How important is information to an organisation? Its value can best be assessed by its absence in critical situations.

When the Bichard Inquiry into how the Soham murderer Ian Huntley came to be employed by a school was announced on 18 December 2003 by the then Home Secretary David Blunkett, the terms of reference included the line:

‘In particular to assess the effectiveness of the relevant intelligence-based record keeping, the vetting practices in those forces since 1995 and information sharing with other agencies.’

The Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) Information Management Group is actively working on the recommendations from the Bichard Inquiry – see case study, below. And the force has teamed up with directory service Yell to look into the needs of information management experts in more detail.

What clearly links these diverse organisations is the importance of information as a driver of business goals. The emphasis is on information as a precursor to technology use, although IT plays a vital role in capturing, storing and delivering information.

Historically, the processing of structured data has taken prominence. For example, accounting was an early candidate for automating repetitive work. Adding numbers is an easier computing task than searching for unstructured data such as a unique address in different formats in multiple documents.

In a similar vein there are significantly different challenges in controlling information as opposed to exploiting it. Control requires records to be held securely with data that is ideally captured once at source and validated. Exploitation requires providing access to information for empowered users who are supported by relevant analytical and sharing tools.

The concepts of structured and unstructured data, when analysed with the issues of control and exploitation, show an interesting phenomenon. We have ended up with four distinct information worlds driven largely by the technology that supports them. The challenge is to reintegrate them through a professional approach to information management.

Data processing deals primarily with the operational transactions of a business. Software such as enterprise resource planning systems can capture quality data at source and share it between functions. Extracting data from transaction systems and reformatting it into data warehouses provides a platform for business intelligence.

Unstructured data stored in paper and electronic formats can now be better managed through document management software. Exploiting unstructured data is increasingly possible through knowledge and content management systems.

But how do we bring these worlds together? According to Forrester Research, ‘no one supplier has the product portfolio to offer a completely holistic information management solution that spans structured and unstructured data’.

IBM recently promised to invest $1bn over the next three years on information management products and services, for tasks as varied as spotting criminals and serving banking customers better. Much of this investment will be in technology, but a significant amount will be in people and consulting resources, in recognition of the importance of information skills.

Linking the business value of managing information with the concepts embodied in the information management model requires a different set of skills to that of traditional IT professionals.

The opportunity to promote information management as a professional discipline was the rationale for MPS and Yell seeking to set up the Information Management Profession (IMP) group in 2004. They recognised that support for information professionals is mixed. The BCS has more of a technology than an information heritage. Similarly, the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals has more of a librarian heritage.

Both of these professional bodies recognise the gap, and provided deputy chief executive representation on IMP. The other two members of the group represent Gartner and Henley Management College, both recognised for their research ability.

The IMP group’s work is expanding the potential scope of information management covered by the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), the industry standard skills framework. One direction is to take the information skills gathered in one world and apply them to others.

The lessons learned by the IMP group are being shared with influential stakeholders such as senior information managers, professional bodies, educators and the government. The aim is to promote the set of information competencies and their contribution to improving value. The group’s contribution has been recognised by an invitation to join the IT professionalism programme sponsored by the BCS.

A number of messages for chief information officers (CIOs) have emerged from the IMP group. While the IT manager manages IT, the CIO is expected to take a leadership role in the information competency of an organisation. There are a number of areas where CIOs can take a lead.

Managers make decisions by combining structured and unstructured data, so information professionals need to operate in both these worlds. Similarly, they need a core understanding of how to both control and exploit information. A starting point is to understand fully the information supply chain, which includes stages such as define, capture, store, access and monitor, and also the management of that information though a lifecycle approach.

Information quality is key to information management. We have seen many project failures where migration was seriously late because data quality issues were underestimated. In the structured world, the migration of data from operational to decision support systems often exposes data quality problems. Similarly, the capture of unstructured information is required for knowledge management, so CIOs need to recognise that information quality management spans these four worlds, and invest in developing quality skills that ensure information is fit for purpose.

Competence with information is needed by all managers and professionals. Many managers have a hazy idea of how to define information requirements, seek out information and perform quantitative and qualitative analysis. They need to enhance their skills and be supported by professionals with broad business change capability comprising information as well as process and systems components. What differentiates the CIO from an IT manager is their ability to build this capability.

Those who are in the information profession must work together to define and develop roles and skills. This will help create the training and qualifications required. There are opportunities here to feed into SFIA, which aims to provide a reference model for identifying the skills needed to develop effective IT systems. CIOs should familiarise themselves with SFIA and engage with the wider profession.

CIOs need to focus on developing their information management skills to ensure higher quality information in systems, to help staff improve their use of information, and to allow the board to increase the value from their information assets. cb

The IMP group welcomes discussions with CIOs with similar aims. For more information, email Dr Sharm Manwani at Henley Management College:

Case study: Yell - Effective management of commercial data

Yell is a leading international directories business in the classified advertising market. Its brands in the UK are Yellow Pages and Business Pages, Yell.com and 118 24 7.

Data is fundamental to Yell, driving its products, customers and processes. Data forms the core of the products and services supplied through the printed directory, the phone and the internet.

Data also provides opportunities to generate new customers for marketing and sales, and is at the heart of business processes for efficient supply chain, administration and performance measures.

In 1999, Yell asked Mike Fishwick to establish a commercial data department, with four goals: 

* to acquire customer data to support commercial initiatives

* to create a data infrastructure to enable strategic goals 

* to influence process change to sustain data improvements 

* to deliver improvements to information quality.

Fishwick recognised that a holistic approach would be needed to create a sustainable set of integrated information management capabilities across the information lifecycle. This required a significant investment that would be easier to justify if he could first demonstrate some payback from the management of commercial information. The initial drive was to generate sales prospects through re-engineering the data acquisition strategy and acquiring data from multiple sources.

The next goal was to create a corporate data architect function, which could design and develop a data infrastructure to deploy in managing the information supply chain.

A key learning point to be communicated to business colleagues was that data can be corrupted simply through the process of using it. The role of data steward was created to investigate anomalies, correct erroneous data and own the process changes to prevent the problem recurring in the future.

This required an in-depth understanding of the business processes, and a full understanding of the data that is being managed.

Finally, to support business initiatives, it was necessary to measure information quality improvements. Quality analysts were appointed not only to measure quality but to gain agreement on when it is good enough. Software investments in tools such as Trillium supported this.

The building of this capability was vital for the biggest programme that Yell has had in the past five years: installing and enhancing SAP software as part of an improved business model. The role of commercial data in effective data migration and design was critical.

It included the consolidation of 3.5 million customer records from six operational databases. All this data needed to be de-duplicated and quality-checked, which was done using an information factory approach.

Alongside this migration, the data for the new system had to be planned, mapped and signed off across the organisation. Following this successful effort, the department established a data management framework as a key enabler of ongoing data quality.

Yell’s commercial data department has had a successful five years thanks to building capability alongside delivering data solutions.

With growing skills and credibility, commercial data has now moved into front-line marketing.

Its success was also recognised in November 2005, with an International Information Industry award for the best information/knowledge team in a business environment.

Case study: Metropolitan Police Service - Improving the control and use of information

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has made a great effort in the past two years to improve the control and exploitation of its information. Major drivers for this have been the Records Management Best Value Review, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Modernising Government agenda. Major public inquiries, such as Bichard and Climbie, and the Children’s Bill, represent substantial drivers for greater sharing of police information for the protection of children.

Steve Farquharson, group director of information management (IM), created a business change programme to respond to these needs. The programme comprises IM principles and policies, a new IM organisation, and major initiatives to manage information as a corporate resource.

The MPS principles are that information needs to be trusted, accessible, and usable. Trusted means that there is one version, captured once and reused with appropriate quality information for action, and compliant with policy and the law. Accessible means managed according to its worth, captured close to source, available securely to partners and disclosed to the public in an open and accountable manner. Usable means easy to find and deploy, presented in context, and used and understood by a skilled workforce. These principles help to strike a balance between the rights and freedoms of individuals and the organisation’s ability to deliver effective IM.

The IM organisation has been structured around an information management lifecycle. Policies and tools are developed by IM development, implemented by IM business change, delivered by IM services and assured by IM compliance.

IM development is made up of strategists, analysts and policy developers, who need a wide view of issues and a questioning approach. Staff with change management skills are in IM business change, along with marketing and communications specialists. The central team supports a network of information managers across the MPS. Records managers and administrative staff are employed in IM service functions. And information security auditors and inspectors operate in IM compliance teams. They need to be separate from the development, implementation and service delivery, to prevent conflict of interest issues.

The MPS has launched several initiatives to build its IM capability. These include: 

* An information authority to govern changes to the information architecture

* An IM code of practice linked to the Bichard Inquiry report

* A major initiative to work with MPS teams to improve data quality in specific areas of the force 

* Bringing together IM’s internet and intranet services as a platform for knowledge management

*n Initiating a scheme to migrate millions of paper records to an electronic environment.

The IM organisation is building a capability based on an integrated view of structured and unstructured data. Farquharson is capitalising on this experience through his role as leader of the IM workstream on the BCS IT Professionalism programme

Best practice 

* Effective use of information in an organisation is about more than just technology.

* Structured and unstructured data require different approaches, which depend on the aims for controlling and exploiting that information. 

* Organisations as diverse as the Metropolitan Police and Yell are working together on an initiative to promote information management as a professional discipline. 

* CIOs need to understand the information lifecycle and take a lead in applying the principles of information management in their organisation.

* Good use of information is critical to business change, and IT leaders must ensure that they have the right skill sets available to make best use of their corporate information. 

* Successful CIOs will help the board to increase the value generated from their information.