Information management is a peculiar task. Only a few know its importance; others just let it slide like a sunroof. Even if your job designation doesn’t include “manager,” there’s a pretty high chance you will still come across a few managerial duties. And given our dependence on technology and data, information management is going to be one of them.
Managing information is an every-day challenge for multiple organizations and businesses. The more people and data, the more complex the information management systems and projects. Due to a never-ending chain of data, improving information management practices is a primary focus in all private and public sectors.
In many cases, IM has led to new technologies, such as document or content management systems. With such a rush, it becomes gruesome to keep track of information. And effective information management isn’t easy, either. Many set-ups require integration, a massive line of businesses need alignment, and complex organizational issues need addressing.
Thankfully, this isn’t the end of the world! There are a few critical rules that’ll help you get a hold of your information management practices.
Important note: the goal of these rules is to optimize your company’s information management and help you execute all information-related projects flawlessly.
Let’s get to it.
Make information management vital everywhere
Include the handling of information in budgets and plans across the organization. It is not a one-time activity, but it is a regular practice. Additionally, implement processes and policies to offer direction and reasonably promote consistency. That applies to information in every forum – documents, data, maps, physical records, customer information, and practically anything and everything in between.
Capture
In any business, there are multiple sources of information and routes for it to travel by. Whether the data is human-created or digitally-created, it needs to be captured and thoroughly processed for successful management.
Technologies like document imaging and OCR can help facilitate this, but using a reliable system for identifying chunks of information can be a critical differentiator between struggle and success.
Moreover, take time to map out a top-notch classification structure for incoming information because it will serve as a pedestal for your entire information management strategy.
Manage the complexities
Effective management of information is the centerpiece of having an effective strategy. It encompasses work-flow and collaboration, meaning the ways the data is actually used.
Usually, the employees working in information management departments have an mis bachelor degree (management information systems) and are well-equipped with the necessary skills. But a few helpful systems come in handy. An AIIM breaks the management phase by information type: web content management, digital asset management, document management, and records management. According to us, these four categories are perfect to start developing your classification structure.
Furthermore, establishing standardized methods within each of these content categories will maintain information through your company. Whether your users are dealing with podcasts or purchase orders, it is critical to have guidelines in place.
Deliver visible and concrete benefits
Improving the background of your system is never enough. And while this will provide real-time benefits, it will not ignite the necessary cultural changes.
In many scenarios, information management projects focus on enhancing the usefulness of information for crucial business decision-making. While these are valuable assets, they are invisible to the rest of the company. When challenged, it can be thought-provoking to demonstrate the ROI of these projects.
Instead, IM projects must be designed to deliver visible and tangible benefits. Offering definite advantages includes identifying concrete business requirements that must be met. It enables meaningful measurement of the influence of the projects on organizational operations. Also, the projects should target needs or issues that are very visible within the management. When solutions are presented, the improvement should be evident and widespread throughout the organization.
Never trust the “one-size-fits-all” statement
Information comes in all shapes and sizes. Never use the same approach to collect different types of information. Customize your information gathering practices and tools to manage it appropriately and usefully.
Mitigate tasks
Due to companies’ intrinsic complexity, there are multiple risks in implementing information management systems. Some of these risks include:
- Budget and time overruns
- Finding an appropriate technological solution
- Changing business requirements
- Technical problems, particularly involving integrating systems
The risks of planning an information management strategy must be identifiable. There must be at least one approach to every trouble, either mitigating or avoiding the risk. Additionally, risk management approaches should be used to plan every aspect of the project, including the budget and the activities.
For instance, a simple but efficient way of mitigating risks is to spend little money. That might include conducting pilot projects to identify problems and potential solutions, other than starting with organization-wide deployments.
Create an eye-opening digital employee experience
Employees have a hard time understanding IM systems. They generally prefer a slice of cake instead of complex information-handling machines and software. Educating employees by using a disparate set of instructions is challenging and mostly fruitless. Therefore, the underlying goal should be to provide a unified digital employee experience, DEX, which hides the scenarios where the information is coming from.
It is not to say that there has to be one company-wide system that follows every piece of data. There will continuously be a necessity to have different information systems. However, the information within them must be human-friendly.
Ultimately, the aim to break down the distinctions between delivering tools, information along with tasks, applications, and subject lines.
For instance, many organizations have HR procedures on the intranet but demand staff to log into a unique HR self-service application that offers a different appearance and menu-structure. Moreover, the HR application becomes the background of a system, obscure to the user.
Conclusion
There you have it – 7 modest rules for achieving successful information management! Implementing information technology resolutions into a complex environment is never easy. Many challenges come in the way, with a priority to find new approaches to succeed. Effective information
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