Enterprise Architecture Training - six steps to using information effectively
training overview	step 1 gaining commitment	step 2 deciding requirements	step 3 creating a toolkit	step 4 developing a map	step 5 using information effectively	step 6 gathering feedback

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Step 5: Using information effectively

Use the knowledge gained in previous steps to make information work for you.

In most organisations information doesn't work. It exists and is used, but it is not used efficiently or effectively. Making it work for you requires a good understanding of how to increase its value. This can be done by calculating the value that information adds or by measuring how information contributes to your goals and objectives. Actual expenses are compared against a budget in order to reduce unnecessary costs and produce a better return on financial investment. This step uses various techniques to simplify and enhance the information resource - resulting in a better Return From Information (RFI).

The outputs from this step include:

• better and simpler information structures
• new and improved business and management models
• innovations in the use of information
• and feedback and changes to requirements, tools, maps, and content.

Without a good Return From Information (RFI):

• Investment in the previous steps is wasted. Unless there is on-going feedback, just as farming must look after and nurture the land, then information will steadily lose its fertility and its ability to feed your business.
• You will lose the originality and uniqueness in your use of information. Instead you will be forced to fall back on the same theories and practice that everyone else is using. It is much harder to win in the market space if you are fighting your competitors using the same tools and techniques.
• People in your organisation will be forced to re-create their own information resource, resulting in a huge amount of redundant effort. Information is a corporate resource - which makes it really difficult for individuals to create without the necessary time, knowledge, funding or infrastructure!

Time and effort:

This is an on-going function - it is a task that never ends. Many of the organisations that I work with have a dedicated team of people who keep requirements, models, maps, management templates, business patterns and other resources up-to-date.

Training modules cover:

• Business intelligence techniques (without using IT)
• Advanced techniques in knowledge management
• Representing business knowledge
• Using tacit knowledge
• Information management skills
• Making extraordinary use of information

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