Why have information?
That might seem like a silly question, but knowing what you want to do with information, who needs to have it and how they want to use it, is essential if you want to improve it.
It’s relatively easy to get data from a system, but we need more than data, we need information, an understanding not just of the numbers but of what those numbers mean. How easy is it to look at the information you have, and know the answer to “So What?”
Useful information is typically characterised by being:
Plan to make information available at the place and time and in the way that it’s needed.
Often a number has most meaning when compared to other numbers. For example we probably want to know not just a customer's monthly order volume, but how that volume compares to their historical average and to other customers. The number without context has little meaning.
For information to be accurate it must be complete. SAP Business One is complete integrated system so nothing happens in isolation.
We really want information before it happens. (Predictive Analytics makes this possible). Failing that we want it as soon as it has happened. We can no longer afford to wait for weeks for information to be made available.
Really useful management information allows us to take action based on it. If we can’t use the information to inform our decision making it’s not really information, it’s just data for data’s sake.