Information assurance

"Recognition that information is the key asset and responsibilities and processes must be in place to assure its quality, accuracy, timeliness and security"

The Audit Commission report "In the Know" stated that two-thirds of three and four star councils use information well, but only a tenth of one and two star councils do so. Good information used well leads to better quality decisions that minimise resource use and maximise the benefits derived.

However, managing information assets as resources also incurs cost, and this too must be minimised. The policies and procedural guidance from the governance team should reinforce this point. Information should be:

• collected once, and duplicated only for backup
• used many times
• fit for purpose
• able to be combined with other information to add value
• available just in time for the intended purpose.

Duplication leads to ambiguity as well as incurring unnecessary costs in collection, storage and maintenance. Ambiguity may result in poor or late decisions with consequential waste in other resources. Planning decisions may not require absolute accuracy, and ‘over-engineering’ means wasted time and money. Finally, organisations should apply ‘lean thinking’ to information management, cutting out waste in its collection, processing and storage. Unused data will quickly become inaccurate because it is out of date, but information for strategic planning need not necessarily be ‘hot off the press’.