Businesses produce and obtain a lot of information, like sales data, employee feedback, and performance statistics. When properly managed, this information can be used to help businesses set goals, improve performance, and gain valuable insights. That’s why information management is an important consideration for many modern businesses.

Understanding information management is one of the learning outcomes of studying computerized business applications. By learning about information management, you’ll become a much more attractive candidate for many office administration positions. Let’s take a look at a few things you should know.

Information Management Keeps Information From Becoming Overwhelming

Information management has become more important than ever before thanks to the explosion of data and information that companies routinely handle. This is largely a by-product of businesses becoming increasingly digitized, which has led to the growth of digital data alongside traditional paper-based data. Managing all of that information can be difficult without a way of organizing it and getting it to the people in the company who need it, which is what information management does.

Information also tends to be useful only for a short time, after which it becomes outdated and needs to be archived or disposed. Without a system for managing information and deciding when information is useful and when it is not, companies would simply be overwhelmed. That would make it difficult for them to get value out of relevant information because it would be lost in a mountain of out-of-date information. Therefore, an information management system is necessary in order for companies to make that information useful and easy to access.

Information Management Is Not Quite the Same as Data Management

People often confuse information management with data management. That’s understandable since information and data are very similar. However, information is much broader than data. Information refers to anything that informs and carries meaning. Data, however, is just facts and figures and it only becomes information when it is analyzed or processed.

For that reason, data management is often considered a subset of information management and understanding how to store data is an important element of overall information management. During your computer business applications program you will learn how to use Microsoft Access, which is used for storing data. That data can then be processed and analyzed, especially through integration with other Microsoft programs you’ll learn about, in order to create valuable information.

Computer Business Applications Can Prepare You for Information Management

Information management, especially at large corporations, can be a massive undertaking. While specific information management systems will vary from one company to the next, generally it consists of three steps: acquiring information, storing and distributing it, and destroying or archiving it.

Your computer business applications training can help to prepare you for all three steps. For example, you’ll learn how to use Microsoft Outlook, through which information can be acquired via email as well as distributed to people in the company who need it. Furthermore, you’ll learn about how to manage files and folders in Microsoft Windows, through which you can keep information organized and decide how it should be stored after it is no longer useful or relevant.

Are you interested in attending a computer business applications program?

Contact Discovery Community College to learn about our programs.