Information consultancy | Information audits

Written words cost plenty and Simon's select information consultancy work revolves around ensuring words are effective and produce benefits that match or exceed their cost.

Services include:

• advice on specific documents, information systems, or information projects
• document and web site design
• management of the production of a key document or web site
• writing and editing
• executive or one-on-one writing coaching
• information audits (see below)
• Microsoft® SharePoint implementation consultancy
• information architecture design (see below)

An information audit is an audit of an entity's entire information stock to determine if it is helping or hindering its owner.

Simon conducts information audits to provide valuable business intelligence, including:

• areas where money is being wasted on information
• areas where money should be invested in information
• information and medium duplications or redundancies
• the data required to identify an optimal information architecture (see below)

Quality inputs are required for quality outputs. It is essential to optimize your information prior to major information projects such as a new document management system, intranet, or MOSS implementation.

An information audit should provide you with a valuable report. Specifically, it should reveal:

• what information you have (instances, forms, mediums, duplications, inconsistencies, ambiguities, redundancies)
• the true cost of your information (cost to create, disseminate, and store)
• the effectiveness and value of your information (which information is a benefit, which is a burden)

Simon has developed his own methodology for conducting information audits. His methodology requires access to all senior staff and knowledge holders (for interviews and to complete questionnaires).

An information architecture is a blueprint of the simplest, most effective, most useful way of organizing an entity's information.

At the macro level, it should provide a single view (on a single page) of everything your organization does.

At the micro level, it should provide a glossary of terms (divisions, groups, roles, products, services, etc) and a filing system so that information is logically grouped, ranked, and ordered, making it easy to understand, file, and find.

A high-quality information architecture is an essential component of any form of information storage (filing or document management system, intranet, Microsoft® SharePoint).

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