, retailing systems, and online booking systems and so on. Operational systems can be unexceptional but they are usually critical to the organization’s endeavours (Cleary, 1998).

Tactical systems are usually associated with those processes that supply information for immediate decision making. Such decisions usually refer to management activities involved with the monitoring of financial budgets, pricing levels, human resourcing, production schedules, stock level planning and so on.

Strategic systems are invariably concerned with those decisions that affect the long-term policy objectives of the organization. Strategic systems frequently depend on information sources that are usually beyond the influence of the individual

This definition contains several points of interest. First, true information management is a conscious process. Information management does not just happen: it has to be thought about. This implies that it has to be planned, systematic and structured.

A second point from the definition is that the purpose of information management is to assist in decision making. Information is not gathered for its own sake (although that sometimes seems to be the case), but is gathered to be used. Information management therefore works best when the conscious planning process starts not with information but with the decisions that have to be made. However, although information assists decision making, it should not determine totally what decisions are made: the scope for professional expertise, intuition and discretion remains.

The third point from the definition is that information management is for the benefit of all levels of an organization. In many organizations, information management is often perceived as being a control mechanism for the benefit of senior managers or shareholders. Information management should be as much about aiding decision making across and between all levels of the organization as it is for senior planners and decision