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10 principles of effective information management

Written by James Robertson, published November 1st, 2005 Categorised under: articles, information management Improving information management practices is a key focus for many organisations, across both the public and private sectors. This is being driven by a range of factors, including a need to improve the efficiency of business processes, the demands of compliance regulations and the desire to deliver new services. In many cases, ‘information management’ has meant deploying new technology solutions, such as content or document management systems, data warehousing or portal applications. These projects have a poor track record of success, and most organisations are still struggling to deliver an integrated information management environment. Effective information management is not easy. This article draws together a number of ‘critical success factors’ for information management projects. From the outset, it must be emphasised that this is not an article about technology. Ten principles

Information management 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 planning, structure and organisation, controlling, processing, evaluating and reporting of information activities in order to meet client objectives and to enable corporate functions in the delivery of information. Throughout the 1970s this was largely limited to files, file maintenance, and the life cycle management of paper-based files, other media and records. With the proliferation of information technology starting in the 1970s, the job of information management took on a new light, and also began to include the field of data maintenance. No longer was information management a simple job that could be performed by almost anyone. Information management concepts[edit]

Definition of information management terms There is considerable confusion in the marketplace regarding the definition of various information management terms. The scope and role of specific information systems is particularly blurry, in part caused by the lack of consensus between vendors. With the aim of lessening this confusion, this briefing provides an at-a-glance definition of terms for a range of information systems. Content management system (CMS) Content management systems support the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information. Enterprise content management system (ECMS) An enterprise content management system consists of a core web content management system, with additional capabilities to manage a broader range of organisational information. Document management system (DMS) Records management system (RMS) The Australian Standard on Records Management (AS 4390) defines recordkeeping systems as ‘information systems which capture, maintain and provide access to records over time’.

Controlled vocabulary In library and information science[edit] For example, in the Library of Congress Subject Headings (a subject heading system that uses a controlled vocabulary), authorized terms -- subject headings in this case -- have to be chosen to handle choices between variant spellings of the same concept (American versus British), choice among scientific and popular terms (Cockroaches versus Periplaneta americana), and choices between synonyms (automobile versus cars), among other difficult issues. Choices of authorized terms are based on the principles of user warrant (what terms users are likely to use), literary warrant (what terms are generally used in the literature and documents), and structural warrant (terms chosen by considering the structure, scope of the controlled vocabulary). Controlled vocabularies also typically handle the problem of homographs, with qualifiers. There are two main kinds of controlled vocabulary tools used in libraries: subject headings and thesauri. Applications[edit]

What is Information Management? Information, as we know it today, includes both electronic and physical information. The organizational structure must be capable of managing this information throughout the information lifecycle regardless of source or format (data, paper documents, electronic documents, audio, video, etc.) for delivery through multiple channels that may include cell phones and web interfaces. What is Information Management 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. AIIM agrees with this definition. Information assets are corporate assets.

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