Lot of work to do, and nobody to send. This has been the notion for the last six months. Our people are working as hard as they can, so we are recruiting and building strategic relationships to meet customer demands. Finding people is difficult in these days, especially when we are looking for experienced Information Architects that really understands information as a viable asset, and not only something that's going to be processed in an IT-system. Our customers starts to pose questions like:
- What do I have and what is the status of my critical business information.?
- Who can access (and use) my information.? Do I get paid for that.?
- How much revenues can my information potentially generate.?
- What can I do to gain a positive cash-flow (lower cost, increase revenue) for my information.?
- How can we protect our information and still meet a large and open market.??
These are good questions, expressed by the executive leadership. They do understand that information is a corporate-wide and if its correctly governed - can be a very valuable resource. Information makes also enterprises understand its business characteristics, risks and opportunities. Information builds trust, integrity and safety for customers and staff and information can make enterprises more resilient and flexible to meet continuous changes.
But, the really scary picture is when an enterprise looses its grip over information, and it begins to degenerate. This can quickly have dramatic consequences. NIKE Shoes estimated a couple of years ago that they lost $80-100 millions in just one quarter due to poor information quality. A more recent example of poor information is the latest US Presidential election, but there are many more examples of lost or incorrect information that causes costly delays, errors and poor decisions.
So, customers begins to be aware of that there is actually a cure out there, and its all about getting your information in shape. Information management and information quality are becoming to be very hot topics.
