What does it mean to be information-centric? We’ve explored the definition and uses of your information under management (IUM), and talked about information management ideals, but now let’s explore if your firm is truly information-centric.
When all your firm’s information is identified and managed in a manner that makes it easy to cross-reference and share with other distribution solutions you have begun to approach this claim. Creating a few dashboards and reports does not mean your work is done. The next step is not technical, rather, the next step is to use your information to make insightful business decisions. Do you trust the information enough to do that?
There are two concepts that measure firms’ stages of information management excellence. The first addresses information management capabilities. These stages range from a descriptive stage that allows a firm to simply recount what has happened in their business to a more advanced cognitive stage that allows a firm to predict results more accurately.
The second hierarchy measures firms’ stage of information management adoption. This evaluates if a firm trusts and uses the information. If a firm is in analytical infancy, they are just starting to use reports and dashboards? When a firm develops advanced analytical capabilities and the information is trusted to craft business decisions and prescriptive guidelines, only then may call themselves information-centric.
Which measurement, capability or adoption, is more important to gauge a firm’s information-centric claim? I will argue the second (adoption attitude) is more important. Countless discussions with my asset management industry friends over the last 30 years have taught me that nothing really happens until a firm has executive support. When skeptics are in senior roles and say, “That will never work!” they are correct; if data initiatives are not supported by management, innovations in data management may not positively affect business outcomes.
I think we are beyond having to prove that effective information management is now demanded in the asset management industry. Olmstead is a data-centric consulting firm that believes solution architecture should be built to effectively manage your information so that you may use it wisely. If you want to be an information-centric firm, Olmstead will make sure that your progress towards that goal is thoughtful and, in the end, provides you the return on investment that you expect from your solutions.
For more detailed information about Olmstead’s data management concepts, please read about my colleague, Anthony Whitford’s data management ideas in his blog titled, Data Is the New Application.