Information management – organizing your projects
Geir Mathisen
What is information management?
Information management is more than an administrative task; It's a strategic discipline that touches every aspect of the business, from internal processes to customer experiences. In this article, we explore how good information management can prevent chaos and lay the foundation for growth, innovation and strengthened competitiveness.
Information management is the foundation that ensures that information flows freely and efficiently through the veins of the business, so that decision-makers have access to up-to-date, relevant, and reliable information exactly when they need it. This involves a balanced management of collection, validation, storage, and not least, protection of data against threats and unauthorized access. At the same time, it focuses on making information accessible to the correct individuals, while ensuring respect and care in the handling of our most valuable resource – the information.
Digdir explains information management in the following way:
"Activities, tools and other measures to ensure the best possible quality, utilisation and security of information in an enterprise. The organization of information must be systematic and linked to the company's work processes."
Through effective information management, businesses can not only increase their internal efficiency and agility, but also strengthen relationships with customers and partners, as well as accelerate innovation and adaptation in an ever-changing market. By recognizing and harnessing the power of information, we can transform it from raw data into a dynamic resource that drives progress and success.
Information management - glossary of useful terms
To effectively navigate the landscape of information management, it's crucial to understand the field's terminology. A solid understanding of fundamental concepts provides deeper insight into the processes and principles that drive effective information management, and provides a solid foundation for communication and strategic planning. Here is an extended glossary of some key terms in information management:
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Data
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Information
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Docment
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Information control
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Information administration
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Document control
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Document administration
Mastering these concepts is an important step on the way to understanding and streamlining the handling of information in any business. A common language enables teams to communicate more effectively, plan better, and implement strategies that strengthen information management and support the company's overall goals.
Why is information management important?
Information is growing. As the speed of information flow grows, your business faces challenges that require more than traditional methods of information management. Information management therefore becomes crucial for any business that wants to maintain relevance, efficiency and competitiveness.
Kosmos vs kaos
Without a clear information management strategy, it's easy to drown in the sea of data, leading to information chaos. This can result in inefficiencies, missed opportunities, and an increased risk of misinformation. By establishing effective information management systems and processes, your business can ensure that the right people have access to the right information at the right time. This is crucial for decision-making and day-to-day operations.
Security and compliance
In addition to organizational challenges, threats to information security are also increasing. Information stewardship plays a key role in protecting sensitive information from security threats and data breaches, while ensuring that the business complies with applicable laws and regulations. This is especially important in light of increasing demands from regulations such as GDPR, where failure to comply can lead to significant sanctions.
Value creation through information
Furthermore, effective information management helps to transform raw data into valuable insights. This enables better decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information, leading to improved products, services, and customer experiences. By leveraging information in strategic ways, businesses can identify new opportunities, streamline processes, and adapt quickly to changes in the market.
Fostering collaboration and innovation
Information management is crucial for promoting collaboration within the business. Ensuring that teams have access to common, up-to-date information strengthens collaboration and efficiency in projects and daily tasks. This creates an environment where innovation can flourish, as information is shared and used across departments to drive new ideas and solutions.
How can information management increase the quality of information?
Ensuring the high quality of the information circulating within a business is crucial at a time when the amount of data and information is growing exponentially, and the need to separate useful information from noise is increasingly critical to business success.
Systematic management of information
To ensure high quality information, clear processes must be established for collection, validation, storage, maintenance and distribution. This includes:
Implementing an information management framework that supports decision-makers with up-to-date and accurate information.
Establishment of routines for regularly updating and removing outdated information.
Availability and efficiency
Precise information management also improves the availability of information, allowing employees to find what they need to perform their tasks more efficiently. This contributes to better productivity and work quality by reducing the time spent searching for information.
Information security
Securing information is another important aspect of good information management. By handling sensitive information securely, your business is protected from data loss and security breaches, strengthening trust both internally and externally.
Culture of continuous improvement
To increase the quality of information, a company culture is required that emphasizes learning and continuous improvement. Employees should be encouraged to share knowledge and contribute to the company's information resources, as well as receive training on how to make a positive contribution.
By prioritising precise information management, the company can achieve a strengthened market position through innovation and efficiency.
Information management and efficiency
The efficiency of business through information management is an important area that deserves attention. Good management of information reduces time spent on information searches and increases productivity among employees.
The key to efficiency
When information is well-organized and easily accessible, employees can find what they need quickly and easily. This eliminates the need to spend valuable time searching through unstructured data or recreating documents that already exist. A well-organized information base also means that employees can make informed decisions faster, which in turn can lead to faster completion of projects and tasks.
Implementation of information management systems
To achieve this, the implementation of effective information management systems is essential. These systems can range from document management systems (DMS) to more comprehensive solutions such as enterprise content management (ECM) systems. By implementing these systems, businesses can ensure that information is categorized, stored, and accessible in a way that meets the needs of their employees.
Benefits of centralized information access
A centralized access to information also helps foster collaboration among teams and departments. When everyone has access to the same resources, work can be coordinated more effectively, and duplication of efforts is avoided. Furthermore, it contributes to a culture of openness and sharing, which is important in any business that wants to promote innovation and continuous improvement.
Challenges and solutions
However, there are challenges associated with the implementation of information management. One of the biggest challenges is resistance to change among employees. To overcome this, it is important to have clear communication about the benefits and value of a new system, as well as offer training and support throughout the transition period.
Another challenge is ensuring that the system remains up-to-date and relevant to the needs of the business. This requires regular assessment and adaptation of the system, which can be achieved through regular user feedback and analysis of usage patterns.
Information management in interaction with digitalization and digital transformation
Digitalization and digital transformation are central to all modern businesses, and information management plays a key role in this process. For a business to fully embrace digital transformation, it takes more than just implementing new technology. It requires a thorough understanding and effective management of information that the company possesses. Information management, or ensuring that information is available, accurate, and secured, is therefore a cornerstone of any digital transformation strategy.
Read our five steps to successful digital transformation.
Information as a driving force in digitalisation
At the core of digital transformation lies the ability to leverage data and information in new and innovative ways. This could be through better insights for decision-makers, automated processes that reduce the need for manual work, or new digital services and products that offer greater value to customers. For this to be possible, information must be managed in a way that supports the company's strategic goals.
Systematic organization of information
An effective digital transformation requires that the information is systematically organized. This includes establishing structures that ensure that the information is easy to find, accessible to those who need it, and protected from unauthorized access. Information management helps establish these structures by defining processes for collecting, storing, processing, and sharing information.
From data to insights
Digital transformation is about more than just digitizing existing processes; It's about transforming how the business operates and creates value for customers and employees. Information management plays a key role in this transformation by converting raw data into valuable insights. By ensuring that data is accurate, relevant, and accessible, businesses can leverage advanced analytics tools to drive innovation and improvement.
Security and compliance
In a world where data leaks and privacy breaches can have serious consequences for businesses and individuals alike, the security of information management is more important than ever. Digital transformation requires robust security mechanisms to protect sensitive information. This includes everything from physically securing data centers to encrypting digital information and securing networks. Information management ensures that these security measures are in place and working properly.
What distinguishes good and bad information management?
Understanding the difference between good and bad information management is crucial for identifying areas for improvement and ensuring optimal utilization of the information. Here we explore the characteristics of both sides, and what consequences this has for a business.
These are the characteristics of good information management:
- Systematic organization: The information is well organized, easily accessible and categorized in a way that reflects the company's needs and work processes. This ensures quick access to information for employees.
Quality assurance of information: Processes have been established to ensure that all information is up-to-date, accurate, and reliable. This involves regularly reviewing and updating the information.
- Effective sharing and interaction: There are clear guidelines and tools for sharing information and collaboration within the company, which promotes efficiency and innovation.
- Security and compliance: Good information management involves strong security measures to protect sensitive information and compliance with relevant laws and regulations, such as GDPR.
Enabling digital transformation: By having a solid information management, the business is better equipped to take advantage of digital tools and technologies, such as AI and machine learning, for further efficiency and innovation.
This is what characterizes poor information management:
- Lack of overview: Information is spread across multiple platforms, without any form of systematic organization. This leads to unnecessary time spent on finding information.
- Outdated and complete information: Without quality assurance processes, information quickly becomes outdated, which can lead to incorrect decisions based on outdated or incomplete information. This is especially true with regard to Copilot and other artificial intelligence tools, which scan, interpret and analyse the content of all the information that is stored. The information provided by these tools is often relied upon to a high degree, and outdated or incorrect data may result in incomplete or incorrect answers.
- Inefficient sharing: Information is shared in inefficient ways, leading to duplication of work and misunderstandings. There is a lack of clear guidelines on how information should be shared and what tools should be used.
- Security risks: Poor information management increases the risk of data leaks and breaches of privacy laws, which can have major financial and reputational consequences for the business. Without effective security management, sensitive data can become accessible to the wrong people, either as a result of deliberate or unintentional actions.
- Hindering digital transformation: Without a structured approach to information management, the business will struggle to implement new technologies and digitize work processes, which can cause it to fall behind in the competition.
By identifying these characteristics in your own business, you can address areas for improvement in your information management. Working towards good information management is a continuous process that requires commitment from all levels of the business, from management to the individual employee. By addressing these challenges, you can lay a solid foundation for future growth and innovation.
Ensures control over data and information flow
Information management is essential for all businesses that want to improve efficiency, ensure information security, and strengthen their own ability to innovate.
By focusing on good management, your business can ensure that you have control over your own data and information flow. This will be a minimum to meet both today's and tomorrow's challenges. Furthermore, we encourage to assess current practices and make necessary adjustments to achieve a better position in the market and ensure sustainable growth.
Do you want to know more about how we can strengthen your company's information management and ensure control over data and information flow?
Contact our advisors for an informal chat about how we can help you achieve your goals!
