Database Reference
In-Depth Information
addition to all of this, an assessment must be made of the cultural climate
of a company. How is information passed up and down the corporate hier-
archy? What political machinations are in place that could possibly affect,
or even impede, the information flow?
With profile in hand, the next step is to perform an intelligence audit.
This is the process that determines whether the right people are get-
ting the right information. It is really a two-step process. First, as one
would expect, the information needs that are uncovered during the
process of developing the profile are satisfied by locating the proper
online source that contains that piece of information. As already
demonstrated, virtually anything ever written can be located via the
Internet. The trick is in being able to first locate it, then being able
to download it, and finally being able to process it. This is where the
second step of the intelligence audit comes in. The company's techno-
logical mentality should be assessed. What kind of technical expertise
does the company have? What are they comfortable with? From the
information collected in this process, it is possible to develop a tech-
nological solution that would best satisfy the needs and capabilities of
a particular organization.
Probably the most crucial step in this entire process is in training
selected personnel in how to convert the information obtained to business
intelligence. This is actually done on two levels. On the technical level, one
or more people must be trained to develop skills in correlating informa-
tion which supports the staff that will ultimately turn this raw informa-
tion into intelligence. These top-tier staff are the ones who will need to
develop and hone skills to coordinate, correlate, analyze, and ultimately
convert raw streams of information into useful business intelligence.
Checklist for the Information Audit
Information audits are tailored to specific companies and their individual
needs. The goal of this process is to pinpoint the information requirements
of a company and then proceed to recommend solutions to satisfy these
requirements. Basically, the process is composed of four steps:
1. Selecting what needs to be known
2. Collecting the information
3. Transforming this collected information into finished product
4. Distributing the finished product to appropriate staff
Search WWH ::
Custom Search