Eliminate information complexity through organized and managed information capital
Structures laid over the business produce enormous information complexity
20th century management does not manage the actual business, but manages the enterprise using a multitude of organization, process, account, performance, system, administration, etc structures laid over the business. The structures are rigid and do not change with actual business change. No structure captures consistent, complete, and accurate business data. The various structures use different names for the same entity and different definitions for the same part of the enterprise. Information systems computerize the various structures producing enormous amounts of incomplete, inconsistent, and inaccurate information. This causes the exploding information complexity and information management problems enterprises are experiencing today.
Information generally is not organized and managed as capital
Information capital management is not well organized. Accounting is responsible for financial records, information technology may perform data management and record retention, there may be a function for knowledge management, record management, or business or management intelligence. Even with this, there is little management of information for application to improve the business. There is no structure to relate information directly to the business and no data is collected on the actual business as a related set.
The explosion in enterprise information problems and investments demands a basic rethink
These problems are aggravated by the proliferation of IT use for email, Internet information storage and downloads, information exchanges, imaged documents, etc. New corporate governance requirements demand a solution to these problems.
Enterprises are now laying more 20th century subject, category, and work flow structures over the business and making enormous investments in data reconciliation and enterprise information management and various document, record, report, and content management systems. These investments only aggravate the information management problem with even more structures and entities.
20th century management will never solve the problem by continuing to make enterprise information and management more complex. Before wasting more money, we need to rethink our approach to business organization and information capital management. The only way to solve the problem is to simplify and organize the business as a few specific data entities, and professionally manage all data, knowledge, records, and intelligence through reference to these few data entities as part of one official enterprise information base.
We must organize the business to simplify business and management information to one consistent set
Result-performance Management organizes the business to capture data and produce other information related directly to the business and to eliminate data collection and information reporting not related to the business. The business is consistently defined through one limited set of business data entities. All information in, entering, or leaving the business is referenced to a result, performance solution, or other business data entity. Actual business data is captured on performance costs, result value, result quality, result value-added, capital worth, investment returns, and other business descriptors. One consistent set of management information is reported on the complete current and strategic business for decisions to add, change, or close results or capital utilized as performance solutions.
We must organize information capital for proper support, and proper utilization where needed in the business
R-pM organizes information capital by four capital categories and the information capital class:
- Capital category for support and development to provide the professional human capabilities needed to produce data, knowledge, record, and intelligence information solutions
- Information capital class to integrate the information solutions to be delivered or accessed and utilized by the business
R-pM provides the capabilities to reference all information to the business and to manage data, knowledge, records, and intelligence, no matter where stored, as one integrated enterprise information base.
We must manage information capital for professional support and solutions
Information capital requires special capabilities to produce solutions needed by the business. Four specific capital categories of information require different professional capabilities:
- Business data: Business data is information concerning the entities that comprise the business such as capital utilized as performance solutions, results, business transactions, suppliers, customers, descriptors, etc. Data requires business knowledge and analysis capabilities
- Human knowledge: Knowledge is information used by humans to develop capabilities, to utilize capital provided in the business, and to produce the results required by the business. Knowledge requires human development and support capabilities
- Facility records are tangible information capital regarding business initiatives, decisions, and activity covering all correspondence, transactions, documents, records, archives, etc. Records require administrative capability
- Management intelligence provides information on the business and environment for management decision-making. Intelligence requires management analysis and research capabilities
Each category of information capital is professionally supported to manage information to develop information solutions needed by the business.
We must integrate and manage information in the Information Capital Class
All information solutions are integrated as information capital for utilization by the business. Knowledge, record, and intelligence solutions are integrated with business data or reference specific business entities for access with business data. All information in the business is managed information capital that references the actual business and is indexed to the business.
We must manage all information referenced to the business in an official Business Information Base
The enterprise must maintain one Business Information Base for the only official version of enterprise business information. R-pM simplifies the business to a few data entities, primarily results, performance solutions, enterprises, and the business descriptors and attributes of results and performance solutions like organization unit, industry, market, etc. Information entities not related to the business like function, cost activity, object, division, center, etc are no longer used. All information produced in the business, brought into the business, or sent out from the business must be separated and managed as data, knowledge, records, or intelligence; must reference the proper business data entity; and must be integrated in one logical and official enterprise information base for management, access, and use by the business.
We must follow rules for proper information capital management
R-pM organizes all information capital to be supported by those with the capability and to be integrated for application to the business. R-pM provides the following rules for good information governance and 21st Century Information Capital Management:
- Manage all information capital in the specific capital management units to provide information solutions for the business by result and performance solution identifier
- Maintain the current business structure as business organization capital to document and update all business results produced and performance solutions used in the current business
- Maintain selected other business descriptor entities to manage the descriptors and coded attributes of results, performance solutions, and enterprises and to reference business information by product group, country, capital type, etc
- Maintain the strategic business structure as management strategy capital to plan and document approved strategic results and performance solutions for development
- Maintain business data capital to update the business entities for results and performance solutions and manage references to knowledge, records, and intelligence
- Maintain one official enterprise information base to logically relate information concerning business data entities across networks, web-sites, computers, storage devises, and off-line information capital management
- Reference and manage all information capital solutions utilized within the business and all business transactions, correspondence, reports, documents, etc within, entering, or leaving the business by the specific business entity identifier for inclusion in the Business Information Base
- Manage emails, correspondence, documents, reports, images, etc produced or received anywhere in the business, related to business initiatives, decisions, transactions and follow-ups as facility records capital. referenced to specific results or performance solutions, for solutions, retention, and archiving
- Manage Internet downloads, transmitted information files, etc produced or received anywhere within the business providing knowledge about the business, industry, etc as knowledge capital referenced to a current or strategic result, performance solution, or descriptor entity
- Manage Internet downloads, transmitted information files, personal contacts, etc produced or received anywhere in the business related to competitive information and management decision information as intelligence capital referenced to current or strategic result, performance solution, or descriptor entity
- Apply standardized 21st Century Management definitions and conventions across business enterprises for data and information consistency and understanding
R-pM is the only solution to the increasingly important need to manage business information capital professionally and reduce the exploding IT overheads that can never solve the information complexity and management problem.
We can do all this only when R-pM organizes the business for 21st Century Management
But first, we must organize the business for 21st Century Management using R-pM. It is all explained in The R-pM Toolkit, your 21st Century Management manual.
