Information Management: who needs it?
Those of us working in this space know that selling the benefits of Information Management (IM) can be challenging. It can be difficult to get buy in from agency staff not working directly in an IM related discipline, and it can be even harder to sell its benefits to senior executives.
However, when we position IM as a tool to solve business problems rather than just compliance activity, its benefits become a lot more tangible. It isn’t the intricate details of IM practice that are valued by most practitioners, it’s the business outcome that matters.
"Let’s face it, no one wants a corkscrew, they just want the cork out of the bottle. Information is an asset, and its effective management can have a direct and lasting impact on achieving business objectives. That’s the story that needs to be told."
Increasingly, information that is managed by the Queensland Government is sought after for a diverse range of purposes - from integrated service delivery to improve the lives of Queenslanders, better policy and planning, improving the efficiency of government; and more and more for data analytics; these uses are further unlocking the value of our information holdings and opening up new areas of exploration and interest.
So, why is IM so important?
IM is about ensuring that information is available to the right person, in the right format at the right time. This can be a complicated process. It involves a range of domains such as information governance, information asset management, information security, records management and information access and use management.
Clearly, IM is about managing information, but that isn’t the end of the story. We don’t manage information simply for the sake of it – all government information is managed for a purpose and that purpose is to make every bit of data and information count towards a business outcome.
To do this, IM brings together a range of resources including data, information, technology, information systems, business processes and, perhaps most importantly, PEOPLE. Let’s take a closer look at some of the people who stand to benefit from or are involved in good IM practice, and see how it helps them achieve their business objectives.