Useful Information

Information and data are more abundant today than ever before. Lets take a look at useful information. Information is useful when it is accurate. Before relying on information to make decisions, you must know that the information is correct. But what if it isn’t?

Information is useful when it is complete. Incomplete or missing information makes it difficult to recognize problems and identify potential solutions. You can have complete, accurate information, but it’s not very useful if it doesn’t pertain to the problems you’re facing.

Finally, information is useful when it is timely. To be timely, the information must be available when needed to define a problem or to begin to identify possible solutions. If you’ve ever thought, “I wish I had known that earlier,” then you understand the importance of timely information and the opportunity cost of not having it.

Acquisition cost is the cost of obtaining data that you don’t have. Companies often have massive amounts of data but not in the form or combination they need. Processing cost is the cost of turning raw data into usable information. A data silo is an isolated data set that is difficult to obtain, combine or use with other company data.

Data silos often have high processing costs because of data variety, that is, data that are formatted or structured in different ways. Storage cost is the cost of physically or electronically archiving information for later retrieval and use.

Retrieval cost is the cost of accessing already-stored and processed information. Communication cost is the cost of transmitting information from one place to another. Communication cost is the cost of transmitting information from one place to another.