The Smart Information Grid: unlocking the power of data

Information delivers significant RoI through innovative business model designs, customer value proposition improvements, and seamless operational excellence. Unfortunately, most companies’ approach to data has jeopardised their ability to harvest this value.
Back in 1967, Peter Drucker posited that ‘just as electrical energy is energy for mechanical tasks, information is energy for mental tasks’
It is time to fundamentally rethink how companies use data. The Smart Information Grid is the departure from an old adage “information as an asset”— instead, it taps into a network to create, manage and use information to create business value. The Smart Information Grid is an advance from a centrally managed nuclear/IT power to a flexible, networked, and empowered ecosystem.
WHY?
In the business climate of accelerating complexity, companies can gain 2 competitive advantages with information:
- Information accessibility. With exponential growth of data, no one can “catch it all” — thus access to the relevant data at the right time is critical.
- Insight actionability. With increasing operating speed, being able to deduce insights and take prompt actions is paramount.
By effectively mobilising the whole organisation, companies can increase both accessibility and actionability at a faster pace than competition.
HOW?
The Smart Information Grid requires a disruptive change in the organisational DNA.
Prioritise connectivity over integrations. A number of connections is more important than having a single, exhaustive platform.
Prioritise action over hindsight. Instead of standard management reports, prioritise putting data in the hands of front-line employees.
Prioritise relationships over boundaries. Commit to developing collaborative relationships, retiring control and ownership discussions.
Prioritise speed over perfection. Months lasting data projects are replaced by the lean start-up methodology.
These are transformational organisational values that promise a significant change in how companies address their data and technology challenges.
WHAT?
The Smart Information Grid challenges the concept of the “single source of truth”, and instead focuses on enabling everyone in the ecosystem with data to generate business value. In the new business environment – signified by increasing operating speed, business complexity, and exploding data volumes – the old tools no longer work, and they need to be changed.
The mechanics of the Smart Information Grid are strongly geared towards exploitation of data to deliver business value. It is much better at reconciling responsible data management practices with effective value-driven use.
Customer pull should be steering all data effort. Front-line employees, a key linking pin, must be enabled with embedded information and better data literacy. Companies must stimulate an experimental culture, supported with tools and methods that force outside-in perspective.
Data governance must be very transparent. Metadata and masterdata management practices need to be recalibrated to enable distributed collaboration rather than strict control. Companies need to rethink their approach to privacy, security, and compliance by linking them to customer outcomes. Product and portfolio management need to be driven by dynamic, proved-value budget all0cation.
To ensure data flow and enable data usage at scale through a distributed collaboration, companies need to be flexible on tooling. For example, open source community has mastered collaboration at scale, and some of those tools and methods can be transferred to enterprise setting. Business also must look outside their siloes, forging network and data partnerships. Finally, moving beyond data lakes and enterprise data warehouses, companies must significantly upgrade their API management capabilities.
Preparing for a journey
The mechanics of the Smart Information Grid are strongly geared towards exploitation of data to deliver business value. It is much better at reconciling responsible data management practices with effective value-driven use.
The Smart Information Grid prioritises continuous progress over the idealistic future state. The solution provides a shared compass, rather than an exhaustive map, across the organisation.
The Smart Information Grid is not an IT project — it is a business change first. The new technology is just one of many potential solutions. Remember to stay focused on the business value delivered.
Originally published on www.blinklane.com . A full version of the white paper available here.
