Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It (Part 1 of 4)

Information is all around us, and is no longer the dominion of enterprise and federal government alone. Even the small-to-medium businesses (SMB’s) of today have ready access to many kinds of information for an extremely low cost.

What is perhaps most interesting is that companies large and small have had access to this information since the dawn of commerce. Even the simplest customer interaction yields mountains of data-points on the psychology of the consumer. But how do we interpret it, compare it to other samples, and ultimately apply it to help market our products better, faster, cheaper?

Ultimately, how do we increase value to our customers while decreasing cost to outcome for our company?

If you will pay attention to the subtext, you will notice information is no longer about simply having access to mountains of data – rather it is about how to find it, consume it, digest it, and apply it to the need at hand – in other words, gaining information traction.

Information traction is simply how much momentum we can gain given a certain piece of information and whether that information is better in pieces and parts or in a conglomeration of subsidiaries.

Without application, information is really useless, isn’t it?

After all, how can you sell something if you don’t know who your customer is? What use is a doctor’s knowledge if he or she cannot apply it to save a life or ease suffering? How indeed?

Most seem to be very focused on the ability of finding information these days. Peter Morville is credited as coining the phrase, findability, which refers to:

…the quality of being locatable or navigable. At the item level, we can evaluate to what degree a particular object is easy to discover or locate. At the system level, we can analyze how well a physical or digital environment supports navigation and retrieval. (Wikipedia, 2008).

Others, such as IBM focus on what they term as consumability, or the ability to digest large amounts of information. But does this not suggest the information is simply being taken in with no thought of where the new found resources are to be distributed? In other words, what helps the body transfer those raw materials to usable energy so the body may achieve its goals during that day?

I would suggest there to be another phase in information assimilation, that of application – or what I like to call traction.

Many think of tires when first hearing the word traction. This is an apt metaphor. After all, the tire’s sole purpose is to transfer energy from the engine to the road surface, thus enabling movement. Without friction, the vehicle could not move.

In this four-part series we will look more closely at the concepts of information traction: findability, consumablity, and application (traction). Each article will discuss the relative topic as it pertains to an SMB environment, and intends to shed some light upon how one company deals with the sliding landscape of information management and assurance.

How do you handle finding and digesting all of your business information to empower you to arm your business with the best intelligence possible?

Read the entire series here: Information Traction: Find It, Consume It, Apply It

 Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. To learn more about Ken, visit his about page. You may also find Ken on FriendFeed, Twitter, and LinkedIn.