The second in the series of "Rethinking Information Strategies" focuses on shifting from a supply based strategy to a consumption based strategy for the information assets of an organization.

1. RETHINKING INFORMATION STRATEGIES
MANAGING INFORMATION, NOT DATA AS AN ORGANIZATONAL ASSET
In this second of the “Rethinking Information Strategies” series, we will go through why it is important
to focus on information and not data as an organizational asset.
Too many companies focus on data as an organizational asset, which is organized in a way that benefits
the supplier and not the consumer. For the benefitting of the consumer of information, it must be
aligned to the business processes intended to consume this information.
Unfortunately, those business processes for which information is intended to be aligned to change as
market forces change. And as the use of information moves up the food chain to more important and
strategic purposes, the alignment becomes more fleeting and requires a different level of care and
feeding than many organizations are equipped to handle.
SHIFTING FROM MANAGING DATA TO MANAGING INFORMATION
The shift is subtle. Most organizations have big data initiatives. The big data initiatives are devised to
optimize the storage of information, and not necessarily the consumption of information. A layer of
architecture that aligns big data to the consumption patterns of the most strategic business processes
would be devised as a means of extracting the maximum value of big data initiatives if they were
devised for consumption and not storage.
Many big data environments quickly become data swamps because there is no imperative from a
supply standpoint to decommission data in the big data environment because it is no longer aligned
with consumption patterns. However, this once aligned data leads to clutter, which challenges finding
what is necessary for consumption.
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE SHIFT
There are four key players who have accountability in the shift from managing the supply of data to
managing the consumption of information. They are:
• The Chief Data Officer, or the person responsible for understanding and enforcing the
alignment of the consumption patterns of information.
• The Data Asset Manager, which is a new role and is responsible for managing the storage and
consumption of data, WIP and information inventories. Most organizations would not argue a
need to have accountability of their working capital, but when it comes to information we have
become quite good at managing the cost side of the equation but not the inferred value of
information. The data asset manager has this accountability.
• The Data Governance Council, which has a shifted focus from perfecting the supply side of the
equation to perfecting the consumption side, namely eliminating impediments to consumption
of information. This could be information clutter, data quality prior to and after it’s alignment
as information, adherence of context (metadata) and other criteria.

2. • The Chief Information Officer, who is the owner and engineer for the machinery used to
transform the supplied data into consumable information. Information Inventory
ADOPTING THE NEW STRATEGY
The shift sounds small, but it is a major shift in the processes employed in most organizations. Most
organizations are focused on data, which is a cost of the organization. As a cost center, the focus of the
organization is to wrangle every possible ounce of cost out of the organization to do the least harm. In
many organizations, the Chief Data Officer, if they exist, is managed outside of the information
technology organization because it is realized that this should not be the focus of the CDO.
Shifting to managing the consumption has a value consideration to it, and changes information from a
cost center to a profit center of the organization. As a profit center, it becomes incumbent of the
technology arm of the organization to build and manage facilities that meter the use of information in a
way that can differentiate between information appearing on a report (which has marginal value) to
information used to potentially thwart a major disruption in the marketplace 9which has more
significant value associated with it).
Few if any organizations are equipped to manage information this way. But clues can be taken from
those who manage information as part of their revenue stream, namely those who use information for
identifying new revenue opportunities in the online business. These can be M&A opportunity
wranglers, online storefronts or online distribution route optimizers. All have the potential today of
attaching value to their use of information from a consumption side of the equation, whether they are
formally doing so today or not.
ABOUT MARK ALBALA
Mark Albala, the author of the Rethinking Information Strategies series, is President of InfoSight
Partners. Mark provides clients advisory, architecture and strategy services based on his deep expertise
of information strategy, governance and quality.
ABOUT INFOSIGHT PARTNERS
InfoSight Partners is a business services firm whose mission is to facilitate focus into the value of
information assets of an organization. This is accomplished through technology and finance services
delivered through InfoSight Partners. The principles of InfoSight Partners, Mark Albala and Lynn
Albala, provide both technology and financial advisory and other services to client organizations and
vendors that market to client organizations.