Technical advancement has made life a lot easier for contemporary organizations. As an entrepreneur, you can take the burden off your and your employees’ shoulders to a great degree by using sophisticated software. That said, the problems have not entirely ceased to exist for modern-day organizations. Take the example of information management. In recent years, it has become one of the most pressing concerns.
Unlike the past, modern-day companies thrive on information. It is one of their valuable assets, which keeps everyone on the same page. So poor management of information can prove to be a blow for you. But the good news is that there are some tried and trusted ways to help you lay down a robust information management strategy. Let’s unveil them without further ado:
Visualize your data
Data visualization provides a better understanding of your performance and helps you develop optimized business strategies. You may also utilize business intelligence tools if you want to showcase the data to outsiders such as shareholders and investors.
Recruit a data management team for your company
The quality of your staff is just as important as the technology used to manage your information. Several companies have started recruiting data management professionals to ensure good information management. It’s no wonder the management information systems job growth has reached an all-time high recently, with salaries soaring in upper five figures and beyond. Hiring a team will also save you from the potential risks associated with outsourcing the work.
Outline your goals
It would be best to determine your business goals right from the get-go. The amount of information we have at our disposal is growing at an incredible rate. However, this does not necessarily mean all the information you have is useful or necessary for your success. Map out the most valuable chunks of information and make it available at the right time for the right people within your organization.
At this stage, you need to ask yourself what objectives you want to accomplish with the data. Many organizations preserve a considerable amount of data without any purpose whatsoever. That way, the data takes up a lot of resources without providing any tangible value. Therefore, it is essential to know what you intend to do with the data so that you only keep the information that is worthwhile for your company. Following are some of the possible goals your company might consider:
- Improve decision-making
- Automate businesses processes
- Identify patterns and buying habits of customers
Narrow down your attention to Information Governance
Information Governance (IG) is a set of rules and processes that organizations must follow while creating, managing, and sharing their information. Effective IG will reach throughout the entire organization and ensure all employees know the correct procedures for creating and managing business data.
Give sufficient time to employees for data management
Companies struggle to meet regulatory and business requirements because the volume of data and information is increasing exponentially. Since employees can best root out violations and trigger information leaks, organizations must involve all employees in managing compliance. Hence, businesses must prioritize allocating time to employees to determine what information should be kept and what should be disposed of. It simply does not make any sense to assume staff will do it despite their busy and packed schedules.
Develop a records retention schedule
A record retention plan tells employees how long they need to keep documents for maintaining compliance. Businesses often preserve documents for as long as possible in fear of needing them. However, maintaining data beyond its retention period can be costly and risky.
Businesses are not only wasting time and money by keeping records for too long but expiring information can also become a liability in the face of a data breach or lawsuit. Organizations must use retention schedules to organize, manage, locate, retrieve, and preserve their information while ensuring compliance and saving time.
All information should be destroyed at the end of its retention period, barring any audits or litigation documents. It will not be sufficient to follow a random destruction schedule. You should establish a customized system to ensure all data that meet retention requirements is destroyed as quickly as possible.
Automate the use of information
Automation is hands down one of the greatest benefits of technology. It mechanizes labor-intensive tasks. Guess what? Automation can also be very effective in managing business information. There are no limits to the possibilities automation offers in this category. You may apply it to any process that is currently manual, thereby helping you get away from annoying and time-consuming phases.
Make data accessible to the right people
There is a fine line between data security and data convenience. Proper data management enhances the convenience with which the right people can access it. While taking this measure, you should set permissions and authorizations according to the role of each individual concerning the data.
For instance, while lower-ranking employees may not require access to the database, they can still have a view-only area where data tampering becomes next to impossible. On the other hand, sales and marketing departments may need access to the data and thus should have full access to it. Depending on the functioning of different departments, you can decide to what extent the data should be made accessible to them.
Modernize content management solutions
Many companies have a separate content management repository that stores documents and unstructured information. If you work in one of them, ensure your content management needs are adequately met by the current system. In case the content management is not serving your needs, you are better off replacing it. We recommend you opt for modern cloud-based solutions. Not many content management systems offer the level of flexibility and features like them.
Conclusion
Information is the basis of almost everything businesses do these days. Be it emails you write, documents you review and share, and spreadsheets you analyze, all operations revolve around data. So organizations must manage information flow effectively to grow. This article mentions a few tips that can help you improve information management in your business or company. Follow them to the T to ensure maximum results.
