Last week I talked about 10 Easy Steps to Good Data. This week I would like to continue talking about good data and how to manage it following an Enterprise Information Management strategy.
What is Enterprise Information Management (EIM)?
Gartner defines EIM as an integrative discipline for structuring, describing and governing information assets across organizational and technological boundaries to improve efficiency, promote transparency and enable business insight.
Information is any data that is created or used to do business. It needs to be treated as a corporate asset because it can and will affect the bottom line. Therefore, information management is the responsibility of everyone in an organization to practice the rules and regulations for handling information appropriately and responsibly.
Structured and Unstructured Data
Information Management addresses structured data such as databases, but it also addresses unstructured data such as:
- Business Intelligence (BI) Reporting
- Emails, Documents, and Pictures
- Content on Social Media
- Audio and Video
Who needs it?
A lot of businesses today are implementing bring your own device (BYOD) to work. There has also been a big push over the last several years for companies to use hosted solutions instead of having to support on premise solutions in IT. This means that information is being transferred outside of an organization’s four walls. Implementing an Information Management strategy addresses the following concerns (among many others).
- How employees access information from their devices while still keeping it safe and secure
- How long information can be kept around
- Who has access to different types of information (i.e. restricted, internal use, public, etc.)
Benefits
The main reason for implementing an EIM strategy is to provide business information accurately in a safe, secure, and easily accessible manner. It also helps to enforce robust data governance, standards, stewardship, roles and accountability across the organization. Finally, information management helps enforce legal and regulatory requirements.
What is driving your organization toward an Information Management strategy? Have you already implemented EIM and if so, is it effective? Join in the conversation and share your thoughts.
See you next week, same time, same place.
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