About the I*I ig

Understanding Information Integrity

Information Integrity can be defined as the dependability and trustworthiness of information. More specifically, it is the accuracy, consistency and reliability of the information content, processes and systems [Nayar, 1999].

Quality principles continue to evolve over time. Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, competitive companies primarily focusing on the manufacturing of products thrived from innovation, economies of scale, and the management of quality. With the advent of the Information Age, organizations in the marketplace are now challenged with new dimensions for viable business models. Global competition, an enormous demand for professional services, and an interconnected economy are but a few examples of what companies today continue to face in this era. Physical and tangible assets from yesterday’s Industrial Age bear less weight when compared to today’s intangible and abstract assets. Fundamentally, the information assets for organizations are what drive the potential for that organization to succeed. The information environment of organizations consists of content (databases, documents, excel sheets), process (programs, applications, automatic and manual business processes) and system (hardware, software, network, IT infrastructure, server, PCs, people) [Nayar, 2001]

There is an unprecedented dependence of any business process on information flow, both for efficiency and quality purposes. Business processes can be viewed as basic units of organizations. There are three basic types of products of business processes, namely goods, services, and information. Kock and McQueen (1996) observed that the product flow in organizations, 70 per cent or more is due to information, whether one considers manufacturing or service organizations. Strassmann (1996) has estimated that the value of information is more than the value of equity (physical objects) in more than 90% of all companies.

With the growing use of information, the trustworthiness and dependability of information has become a critical factor for the success of an enterprise. Lack of information integrity can have a negative impact on the health of an organization. If not identified and corrected early on, erroneous information can contaminate all downstream systems and information assets. Poor information quality results in loss of revenue, loss of productivity, loss of brand image, potential legal problems, and loss in market value (Thomas, 2002, Eckerson, 2002).

Over the past decade there have been significant research and practice in the area of information quality. These research activities were intended to measure and improve the quality of information (Lee et al., 2002; Ballou and Pazer, 1985; Ballou et al., 1998; Huang et al., 1999; Redman, 1998; Orr, 1998). However, since most of the research is ad-hoc or qualitative in nature, it has failed to provide a comprehensive methodology for organizations to measure the quality of information (Lee et al., 2002). One may also point out to the lack of an agreed upon set of semantics for describing the information assets. I*I IG attempts to develop a conceptual framework for describing the enterprise information assets and a semantic that can serve as the basis for understanding information integrity issues of enterprise information assets and planning for information integrity initiatives.

The only way to truly improve the information integrity within an enterprise is to take a holistic approach that spans the business processes and considers the relevant information assets. We believe that the proven quality management systems can provide the necessary framework for ensuring information integrity. First, Quality management programs are ubiquitous in any modern enterprise and they are proven to be the most successful tools in meeting an enterprise’s goals. Second. We argue that if the information integrity concepts are incorporated within the quality management practices, the enterprise will be able to reduce/eliminate information integrity errors.

To learn more about Information Integrity please visit www.informationintegrity.org