In today's digital age, organisations are dealing with a growing volume of information. From contracts, customer data and invoices to drawings, correspondence and files. The digitisation of information brings companies many benefits. Thinking of speed, usability and the ability to store information indefinitely. However, it also brings a new challenge: managing this mountain of information. Information should not become a nuisance, but something you can benefit from as an organisation. In this blog, I use four factors to explain how to prevent information from becoming unmanageable. Successful information management starts with developing an information strategy.
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1. Developing information strategy
An information strategy should flow from corporate goals and strategy. This means that companies should look at how employees interact with information. The key point here is that employees take ownership and, above all, feel responsible for the information they work with. Does an employee process contracts? Then he or she should take responsibility for processing, storing and managing these documents.
What should happen to this information? Do the contracts, from the example, need to be stored for a long time or is their purpose to disappear at a defined time? And how Should the employee save these contracts? Perhaps the employee should add properties or a status to the document.
In any case, it is about having a vision on how to handle information. Employees need to carry that vision. Therefore, set up this information strategy together with employees so that ownership of information is actually created.
2. Develop a life cycle for information
Innovative organisations make a clear distinction between information (classification). For example, approved and unapproved information. Or think of a proposal that is ready to send or not yet. Another example is an active or inactive customer. In short, a document must be readable by, for example, a certain status or property. Those properties or statuses are called meta-data (information about information). How employees should deal with the meta-data should be laid down in the information strategy mentioned earlier.
Employees should enter these meta-data to give information and documents a life. For example, an invoice should have a payment status as meta-data. This makes managing information easier because, in this case, it becomes clear whether the invoice has been paid and, if so, you can archive it. If meta-data shows that a customer has been inactive for five years, you can take action. This applies to all types of documents and information.
The right balance between the various meta-data requirements and ease of use is necessary here. There should be a life cycle where employees work with meta-data while feeling the benefit of it. Without them feeling that they have to enter too much information in the process. By assigning meta-data, information can also be retained or, conversely, destroyed in a defined manner.
3. Structure information
Responsibilities are always assigned hierarchically. Why not information? Organisations need to place their information in a hierarchically organised structure, reflective of how users think about information. The sales team views a proposal through the customer, while someone from procurement in their mindset links this proposal to a supplier. So involve the user in (his) structuring of information.
User involvement provides input into organising meta-data (labels, tags) so that terms and relationships reflect the way information is used in the organisation. To ensure that search results and information suggestions appear in a coordinated way, there needs to be a clear analysis. Start on paper, schematically, before the structure is rolled out.
4. Successful information management hinges on awareness
Setting up a structure together with employees is one thing, managing it sustainably is another. Organisations need to teach their employees to search and use information as defined in the strategy. Structuring information can open eyes for many employees about their own way of working. Smart organisations monitor and evaluate their information strategy on an ongoing basis. Making employees aware of how to use information and the corresponding strategy is essential for successful information management.
Bastiaan Brefeld
Manager Business Development
bastiaan.brefeld@geone.nl