Every company creates a strategic plan defining business goals, marketing plans, operational plans, and financial projections along with defining the organization’s mission and vision. Annual strategic planning sessions review the long-term goals for each of these functional groups and refine the short-term goals. In our digital age it is imperative that organizations also plan for how their Information is stored and accessed. Often this plan is embedded in the plans for other functional groups, typically Information Technology, but this will result in a disjointed Information Management (IM) system. An IM system for ALL functional groups results in the stakeholders having confidence they can locate and trust the information needed to achieve their goals.
An Information Management Strategy contains all of the elements as strategies for other functional groups.
1. Who are we? Define your Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles for IM.
2. Define Goals: What are your goals for the Information Management program? Consider the pillars of a comprehensive program.
3. Current State:
What elements of the program exist today?
Where are documents stored? (Create an Enterprise Information map)
Is there Governance for the program? (Conduct a Governance assessment)
How long does it take to find key documents?
Is Record Retention in use?
What are your pain points? (Conduct a stakeholder survey)
Resources: Do have enough people and the ‘right’ people?
Resources: What technology tools are in use?
4. Situation Assessment: Conduct a SWOT analysis.
5. Create the plan: Create your long term and short term plans.
IM Visibility is here to support organizations on their strategic planning journey. Regardless of industry, the type of information, or the location of the information, we are here to provide visibility to your organization’s greatest asset…. INFORMATION.
Need quick answers to IM questions? Click here to learn about the Information Now Program!