Information Management: What is it?

According to Wikipedia, Information Management (IM) is the collection and management of information from one or more sources and the distribution of that information to one or more audiences. This sometimes involves those who have a stake in, or a right to that information. Management means the organization of and control over the structure, processing and delivery of information. 

BPM2 agrees with this definition of IM. However, we believe that true Information Management involves the people, processes and technology dedicated to gathering, managing, disseminating, leveraging and disposing of all information assets used by an organization.

Our view is that an organization's information is an asset to be highly valued and managed as an investment. This is true no matter the size of the organization or the form of the information.

Let's R/evolutionize your organization's information assets!

Information Management is a Corporate Responsibility

Information management environments are comprised of legacy information resident in line of business applications, Accounting and ERP Systems, Operational Systems, Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Electronic Records Management (ERM), Business Process Management (BPM), Email Management (EMM), Information Organization and Access (IOA), Knowledge Management (KM), Web Content Management (WCM), Document Management (DM) and Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) technology solutions and best practices. Information Management requires the adoption and adherence to guiding principles that include:

 

• Information assets are corporate assets. This principle should be acknowledged or agreed upon across the organization otherwise any business case and support for IM will be weak.
• Information must be made available and shared. Of course not all information is open to anyone, but in principle the sharing of information helps the use and exploitation of corporate knowledge
• Information the organisation needs to keep is managed and retained corporately. In other words the retention and archiving, of information. If you save a document today, you expect it to be secured and still available to you tomorrow

Information management is a corporate responsibility that needs to be addressed and followed from the upper most senior levels of management to the front line worker. Organizations must be held and must hold its employees accountable to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver information appropriately and responsibly. Part of that responsibility lies in training the organization to become familiar with the policies, processes, technologies and best practices in IM.