How to have your information asset management program taken seriously

Using terminology correctly is a large part of being taken seriously in a professional group.

When someone doesn't know what they're doing, the way they generally out themselves is through how they use terminology.

The idea of Information Asset Management is to take some of the language and practices of finance and asset management, and bring them into information, records and data management.

The idea is that this will make it easier for our organisation to understand that what we manage contributes to our organisation financially.

The implication is that if people understand this, they will start to treat their information more like money or other plant and equipment - and actively manage it.

The challenge is that we're borrowing terms from finance so that people will take us seriously when they're thinking financially.

If we want it to be taken seriously, we need to make sure that when we borrow terms, we do it fully understanding what they mean.

Take "asset" for instance.

I see information asset registers regularly that list everything as an asset.

I've never spoken to anyone who has defined a liability as part of their information asset management program.

In finance, an asset is something from which you expect to create a future positive cash flow ie. money to come into your "pocket."

It is paired (quite neatly) with the concept of a liability - which is something that you expect to cause a future negative cash flow - ie. you will have to pay someone.

Classifying which one you're dealing with means you need to know whether your "thing" is going to cost you money or make/save you money in the future.

In an information context, this means that you have to have a valuation model for your information that knows what it's going to be used for - and how that produces a return, and includes the costs of managing it across its lifecycle.

Once you have the model, you can make a decision about whether your information is an asset or a liability. Before that, you have no idea.

Incidentally, you might know how we deal with liabilities - it's through disposition.

If you really want your program taken seriously, do two things -

1. Don't call something an asset until it is.

2. Get your CFO to agree on a valuation model (or probably a set of valuation models).

We hate it when people don't take records management seriously.

The way we know, is that they use our terminology incorrectly.

They instantly lose their credibility with us, and we instantly feel like we don't have to listen to them because they clearly don't know what they're talking about.

Lets not fall into the same trap.