Information Overload
Know where to store, collect or update information
Information management concerns the organisational information activity cycle: creation, use, storage, preservation and destruction and protection. Information, as we know it today, concerns both physical and digital information and, for this reason, the organisational structure must be able to manage all types of information throughout its life cycle, regardless of its source or format (data, documents, audio, video, etc.) for access through multiple interfaces. These life cycle activities must be managed according to the organisation’s needs, controlling the structure, processing and delivery of information. In this universe, understanding the flows of information, communication, and operations is extremely important for establishing infrastructures capable of ensuring the informational needs of employees. Business processes are the foundation of information systems. A company cannot function with systems that do not adapt to its reality, either because they are archaic or do not comply with the established organisational structure.
For the implementation of information systems, be they software, intranets, web pages or shared drives, it is necessary to understand the infocommunicational environment of the organisation:
- The documentation created concerns for each employee or department and must be organised according to the department’s structure. Imagine mini-ecosystems within the organisational universe. Although it is an independent structure, it must be based on a macro view of the digital organisational structure defined by the company;
- Departmental interactions help establish the levels of organisation: access and confidentiality, which contribute to information security. Project-based operations, such as in Ubiwhere, deserve special attention in understanding the interactions between team members, who may be from different areas. These flows must be secure and firm;
- According to the compliance established by international standards, organisations must implement standardisation mechanisms. These mechanisms may be:
a. Standardisation of documentation (all documents of the same type, even created in different departments/areas) follows the same structure. This can be achieved by establishing organisational templates;
b. Standardisation of terms/nomenclatures — often, the same concept has several names, making it difficult to collect information. Defining unique names for concepts, systems, folders, documents, and job titles, allows operations/services to be more efficient. This can be achieved by establishing naming conventions.
- Centralisation of information needs. Intranets, knowledge bases, and integrated management software are the best friends of information management. Because they are single sites that aggregate the data and information necessary for day-to-day and core operations, they help organisations to be more efficient.
The role of information management
As verified, information management enables an organisation to achieve several objectives. It improves efficiency and compliance and reduces risk and controls access to vital business information (information necessary for the normal running of operations).
- Control over record creation
Effective information management can help an organisation control the creation of records. Without a defined strategy for creating and recording information, usually through mapping documentation needs, and a document retention policy (defining periods for keeping documentation and its disposal), the workplace may overproduce/save records. This can increase record retrieval time and the cost of managing information resources. To avoid this, these information management guidelines establish limits on information creation and determine disposal procedures to improve productivity and efficiency.
- Ensuring regulatory compliance
Organisations must work by regulations regarding how they handle customer and company data, the quality of their operations, the security of their information, etc. Effective information management provides guidelines that promote compliance with laws and regulations.
- Reducing operational costs
Data collection, analysis, storage, sharing and destruction are capital-intensive activities. Businesses need efficient information management to reduce the cost of record keeping. Information management prioritises the most important records according to organisational objectives and missions, reducing expenses throughout the information lifecycle. A good information manager, in addition to providing tools and guidelines for structuring information, is also capable of analysing and selecting useful information to avoid wasting time on information that is not relevant, either because it is not up-to-date, not adapted to the current context of operations, not pertinent, etc.
- Reducing Risk
An important role of information management is to reduce the risk of legal and financial penalties against the organisation. You can achieve this with a well-defined policy for recording, storing, disclosing and destroying high-level data/information. This improves compliance with regulations. In the case of companies that handle personal data, even if it does not fall under the GDPR criteria, they should establish a data management policy or an information management policy based on the guidelines of the regulation.
- Protecting information and preserving corporate memory
Organisations must establish a process to safeguard their vital information from competitors and unauthorised access. Information management provides policies to protect proprietary information from intruders, system failures and natural disasters. It helps preserve the confidentiality and integrity of vital information, allowing the owner to derive maximum benefit from their trade secrets. Information management also helps the organisation create a secure and reliable institutional memory by establishing trustworthy sites that can store organisational information relevant for strategic planning and decision-making.
Are knowledge bases information management tools?
Webster Dictionary defines Knowledge as something derived from information — facts, information and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; the initial condition for the innovation process.
Information and knowledge are thus fundamental in all stages of the innovation process: in the creation and selection of ideas, in the choice of the most appropriate resources, in project management and, mainly, in organisational learning. It is advantageous to define knowledge sources to structure knowledge and its flows and identify management points. A knowledge base acts as an aggregating source of knowledge, allowing employees in the organisation to share content in a centralised location; this way, knowledge can be shared in different formats, retrievable through site search and should be revisited / peer-reviewed for constant updating and quality. The validation and registration of knowledge depend on the knowledge maintenance process, so it must be subject to periodic review and updating to guarantee and enhance knowledge management as a vehicle for competitive advantage.
The advantages of a knowledge base are very relevant, from allowing the constant connection to the knowledge created in the organisation by different employees to keeping teams focused on the macro objectives of the organisation since readily available and relevant information helps teams make more informed decisions. Other benefits include improved productivity (surface the right information at the right time), increased employee involvement (sense of working for the common good) and prevention of knowledge loss.
Knowledge Management at Ubiwhere
Ubiwhere has structured and implemented a knowledge base involving all departments and areas of activity in the construction process. This way, the structure, flow and contents are adapted to the user’s concrete needs.
The creation had 3 phases:
- Needs Assessment with the employees — definition of the general needs of each department regarding the information they need daily from their own and other departments, and also private needs of the team;
- Information Flow Structure using taxonomies framed in the digital organisational structure: nomenclatures and sub-pages;
- Population of the site with on-site information or through hyperlinks.
The major goal of implementing a knowledge base is to reduce the time spent in the information retrieval process. Every day, vital information is created and scattered in digital repositories or private files. This information is more at risk of being lost. Thus, by centralising knowledge and information, users (employees) only have to resort to one source, built according to their needs and following a familiar information flow. This tool is expected to grow substantially and house all the knowledge and information vital and necessary to the company. Another expected result is the immediate diffusion and sharing of knowledge. Thus, everyone knows what is being worked on/created, keeping track of the objectives achieved.
Organisational knowledge management leads to the sharing and diffusion of different visions and innovation, which leads to the success of organisations.
