NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF RECORDS AND ARCHIVES MANEGEMENT

Bsc (Hons) Information Management and Technology

NAME: PANASHE ELIAS CHITAPI

STUDENT NUMBER: N02160040W

COURSE: ENTERPRISE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

COURSE CODE: IIM 2103

LECTURER: MR C. PHIRI

QUESTION: With reference to the Gartner Enterprise Information management,

demonstrate how the information life cycle can be applied to manage structured and unstructured
data

DUE DATE: 02 NOVEMBER 2022

Information management concerns a cycle of organizational activity that is the acquisition of
information from one or more sources, the custodianship and the distribution of that information
to those who need it, and its ultimate disposal through archiving or deletion. Enterprise
information management (EIM) refers to an integrated discipline for structuring, describing, and
governing information assets across organizational and technological boundaries to improve
efficiency, promote transparency and enable and enable business insight (Gartner, 2016).
Information lifecycle refers to the stages through which information passes, typically
characterized as creation or receipt, distribution, consumption, disposition or archival, and
destruction or retire. Structured data refers to information that is highly organized and factual
which usually comes in the form of letters and numbers that fit nicely into the rows and columns
of tables whereas Unstructured data doesn’t have any pre-defined structure to it and comes in all
its diversity of forms. According to the Gartner enterprise information management framework,
documenting and understanding the flow of information across the organization is key to
business process optimization, governance and organization. The framework can be
demonstrated using the information life cycle as it provides guidelines or policies that governs
the creation, distribution, consumption. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how the
information life cycle can be applied to manage both structured and unstructured data.

The creation phase of information life cycle entails that data are created at their point of origin in
the business processes creating the given piece of information. With reference to the Gartner
enterprise information management framework, information should be created using the
regulations prescribed in the policies. The ISO/TR 13028:2010 regulates that information details
of organisationally endorsed processes, practices and procedures for undertaking information
management tasks, including creation and capturing freely by the respective information
practitioners such as records managers (Frankenfield, 2005). For example, the World Health
Organization enhances development of global guidelines ensuring the appropriate use of
evidence representing one of the core functions of WHO. Structured data captured in the
organization includes the financial records of the donations made, income and profits within
operations of the organization. Therefore it should not be ignored that the creation of data
(structured and unstructured) is done in respect of the organization`s mission and vision so as to
meet the organizational goals and objectives.

The second phase of the information life cycle is the distribution of data in structured and
unstructured form. The Gartner enterprise information management can be demonstrated in the
management of structured and unstructured data following the life cycle concept in the
distribution stage. The distribution phase of the life cycle of Enterprise Information management
entails that once data are created, they are distributed to the relevant consumers and the actors
are the business users and the associated business process who consume the transaction and
master data through or use of the data for further transaction processing or for approval of
transaction. With reference to the Gartner EIM, policies should be followed in order to guide the
methods of distribution. For example, the World Health Assembly formulated a distribution
policy which determines how and where information is distributed both within and outside the
organization. The policy was formulated by the executives who carefully considered the
organization`s needs and goals when deciding how to release unstructured (which contains the
wealth of information that is used to guide business decisions usually stored in RDBMS) and
structured data which can also be stored in relation database (Allen, 2001). On the other side,
data need to be made available to personnel who need them while managing risks like leak to the
outside. Therefore, according to the researcher`s perspective, external distribution follows a
number of chains for transformation purposes so as to attain value which is needed by the
organization and its clients.

The life cycle of enterprise information management can also be applied to manage both
structured and unstructured data with reference to the Gartner Enterprise Information
Management in the consumption phase. Data consumption phase implies that structured and
unstructured data is consumed by different consumers usually the departments and business
processes that need data inputs to drive process compliance as well as competition of the
transactions (Frankenfield, 2005). The end consumers of data make use of the usage pattern
which primarily reporting and analysing such as sales department reporting on leads to customer
conversion based on customer data consumed (Glazer, 1993). Secondly, business functions and
departments consume data as part of their business process and transaction needs for instance,
the actuarial departments needing the customer attributes concerning the life style of customers
and health parameters while analysing the risk of a customer profile to issue a life or health
insurance policy. Therefore, according to the Gartner enterprise Information management,
organization should make use of policies, laws or rules that ensures that both structured and
unstructured data is used consecutively whilst the privacy of the data is protected. For example
The European Union General Data Protection Regulation provides information on how to use
and process personal data about persons in the European Union. This is important as it enhances
better decision making in operational activities of an organization or institution.

The information life cycle can be applied to manage structured and unstructured data with
reference to the Gartner Enterprise Information management framework in the disposal or
archival phase of the life cycle. Both structured and unstructured data are created and treated as
active for a certain period of time where it is consumed either for reporting or analysing and in
some cases it can be used by business processes to complete transactions (Goodwin, 2003).
Thereafter, data reaches its semi active stage where there is no frequent use for consuming the
data element. This results in the situation where data cannot be disposed of since it can still be
appraised to identify the value which makes the data vulnerable to permanent preservation need.
Therefore, with reference to the Gartner Enterprise information management framework, policies
should be used to make sure that data is disposed of or retained in the rightful way prescribed in
the statement of guidelines. For instance, The Government of Western Australia Department of
Health uses their Information Retention and Disposal Policy which mandates retention and
disposal requirements for information held within the WA health system. This is very important
as prevention of premature destruction of records that need to be retained for a specific period to
satisfy legal, financial and other requirements.

The lifecycle of enterprise information management can also be applied to manage both
structured and unstructured data in the destruction or retire phase. The business life cycle differs
from business to business and they tend to change as the operations of the business change. This
is further explained by the fact that archived data become outdated and the relevancy to the
business processes and data consumption need vanish. The lifecycle of Enterprise Information
management entails that data that have reached their end of life in their lifecycle (classified as
inactive) maybe destroyed or retired. Therefore the Gartner Enterprise Information management
framework mandates the use of policies or guideline in the retirement or destruction of data both
unstructured and unstructured form. For instance, the ID123 Data destruction policy entails that
All customer data should be disposed of when it is no longer necessary for business use,
provided that the disposal does not conflict with our data retention policies, our customers data
retention policies, a court order, or any of our regulatory obligations (Jorion, 2001). This help
provide the best methods in the destruction of records hence influencing effective management
of data.

In conclusion, the Gartner enterprise information management framework is of paramount

importance in the management of both structured and unstructured data through the lifecycle of
Enterprise information management. This implies the use of policies that regulated the use of
advantageous methodologies prescribed in the policies such as the Information retention and
disposal policy, ID123 policy and others. This is an essential method of managing information in
an enterprise as it protect information makes sure that data is managed effective and efficiently
so as to meet the organizational goals in respect of the mission and vision.
REFERENCES

1. Allen, N, 2001. Don’t waste your storage dollars: What you need to know. Gartner Group
Research Report COM-13-1217,
2. Frankenfield D, 2005. Is your IT budget being spent effectively? Feb., 67–75.
3. Glazer, R, 1993. Measuring the value of information: The information-intensive
organization. IBM Systems Journal 32, 1 (), 99–110.
4. Goodwin, P. 2003. Enterprise SAN-attached storage: Market overview. Meta Group
Report,
5. Jorion, P. 2001. Value at Risk: The New Benchmark for Managing Financial Risk,
Second Edition.