However, the Accenture study released July 11 found that analytics is also an area in which many CIOs still aren’t meeting their goals. Only 40 percent of respondents are currently using BI to seek a competitive edge. However, the survey also revealed that 76 percent of CIOs surveyed will be investing in BI and data warehousing in the months to come and 57 percent see BI as a core component of competitive advantage in the near future.

Among the obstacles to reaping the rewards from BI in order to accomplish those goals and implement a comprehensive information management strategy are lack of funding and lack of confidence in data quality.

“Companies are inundated with a number of different repositories of information. Being able to find the right information that adds value to the decision-making process is becoming more of a challenge,” says Todd. He suggests CIOs focus on governance, the value and quality of their information, and managing how it is integrated. To that end, 75 percent of the CIOs surveyed intend to fully integrate their structured (database) and unstructured (e-mail, Web content, images) data within three years. Since CIOs see information as something that should engage the entire enterprise, it’s not surprising that an ideal information management strategy is executed in this type of environment.

“The value of integrating [structured and unstructured data] as part of an overall management strategy is critical to competitive advantage,” says Todd. “Integration gives companies an opportunity to analyze the full breadth of information in their organization.” It also helps users who are operating in what Accenture calls a “new breed of information democracy.” People increasingly need more information available to them in order to do their jobs; information integration allows for greater access to those resources.

Everyone can benefit from highly managed information, but no one solution fits all. “In a pharmaceutical company, compliance plays a large part in how you manage your information,” says Todd. “In the upstream sector of an energy or gas company, focusing on how you manage assets and being able to manage real-time information is more important. In the downstream, you might be more focused on customer behavior at the pump.”

Because strategy will differ depending on industry, and because of the sheer volume of information that companies have to sort through, Todd says that deciding how you want to manage your information up front and proper governance to make sure value is achieved are critical to the success of an information management strategy.