Concept Of Information Management Research Articles

From Local Information Technology Support to a Global Information Management Organization in Pharmaceutical Research and Development

This article discusses the design of an information management organization based on a real-life reengineering project. The organization was developed out of a worldwide project team and established parallel to the system roll-out. Three factors were most important for success: 1. excellent system documentation deduced from well-developed information engineering architectures, 2. careful integration of the information management concept into the user community, and 3. the preparation of clear and comprehensive business processes and roles of the information management organization. The organizational model was created as a corporate matrix comprising roles and functions on three hierarchical levels. The responsibilities for system redesign and change management are centralized and unique. Major technical support was limited to server locations and intense user support was made available in every clinical unit worldwide. Further, the model integrates research and development (R&D) and computer center services worldwide based on company internal service level agreements.

Information management in process‐based organizations: a case study at Xerox Ltd

Abstract. The process‐oriented holistic enterprise is a new organizational form in which the business process may be perceived as the basic organizational construct. Process management on an enterprise‐wide scale implies a complex integration of business processes. The increased organizational complexity places heavy demands on a firm’s information management capability, and this needs to be managed in a way that best supports the process model. This research has found that in the case of Xerox Ltd, a company that has adopted a holistic approach to process management, the information management process is key to supporting this method of organizing. The main finding is that, in order to support process management, a particular type of information management is required. This includes a need for enterprise‐wide information systems and the centralization of systems development and maintenance. However, the process management is made possible by this type of information management. This may be referred to as the duality concept of information and process management. The research presents findings from an in‐depth participant observation study conducted at the Xerox Ltd headquarters in the UK, and also includes data collected from Xerox France and Xerox UK.

Access control, payment, and smart cards in libraries

As networked information services on the Internet continue to grow, so the problem for libraries of controlling access and management of these services increases. There are three problem areas for libraries: • computer security with regard to open networks: confidentiality, identification and authentication, and document integrity • authorisation: who is authorised to do what on which resources? • cost recovery: libraries will need to develop cost recovery charging mechanisms as the amount of electronic information increases and the costs of electronic licences rise. Current approaches to networked access to electronic information sources favour user direct access and payment, or institutional site licences. Both methods involve multiple connections and interfaces. The former also requires multiple registration procedures and different payment systems while the latter provides no cost-recovery mechanism for libraries. Moreover both approaches give rise to inflation in information prices. Against this background, smart cards are being introduced in libraries as means of controlling user identity and of electronic payment. But current applications in libraries of campus cards and of public payment cards do not yet integrate all the functionalities required by libraries. The TOLIMAC project aims to meet libraries' requirements in terms of user authentication, authorisation, secure communication and charging mechanism. It has developed a smart card-based management system of networked information services for libraries, providing access control and payment mechanisms. These new functionalities enable libraries to agree a new type of institutional contract with providers, based on actual use of their services. By placing libraries as key intermediaries between users and providers, the TOLIMAC system sets a new electronic information management concept for access control and charging functions.

Automating batch processes

Batch processes are a suitable means of describing milk and dairy processes and therefore suitable applications for the emerging batch control systems standards. These involve powerful recipe handling, scheduling and information management concepts. Recipes are regarded in these standards as transportable objects incorporating formulae, equipment requirements, process procedures and instructions for data acquisition of data for batch histories. The main impact of these recipes will be to permit increased production flexibility as control systems become more functionally oriented and subject to the instructions within recipes. Production scheduling will enable the order of recipes and production to be established according to customer demands. Any supported schedules will have to be dynamic, to allow for severe disruptions. The final concept of information management enables the creation and use of batch reports for quality, internal and external, financial and maintenance functions and analysis within a company. Although these concepts and their interrelationships are reasonably new, control systems are being created that will support software implementing these concepts.

Technological Change and Its Influence on the Practice and Role of Information Management

When one considers the building blocks of scholarly communication, it is possible to see historical trends forcing them apart into relatively specialized and isolated roles. Today, the entities that are most concerned with professional support of scholarly communication are academic institutions, professional associations, scholarly publishers, and libraries. Each of these faces disconcerting change: in their markets, in their mission, in their revenue streams, in their operational strategies, and in the technology they use to facilitate their work. Simultaneously, the concept of information management is used to reinvent the role of librarians. As a result, knowledgeworkers in these fields face instability on practical levels, and ambiguity on philosophic levels. The opening address will attempt to describe the conditions of our dilemma and suggest ways for resolving those conflicts, as a preparation for the sessions to follow

Marketing the concept of information management to top executives

This paper reports the outcome of a small research project undertaken for the British Library Research and Devel opment Department dunng the two-month penod on either side of Chnstmas 1989 The research can be characterised in two ways as a preliminary study in the strategy of promoting information management, and as an exercise in test marketing the concepts, ideas and, to some extent, the educational prod ucts involved

Integrating all the way from design to product

Discusses a project undertaken to use advanced information technology to support the lifecycle of light electromechanical products from design, through manufacture to service. Considers the “design to product” system as a whole, the key concept of information management, design support tools, the manufacturing environment, and the generation of machining data.

Natural language processing and advanced information management

This paper introduces the concept of advanced information management (AIM). An AIM system accesses and integrates diverse information sources across heterogeneous computing systems, performs implied numerical and symbolic calculations for its users through a multi-modal interface, and presents the results in a way that is readily understood. The thesis is advanced that an adequate AIM system must use natural language to integrate diverse information sources and that a sophisticated natural language understanding system together with an object-oriented database server is necessary to realize AIM objectives. The paper describes the components and architecture of an AIM system and the ongoing work at the Boeing Advanced Technology Center on Sapir, a linguistically based natural language processing system that will be fully adequate for AIM.

Promoting the concept of information management within organisations

Le sens du terme «gestion de l'information» est precise. Les differences existant entre theorie et pratique si l'on examine ce que recouvre le terme sont soulignees. La facon de promouvoir et de «vendre» cette gestion de l'information aux organismes est discutee: certains aspects particuliers du probleme sont developpes et l'interet de la promotion de cette gestion souligne. (INTD)

Coping with prejudice: Attitudes of handicapped persons toward the handicapped

In an exploration of the amount of prejudice that handicapped people feel towards other handicapped people, compared to that felt by non-handicapped people, it was found that a distinction should be made between relatively visible handicaps and relatively invisible handicaps. People with amputation, spinal injury, and stroke (highly visible) had positive attitudes, but arthritics and emotionally disturbed people did not. Goffman's (1963) concept of information management was employed to explain this difference. These results suggest that promoting opportunities for association with persons with like handicaps would be beneficial to those with visible handicaps: but for the less visibly handicapped such a strategy would not be useful.