| The current era is associated with widespread and successive waves of technologydriven innovations in information technology (IT). Technologies, such as the Internet, electronic commerce, World Wide Web (WWW), and mobile commerce, bring with them ubiquitous connectivity, real-time access, and overwhelming volumes of data and information. More and more electronically captured information needs to be processed, stored, and distributed through IT-based business systems. Information is shared amongst various decision makers within organisations and between supply chain partners not only to benchmark, amend, or formulate competitive strategies but also to control day-to-day operations and to solve problems on a real-time basis (Al-Hakim, 2003). The world has experienced a transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. Data and information have become as much a strategic necessity for an organisation’s well being and future success as oxygen is to human life (Eckerson, 2002). IT allows organisations to collect great volumes of data. Vast databases holding terabytes of data and information are becoming commonplace (Abbott, 2001).
The literature emphasises that enterprises have far more data than they can possibly use. Yet, at the same time, they do not have the data they actually need (Abbott, 2001; Eckerson, 2002). Furthermore, the stored data and information may be obsolete, ambiguous, inaccurate, or incomplete. In other words, enterprises have achieved “quantity” of data and information but not necessarily the “quality” of either (Pierce, 2005). In 1999, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, stated:
The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competitors, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information. How you can gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose. |
