Flow Turbulence And Information Quality

Abstract

A crucial aspect of managing the corporate information resource is the ability to assess and maintain information quality. This paper proposes criteria for defining and measuring information quality based on established parameters of information flow. We develop a conceptual model linking information flow metrics and information qualities. The basic premise of the model is that changes in flow metrics affect the usefulness criteria of information, which in turn impact information quality. The usefulness criteria of information are based on established accounting standards. This mapping of flow metrics to information quality is a necessary and critical step towards the development of a robust instrument for quality assessment. The implications of the proposed model for managing information flows resulting from business processes are discussed. "The ability to streamline the structure and to influence and control the flow of information is dramatically more powerful and cost effective than moving and manufacturing physical products. Changing the flow of information requires companies to change not just the product mix, but perhaps more important, the business ecosystem in which they compete. Unless an enterprise develops an explicit strategy to accommodate the accelerated flow of information, the enterprise will find itself scrambling, working harder and faster to stay afloat." (Kalakota and Robinson 1999 p. 6).