Information-Driven Business: How to Manage Data and Information for Maximum Advantage

Preface

This book is aimed at anyone who is in any way responsible for information. Executives, managers, and technical staff all need to understand how to manage this most valuable resource.

I wrote this book based on the observation that the concept of information overload is permeating every business that I deal with. At the same time, the global economy is moving from products to services that are described almost entirely electronically. Even those businesses that are traditionally associated with making things are less concerned with the management of the manufacturing process (which is largely outsourced) than they are with the management of their intellectual property. Increasingly, information doesn't provide a window on the business. It is the business.

It's a simple equation. Intellectual property is tied up in the data on computers. If it is the subject of focused management, then greater value is extracted from that data. If the intellectual property is a significant proportion of the value of the business, then such a focused effort will have a dramatic effect on the value of the business as a whole. Such an effort will also make the organization much more enjoyable to work in with less time lost searching for information that should be readily available and less time sifting through irrelevant data that should never have hit the e-mail inbox.

As business has become more complex, techniques are appearing almost every day that seek to simplify the task of managing a large, ...