For many industries data is not seen as a principle part of its operations, even in industries or companies where data is regarded as required; it is often subservient to the elements of its main business and therefore even those organisations/teams with departments such as ‘Information Management’; data is forgotten about, or disregarded, by many people as they focus on what they see as the important matter at hand.

How many times a day do we hear or read the word “data”? Then it is changed for “information” to avoid being used too often. If we adopt the proposition that “All information is data but not all data is information”; what does a business need to do with either or both?

Over the last few years I’ve been involved in several Electronic Documents and Records Management System (EDRMS) implementations. I’ve also been involved in a number of Information Technology (IT) implementations which, to all intents and purposes, were about the management of information.