What Is Product Information Management?

Information product management mainly studies information management issues at the micro level, including the development of information products-information collection, processing and analysis methods, the circulation of information products-information service methods and information market management, and the trend towards network, digitalization and How does a globally integrated information environment affect human information resource development and utilization?

Information Product Management

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Information product management mainly studies information management issues at the micro level, including the development of information products-information collection, processing and analysis methods, the circulation of information products-information service methods and information market management, and the trend

Information product management includes the development of information productsmethods of information collection, processing, and analysis, the circulation of information productsinformation service methods and information market management, and the information environment for humans that is moving toward a networked, digitized, and globally integrated information environment What is the impact of resource development and utilization activities?

(1) Understand the needs of information consumers ^[1]

Financial companies and eyewear companies must determine the needs of two types of information consumers, external customers and internal consumers. The following analysis will explain what happens if the company does not understand these needs.

For external customers, financial companies must quickly open accounts for them, keep up-to-date customer risk profiles, and have control over all accounts of the same customer. Investments that do not meet the customer's risk tolerance level often result in customer dissatisfaction and may require compensation for customer losses. For internal consumers, financial companies must provide all real-time information about changes in customer account balances. Otherwise, internal consumers have to use locally maintained databases, which are often inconsistent.

Meeting the needs of eyewear company customers can be interpreted as providing the right lenses, and fulfilling this need depends on the retail store providing the laboratory with the correct lens specifications. When the optician, that is, the writer of the specification, fails to understand the information requirements of the lens grinder (internal information consumer), the consequence is that a large number of non-compliant lenses are produced and rework is required. Opticians and lens grinders cannot communicate correctly and cannot meet the information needs of lens grinders, which will generate additional costs, cause delays in product delivery, and reduce external customer satisfaction.

(2) Manage information as a product

Manage information like a product. Fundamentally, information is a product with a well-defined information production process.

The financial company maintains a database of central customer accounts. Every night, transactions made during the day are recorded and the balance of the customer account is updated. Other customer information, such as customer risk files, should be updated in a special way at a convenient time. This particular approach is to treat information as a byproduct of physical events rather than as a product with a well-defined information production process. A customer request may trigger a change, so a well-defined production process needs to systematically review customer behavior and then update the risk profile.

Internal customers of financial companies consider customer account information to be unreliable, as many people have the right to update customer account information

Profit. To solve this problem, different departments have developed different customer account databases. However, the consequence of this is that the local database customizes a large number of local customer databases according to the specific needs of each department, and the data of these databases is not uniform, and the customer information of each department is even newer than that of the central database. Each department will collect and process information as a by-product of its local operations, which cannot meet the company's need for complete customer account information.

(3) Management life cycle of information products

In order to adapt to the formal marketing concept, we define the life cycle of information products as four stages of introduction (creation), growth, maturity, and degradation. During these phases, information goes through the process from introduction to obsolescence. Chemical companies are an example of not following this principle. The company's clearly defined process for creating security forms does not extend to maintaining the quality of information throughout the life of the information product. As a result, based on accumulated product experience and newly discovered scientific evidence, information about new hazards is occasionally added to the product's safety data sheet. Information over time

Quality has declined.

At financial companies, changes in the operating environment require the latest production processes to improve the company's information products. However, financial companies failed to manage the life cycle of customer account information in order to adapt to the new global, legal, and competitive environment, ultimately laying a huge hidden danger for banks. Banks are not ready to take full advantage of customer account information in their global operations. For example, although customers have sufficient credit lines in all accounts, they cannot trade or borrow with the full balance. Without a large number of error-prone human interventions, it is impossible to track the balance of a customer's single and multiple accounts, close all of their accounts due to a customer's criminal behavior, and guarantee accurate customer risk profiles.

(4) Appointing an information product manager to manage information processes and products

This article uses the term information product manager to represent a common functional role in an organization. Different companies use different terms or titles depending on the scope of this role's responsibilities and its place in the company's management structure. At financial companies, information product managers are responsible for continuously monitoring and capturing customer needs, coordinating diverse needs, and translating this knowledge into processes that promote continuous improvement. Without an information product manager, financial companies will weaken or reduce information flow measurement standards and controls. For example, banks do not have controls in place to ensure that customer risk profiles are updated regularly. Financial companies do not regulate or check the account creation process. As a consequence, the company does not have metrics to determine how many accounts were opened on time and whether customer information in those accounts has been updated. As management focused on revenue-generating operational aspects, such as transactions, the IT department found that it had unknowingly responded more actively to specific requests from the transaction department to update customer account information. If a financial company appoints an information product manager, the company will have better risk management standards and better customer service. Both of these are exactly two crucial factors for success in the financial industry.

In the early 1990s, financial companies hired an information technology executive with a strong knowledge of information quality concepts, process engineering, and business applications, and began a shift to an IP perspective. The supervisor began to design a cross-functional approach. With the support of the CEO, he established a workflow model for the production process of customer account information. The model integrates customer service, business operations, and information departments. As a result, financial companies have enabled processes to generate high-quality customer account information.