INFORMATION RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

 KAUSIK CHAKRABORTY

Information Resource Management, abbreviated as IRM, is a belief of

management that identifies and calls for the creation, identification, capture
and management of information resource as a corporate asset to support in
devising policy and decision making. IRM is a theoretical and practical
approach to manage government information. Information is regarded as an
important resource which should be managed like other resources, and should
contribute to accomplishing organizational goals and objectives. IRM offers an
integrated view for managing the complete life-cycle of information, from
creation, to distribution, to archiving and/or destruction, for maximizing the
overall usefulness of information, and improving service delivery and program
management (Jack Rabin, 1987)

Information Resource Management is rooted in historical time. Theorists had

elaborated three disciplines in IRM since its evolution that included database
management, records management, and data processing management. IRM
also grew and developed in two societal sectors: the private sector and
Federal agencies.

Database Management: The database management is important element of

Information Resource Management has which uses the terms data
administration and database administration. This standpoint is concerned with
establishing and enforcing standards to support a worldwide view and
integrated use of enterprise data. From the beginning, the need for the
coordination and control of organizational data was recognized. Bulk of
literature denotes the in the development of more competent information
storage and retrieval methods in the 1960’s (Gillenson, 1985). Both the
government and the private sector contributed to this effort. In the beginning
of 1970’s, documents describing the appropriate database environment
explained a staff function: data administration (GUIDE International
Corporation, 1973). The management scope was almost entirely technical.
Usual functions were those necessary to synchronize database management
system activities and application programs. However, this function provided
less control over data redundancy or planning across multiple systems (Durell,
1985). The main qualifications for workers to execute this function were
technical. In the decade of the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was an increased
growth in the use of databases and database management systems, with a
steady change toward data management as database management systems
and these were recognized as only one part of the management of data. The
concept of treating data as a true organizational resource had emerged along
with a new business position: database administrator. The role of the
database administrator was to describe the rules that control the database
and to determine the manner in which the data would be stored. The capacity
of responsibility was the creation, design, and operation of databases. In the
1970’s, as database usage grew and became more incorporated, the issues of
ownership of data and programs and stewardship over the data required to be
addressed (Sibley, 1973). The data administration function interacted with the
data processing department in one of numerous ways such as from a small
independent recommended group to a larger support group with technical
expertise in data base applications development, database definition, and data
dictionaries..

Records Management: The records management approach to Information

Resource Management has evolved from in library science, records
management, administrative management, and other disciplines concerned
with the effective storage, retrieval, and utilization of documents in
organizations. Basically, Records management is a process of ensuring the
proper creation, maintenance, use and disposal of records to achieve efficient,
transparent and accountable governance. This was the first area to use the
term IRM to describe a consistent and comprehensive approach to manage
information.

Information Resource Management represents a comprehensive view of the

enterprise and does not focus on the requirements of a particular group or
department. Information Resource Management is the management of data
and information that includes management of such information resources as
computer hardware, software, communication, internal and external
databases, planning and review as well as the integration of these resources
for the support of managing information for organization as a whole (Jack
Rabin, 1987). An efficient strategic Information Resource Management plan
explains an organization’s information requirements and strategies to satisfy
them. There are two facts responsible for the evolution of Information
Resource Management. The notion of knowledge work was introduced in the
1960’s followed by the concept of the “post-industrial society” in the
beginning of 1970’s. Information economics contributed the argument for
treating information as a resource. These categorizations were widely
described in the 1970’s as “the information age” and the “information
economy”. Such expressions recognize that information processing has
become a basic component of industrialized nations (Mendenhall, 1979).
Venkatakrishnan proposed IRM as “the discipline of comprehensively
managing an enterprise’s information requirements” (1983, p.175). He
presented IRM in the form of an Information Cycle which provided the basis
for a strategy for bringing together the several components of information
resource management. Connell (1981b), Stonecash has defended IRM as “a
response to the increased complexity of today’s organizations and to the
increased complexity of the environment in which today’s organizations
operate” (1981). There was a debate on the concept of Information Resource
Management among theorists. Connell (1981) has argued that In point of fact,
the Information Resource Management theory is full of holes. Its strident
support by the sages of information processing lends credence to the belief
that IRM is an ill-disguised attempt to provide a sinecure for aging data
processing managers. In theoretical literature, King and Kraemer (1987, p.1)
raised a concern about the validity of the Information Resource Management
concept and argued that Information is not a resource in the conventional
sense of the term, and economic techniques for dealing with information as a
resource are lacking.
Information Resource Management as the management of information as a
resource: The intent of Information Resource Management is to manage
Information. King and Kraemer (1987) stated that “within the federal
government, the most influential recent articulation of the IRM theory is
found in the reports of the President’s Commission on Federal Paperwork,”
which tackles how the federal government might modernize its management
of information. The authors offer outlines of definitions leading toward the
IRM concept in the form of three propositions that include organizations are
systems agreeable to systematic controls, information is an organization
resource and should be treated as such and an organization can enhance its
effectiveness and efficiency by managing information as a resource. The
authors then proceed with a dialogue of the great difficulties to be
encountered when one attempts to operationalize these three propositions in
practice.

Information Resource Management as a way to boost information systems

quality: This view represents that Information Resource Management deals
with the enhancement of information systems (applications) quality, their
development, maintenance, and evolution, and to improve the quality of the
information produced by specific systems.

Information Resource Management as the management of computing

resources: In this area, Information Resource Management characterizes the
management of information technology in an organization. These resources
include computers, associated technology such as communication systems,
and human resources and methodologies for systems development for the
planning and control of the resources. These resources are used to obtain,
store, manipulate, recover and distribute data resources which expectantly
will be helpful to end-users, thus becoming information for the particular end-
users at that point in time.

The definitive goal of an effective IRM strategic plan is the design, delivery and
maintenance of a seamless, integrated information resource environment that
responds effectively to the need for cross-functional flows of information
while providing the flexibility and adaptability to respond to incessant
business and technological change. The requirement is for a set of data
transport capabilities and data management interfaces that are usable by each
business function, but unique to and owned exclusively by none of them.
Without a plan there are no objectives, no measures and, ultimately, no
results.

There are three major steps involved in planning for the introduction of IRM
practices into an organization:

 Determine strategic information resource requirements.

 Baseline the existing environment.
 Design the IRM.

IRM has Numerous Benefits

1. IRM assists in development of systems that are targeted to support

strategic and operational objectives;
2. In IRM , there is increased integration of technologies, which improves
the sharing of information across the organization and makes it easier to
obtain information for changing decision-making needs;
3. IRM Assist in identification and adoption of appropriate information
technology standards, minimizing dependence on specific suppliers of
hardware or software;
4. IRM helps in identification of opportunities to improve the relevance
and adequacy of information provided and activities performed;
5. IRM offers a technological infrastructure that will support the strategic
business plan;
 6. IRM helps in minimization of duplicate, and possibly inconsistent, data
and processing capabilities within the organization’s portfolio of
information systems;
7. There is prioritization of projects to be implemented and greater cost-
justification of system development and maintenance activities.

The future achievement of IRM will depend upon an organization’s ability to

change its management focus from the information professionals to end users.
The objective will be to achieve the benefits of end user computing without
losing data consistency and integrity that information managers have worked
so hard to establish.

To summarize, the fundamental perspective of Information Resource

Management (IRM) is to design, inventory and control all of the resources
necessary to give information. When standardized and controlled, these
resources can be shared and re-used throughout the company, not just by a
single user or application.
Information Management

July 18, 2017

Information management (IM) concerns a cycle of organizational activity: the
acquisition of information from one or more sources, the custodianship and
the distribution of that information to those who need it, and its ultimate
disposition through archiving or deletion.

This cycle of Organizational involvement with information involves a variety of

stakeholders: for example those who are responsible for assuring the quality,
accessibility and utility of acquired information, those who are responsible for
its safe storage and disposal, and those who need it for decision making.
Stakeholders might have rights to originate, change, distribute or delete
information according to organizational information management policies.

Information management embraces all the generic concepts of management,

including: planning, organizing, structuring, processing, controlling, evaluation
and reporting of information activities, all of which is needed in order to meet
the needs of those with organizational roles or functions that depend on
information. These generic concepts allow the information to be presented to
the audience or the correct group of people. After individuals are able to put
that information to use it then gains more value.

Information management is closely related to, and overlaps with, the

management of data, systems, technology, processes and – where the
availability of information is critical to organizational success – strategy. This
broad view of the realm of information management contrasts with the earlier,
more traditional view, that the life cycle of managing information is an
operational matter that requires specific procedures, organizational
capabilities and standards that deal with information as a product or a service.