Less than 10% of enterprises have a well-developed information strategy, according to Garter research.
"When asked about the new kinds of information they anticipate as being disruptive in the next few years, half of the respondents to Gartner's 2013 Worldwide CEO and Senior Executive Survey could not provide an answer or name a technology," says Partha Iyengar, country manager for research, India, at Gartner.
"The social Internet, inexpensive sensors, the Internet of Things and other trends will cause an explosion in the types of information that are available," explains Iyengar. "In this way, competition will increasingly be defined by differential access, control and value recognition, and timely exploitation of information."
In general, enterprise management has yet to think of information as a strategy, according to Gartner. This is complicated by the fact that, although 'big data' is the buzzword, information strategy extends far beyond it.
"The bottom line is that not all information requires a big data approach," says Frank Buytendijk, research VP at Gartner. "The new 'big data way' is not going to replace all other forms of information management. There is more room - and need - for experimentation in the area of 'information of innovation', for instance with social media data, or by making processes more information centric."
Other streams of innovation in information management need to be sourced from the combination of mobile, social and cloud, which are the major current influencers on business, says Buytendijk. The immediacy of mobile content, analytics and reporting that can be delivered anywhere, anytime, must be incorporated into an information strategy, as must analytics such as sentiment analysis and the information generated by cloud computing, he adds.
"The underlying message is that information is an asset in its own right. It has value," notes Buytendijk. "Gartner calls this emerging discipline of valuating information 'Infonomics'. It is not something of the far future; in fact, this is happening today in various industries - in commerce and the public sector, in large and small enterprises."
Gartner identifies important focal points for developing an information strategy. First, and most important, is determining how information will be used in the organisation. This includes determining how information will drive value, and who will be responsible for information-led innovation and what supports will be in place for them. Because information policy does not fall under the remit of most CIOs, many of these roles are being filled for the first time with a head of information management or chief data officer (CDO).
Other vital steps are establishing responsibility for moving information strategy to new levels, when the data available opens up new possibilities, and laying out a strategy for how new datasets and information streams will be searched, discovered, conjoined and secured. Finally, it is vital to account for social and legal permissions associated with spying, privacy invasion or unfairness.
Implementing all of these strategic goals will involve human, professional and organisational competencies, says Gartner.
Share