I. INTRODUCTION
Information management is a very broad process that includes the stages of creating, presenting and realizing information. At the beginning of these processes is the concept of intellectual capital, which is one of the most important forces in enterprises. It is inevitable that companies that have strong intellectual capital and plan their information management strategies correctly will increase their performance and gain competitive advantage in the market. As a matter of fact, the success of businesses today is determined by how and how effectively they use information. In this sense, the importance of information-based assets, which are indispensable in our technological age, and their proper management have become very important for businesses.
II. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT AND IT’S IMPORTANCE
The most important resource that businesses have used recently is information, and the elements characterized as intellectual capital have become an important competitive weapon and value-creating power. Businesses that make good use of and share their information potential achieve success by achieving competitive advantage. One of the indicators of this success is that companies have reached a much larger market value than their physical assets. For this reason, businesses have focused on the management of information, the value of which is revealed more and more every day.
The basis of information management is people and new ideas and products are produced, processed and utilized by people. The utilization of information by businesses is realized in the form of information transfer. Within the scope of information management; businesses strive to develop, control, apply, strive to increase and sell information. Thanks to information management, the level of value creation of the company increases by ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty.
III. INFORMATION MANAGEMENT PROCESS AND PRACTICE
Businesses should create both individual and organizational learning and development environment in the workplace to manage information. Thanks to the effective management of information, the intellectual capital values of the firm will increase. If the information management process were to be examined in four stages, these are;
- Acquisition: Acquiring new information through practical learning and gaining experience
- Development: Developing information at the individual and organizational level
- Retaining: Ensuring that information stays within the company as much as possible for the company’s well-being
- Sharing: Transferring information within the company or sharing it with customers in order to turn information into profit.
The main purpose of information management is to increase the return on information production and to benefit from the opportunities and advantages provided by information. It is seen that each business prefers different methods to achieve this. Centers of excellence, information centers and competence centers are frequently used by companies to provide information management. Although all these are seen as additional costs for businesses, losing intellectual capital will cause a much greater loss of profit for businesses.
The following steps need to be completed for the implementation of information management. These are ;
- Associating information management strategies in accordance with the business purpose
- Establishment of an information management team
- Identification of critical information assets
- Developing shared values, vision and objectives of information management
- Creation of new information management structure, processes, roles of technology and rewards
- Creating and maintaining the appropriate organizational culture for information management.
IV. CONCLUSION
Access to information, making information sustainable within the enterprise and establishing organizational structures that will enable new information to be obtained with the available information are some of the important features of our age. From this perspective, information is the most important factor that determines competition today.
Although intellectual capital assets are not included in the financial statements of firms, they are directly related to firm performance and provide added value to businesses and enable them to gain sustainable competitive advantage. This situation has brought along the necessity of using human capital effectively for companies that want to survive in the competitive world and get ahead of their competitors. In this context, businesses should involve all their staff in the process without making any hierarchical distinction and try to make the most of the information, experience and skills of the employees. Businesses should first make this data suitable for the structure of the organization and then protect and store this information in accordance with business purposes.
