My clients contact me with a variety of questions – information on our products and services, technologies provided, their project status, charges, quality metrics, data access, turnaround times, etc. There are questions I can answer right away and there are questions I can quickly look up in our information system to find the answers to. Two years ago, I was spending a significant amount of time everyday searching in individual records, logs, and online resources, calling other divisions, harassing innocent interns, and/or just simply guessing to get the answers.

Effective data and information management is an essential component for many organizations. It is especially a concern these days as the amount of digital information is exploding at an exponential rate. The consequences of poorly managed data can be significant. The following are the examples  discussed in this article:

• Financial losses: Your organization’s headquarters are flooded unexpectedly. Your backup system is outdated, and, as a result, you lose months of data, worth millions of dollars to your organization.
• Litigation risk: Hackers access your customer database, which includes addresses and credit card numbers. These customers are now at risk of identity theft, and they decide to sue you for violation of their privacy.
• Excess data storage costs: Your organization has no process for data cleansing – replacing or deleting inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated information. Consequently, your data storage costs and IT resource needs double each year.
• Inefficient workflow processes: Your team members can’t find the information that they need to do their work, because each department has its own database, and none of these systems communicate with one another.
• Missed opportunities: Your sales reps struggle to access the inventory database, which informs them of product availability and delivery dates. Competitors win sales from you, because they have immediate access to this information.
• Brand/reputation loss: Customers are frustrated, because departments can’t communicate effectively with one another. As a result, your organization’s reputation and sales suffer.
• Negative press/publicity: One of your team members loses their laptop, which contains information about a well-known client. As a result, your organization receives negative media coverage and you lose a number of clients.

For me, developing an effective information system was a life saver; I did not have to spend most of my time answering emails and calls, but could actually do some productive work.