Information Management
Information is essential in business; the way it is gathered and used will help a business meet the needs of the market and leveraged its advantages. Once the role of information was limited to the way the market was observed and limited due to the limited sources and issues if bounded rationality. The information revolution has meant that rather than using information simply as inputs into the decision making process the way information is used can help to create or sustain competitive advantages and needs to be considered in strategic terms as well as only supportive terms. In order to consider the strategic value of information and knowledge and why it needs active management rather than being treated as only as a collected input we can look at how information is gathered, processed and used in the business environment. The management of information has changed a great deal over recent years. In the past there was an emphasis on the collection of information with the motivation for it to be used as input into the decision-making process. Information was gathered regarding the external environment, such as competitors and the economy as well is the internal environment such as productivity and employee morale1. The information would be gathered from a range of sources and could include anecdotal evidence and written reports (Thompson, 2007). A major change has occurred since the computer revolution; this has facilitated improved levels of communication and access to information with an increasing level of ease (Galliers and Leidner, 2003). Today, information which is valuable to the organization may be created internally or bought from external providers, such as research ag