Information management must take center stage

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, nevertheless readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

1. Exponential information growth -- Content is generated at an alarming rate as businesses grow and communicate faster and more frequently with increased connectivity and escalating use of mobile devices.

4. Information in silos -- Information in other words isolated across multiple IT environments can create accessibility issues, high e-discovery costs and regulatory compliance hurdles. The result is business and operational inefficiency, diminished competitiveness and increased risk.

5. Disparate stakeholder needs -- Various business segments within an organization require different information to serve clients and outmaneuver the competition. It is up to IT to deliver that information and decide how to pay for it all. For instance, the chief information security officer needs stringent security measures to protect sensitive corporate information. The legal department, concerned with information governance, needs to ensure that legal and e-discovery costs remain low during demonstrating that the enterprise is compliant with all applicable regulations.

With the majority of IT budgets allocated to infrastructure maintenance and storage costs, how can an organization avoid spending new money managing old information? They need the ability to locate and access the right information on demand to drive business insight, agility and gain competitive advantage. Nevertheless, to do this successfully requires a fundamental shift in how organizations manage information, moving from author- or infrastructure-based information management to a holistic approach.

The holistic

The holistic, top-down approach manages information throughout its life cycle based on its business value, which includes these crucial steps:

To simplify policies, develop a process that helps translate the business, legal and HR requirements into innovation practices. To boot, treat all documents, content and data as "information" and eliminate classifications just as "structured" or "unstructured." The more control a company has over its intellectual assets, the better it can leverage that information to achieve business objectives.

The second, and evenly crucial, step is to involve all key stakeholders, including lines of business, legal, IT and the CISO. To boot to strategic alignment, this enables organizations to eliminate redundant data storage and management costs, delivering an immediate cost savings, during adhering to corporate and regulatory governance requirements. Moreover to avoiding costly penalties, streamlining information management improves the process of finding and accessing information, allowing employees to focus on driving research, revenue and profit.

These solutions can be deployed over time, addressing specific and immediate needs first. In parallel, businesses and governments can build out a comprehensive system that manages information across the enterprise.

In conclusion, managing growing volumes of information doesn't have to be a daunting or expensive task. Implementing a holistic approach to information management enables organizations and governments to gain valuable business insight that improves customer and partner relationships and delivers a competitive advantage. By putting the right information in the right hands opportunely, companies can achieve greater efficiency, better respond to changing market conditions, and drive research.