Basic Information Management

Introduction

In the last chapter, the information system architecture that spans the lifecycle of the information and organized in to an information system is explained. Here, the strategies and need of management of these components loosely coupled along a supply line is discussed.

In the context of the present day activities, Information management (Blaise Cronin, 1992) basically deals with design, development and usage of data and knowledge management systems. The fast changes of the business calls for the availability of the information online in ready to use integrated form. Information management (David Aspinall, 2004) also handles the information architecture (IA) that outlines the procedure for the organization of the information. It provides a framework for the usage of the information. Service oriented architecture (SOA) is one such methodology. More details on SOA are provided in the chapter on Information storage. The information management deals with the study of collection, usage and storage of information.

Agent based architecture is often used for information management (Jennifer Rowley and John Farrow, 2000). This chapter examines the issues and trends with the usage of agents for information management. The problem of quality based data exchange among the agents and the data integration from multiple agents will be addressed here. The concepts of information management provided here would kindle the interest of the future IS managers.

Information management process involves the following activities:

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  Identification of the requirements

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  Acquisition of information,

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  Organization and storage of information

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  Development of information products and services

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  Distribution of information and

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  Consumption of the information.

All these activities are covered in the subsequent sections of the book.

In an organization, the transaction data, i.e. logically related data generated during one transaction, such as the commodities bought under a purchase order, is to be grouped and managed as a single unit. The Enterprise resource planning (ERP) architecture is developed based on the transaction data. So, ERP plays an important role in the management of the organizational information (Billy Maynard Andrew White, 2005). This chapter examines information management over the supply chain though no assumption has been made on the nature of the supply chain and organizations in particular.

Background

Information management (Gordon, Keith, 2007) spans all the activities involving system and processes in the organization for the creation and consumption of the information. It makes use of a standard process for the acquisition, retrieval (LIU (S) and SVENONIUS (E), 1991), access, translation, conversion, and filtration of the data. However, the implementation technologies are left for the choice of the individual organizations. The activities of information management cover the design, development and usage of the data and knowledge management systems. The exposure and exchange of information with private and public organizations will have impact on the society. Information management is to deals with the same.

The information management in an organization is dictated by various factors including

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  The ecosystem of consumers and producers in which the organization is positioned

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  The internal infrastructure of the organization

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  The marketing trends

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  Roadmaps of the organization.

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  Support available for the information management with in the organization.