Information Nation: Seven Keys to Information Management Compliance, Second Edition

Chapter 1. Why Information Management Matters

In this first chapter, we will explore the concept of Information Management, how it has changed over time, and how it relates to other information-based activities across an organization. Understanding the essence of Information Management will lay the foundation for understanding Information Management Compliance (IMC).

Sink or Swim

In 2007, the digital universe (information created, captured, or replicated in digital form), was estimated to be 281 exabytes, or 281 billion gigabytes (GB).^[2] For an estimated world population of 6.6 billion,^[3] that is about 42.6 GB of data per person. About 210 billion e-mail messages are sent each day,^[4] along with 32.2 billion instant messages.^[5] The Radicati Group estimates that in 2008, a typical corporate e-mail account will send and receive about 18.5 MB of data per day. Forrester Research forecasts that the number of PCs worldwide will reach 2 billion by 2015. Exceptional growth is predicted in emerging markets, with a worldwide compound annual growth rate of more than 12 percent between 2003 and 2015.^[6]

Information technology has become so commonplace in today's organizations that much of it is taken for granted. Some observers have even suggested that information technology and automation no longer offer "competitive advantage" because each competitor has essentially the same technology and level of automation.

From the largest Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application in use at a corporation ...