Challenges of Managing Information Quality in Service Organizations

Citation

Tsiakali, K. (2009), "Challenges of Managing Information Quality in Service Organizations", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 21 No. 5, pp. 627-629. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596110910967854

Do data and information yield to the same results and conclusions when used for decision making? How the use of this interchangeably terms can affect in good or bad ways not only the organizations that deal with them but also their customers and partners? Latif Al‐Hakim with the “Challenges of managing information quality in service organizations” tries to shed lights on these terms that look the same but in practice they are not the same at all. Data is what we can call the raw material of information. While information can be considered as data the opposite does not stand. Usually organizations hold a vast number of data and databases without being able to handle this data or to conclude to any useful information related to them. In our fast changing world the internet advent and more precisely the Web 2.0 advent with the millions of data and information producing every single minute the collection and processing and especially the selection of the appropriate data or information needed for each case is a critical managerial question. All information or data are not of the same quality or usefulness. The level that information and data fit to business operations, decision‐making and planning characterizes them as of high or low quality. Information Quality (IQ) is a confusing and multidimensional concept but so critical to the investigation of customers' needs and desires. This book deals with information quality with respect to the services sector and approaches the subject from many different perspectives, through several case studies in different service organizations and both business's and customer's aspects.

The book is organized in four sections. Section I refers to the application of information quality in the healthcare industry. It includes two different chapters that present the results of two case studies, respectively. Chapter I is dedicated to one of the largest data warehouses in the world, the Galaxy. The chapter is about the data quality program implemented for the health care data warehouse of Galaxy, for measuring and reporting data quality in meeting business‐defined quality standards. Chapter II contributes to the information quality research by identifying two types of factors that affect the IQ process: the IQ dimensions and the IQ indicators. The chapter focuses on the consistency demanded between these two types of factors that measure information performance, i.e. the capability of an organization to effectively manage and use information. The latter is critical for ensuring the IQ process performance of an organization.

Section II presents the results of applying information quality to different service organizations. The section includes three chapters referring to the application of IQ in a bank, in a real estate agency and in a mailing centre, respectively. Chapter III is a case study about the Credit Suisse, in Switzerland. The organization has to handle a large number of customer investigations per year. The research designs a new application that turns to a data‐warehouse‐based investigation application, which boosts the quality and speed and at the same time reduces the costs related to customer data analysis of an organization. The next chapter, Chapter IV discusses a common issue among organizations, i.e. their need to detect customers' needs and desires and learn by them. The study is an application at a real estate web site and uses the conjoint analysis, a technique that has been widely used for consumer behavior prediction, trying to convince information system professionals for the technique's usefulness in managing consumer databases to better predict buyers' complex decisions and behavior. The final chapter of this session, Chapter V, underlines the importance of name knowledge in customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. An expert system is discussed, both theoretical and practical, that contributes to the quality of the name information management.

Three chapters related to the IQ application in database management services are presented at the third section. Chapter VI analyses how well a typical DBMS (database management system) can provide a high‐quality data storage and retrieval facility for several people within the organization, with different educational backgrounds, different IT needs and different roles. The study attempts to define a set of information quality criteria that can be improved to better function in different DBMS. In Chapter VII a telephony data mining application is used in order to be examined the challenging area of managing frequently changing data or metadata. The study uses elements from the knowledge engineering and statistics sciences in order to contribute to the technical issues of the enterprise mining for the information acquisition and quality management improvement. Chapter VIII is a part of a larger project of the Institute of Museum and Library Services Digital Collections and Contents containing open archives initiative (OAI) metadata. It is dedicated to metadata quality problems, while it is given several approaches for metadata quality improvement.

The final section, Section IV is dedicated to the IQ applications for research and development. Chapter IX analyses IQ based on qualitative data collected from professional interviewees who work in complex organizational networks of different types and sizes, in Finland. The chapter introduces a new IQ analysis framework that aims to contribute to the identification of the weak dimensions within an information network, while it also analyses the case of network collaboration with respect to IQ strengths and weaknesses. The problem of the modern “information consumer” to distinguish the appropriate information considering the “information overload” and “information quality” that characterize our days is trying to solve Chapter X. The study aims to establish a quality information consumer model that enhances consumers' information searching. Chapter XI exploits the real options approach in order to contribute to the critical dimension of data quality in organizations' decision making and management. A case study validates the methodological framework resulted, while the model aims to convince managers about the benefits of investing in data quality improvement projects. In our complex world and environment data and information travel back and forward within and outside the boundaries of businesses, public administration and military operations. Chapter XII adopts a teleological operations‐research‐based approach and viewing data and information from a purpose‐ and content‐focused quality perspective. It presents a fully content‐focused technology‐independent inquiry into quality problems with information and data.

Dealing with customer's service is a complex procedure that demands the selection and analysis of the appropriate data that will in turn provide the organization with the appropriate information and will lead to the best decision‐making. The great range of IQ dimensions, such as accuracy, compatibility, objectivity, security, timeliness, etc. make information and data selection a challenging task for managers and decision‐makers, especially nowadays whereby change is a major trend and information travels through the web with break‐neck speed. By analyzing real life case studies and several applications and models, the book chapters cover many of questions and issues related to the IQ that managers currently need to deal. The book can also be a good guidance for academics investigating information quality issues as the textbook provides several guidelines and suggestions for Future research Furthermore, firms that want to successfully immigrate from the information to the experience economy need to know how to successfully gather and process the quality of information of their business environment. In other words, this book can be a valuable guide to any professional that recognize that good IQ management can lead his firm closer to its customer's needs and desires and to competitive advantage.