What is Data?

Datum is a single fact. A simple number, a specific date, a single amount, a zero in the right place, or a one somewhere else. Datum is the singular form of data or a collection of facts.

Data is inherently chaotic. It's disorganized, jumbled, sometimes measurable and sometimes just a feeling. It's everywhere! In and of itself, data has no meaning and is practically useless.

And no, I'm not talking about him.

Here's an example.  Let's say you're a purchasing manager and you need to know what you've paid for a commodity over the last three years. A single hand-scribbled figure is delivered to you by your lead buyer:

$3.87

Okay, you'd have no idea what this means. There's no other context than the amount itself. Is it an average? Is it the last purchase price? What was the quality, quantity, or unit of measure? When was the date surrounding this transaction? As information, this is meaningless. You need more data! You need more facts to provide context and to potentially understand its meaning. 

So by itself, data has no relevance, but in IT, we're very, very obsessed with data. It's found at the very bottom of things - a foundation that is the basis of everything we do in IT. We backup data. We recover data. We analyze data. We mine data. We walk data. Our strategy for managing an Information System begins at understanding how every datum gets recorded!

Seeing its importance yet?

Take into consideration the following four pieces of data:

$3.87  $3.56   $3.78  $3.63

Only one of these is accurate. Only one of this is the right, true piece of data. Which one is it? How can you tell? Which one is the real piece of data? Which is true? Which is false?

• And if we kept the bad data and used it as a basis of reporting, wouldn't the reports be suspect? Like, the reports would be bad? Generating erroneous information?
   
• And wouldn't the decisions our employees - relying off of the reports - make be bad? Wrong? Inaccurate?
   
• Wouldn't inaccurate information - fed to our internal decision-makers - impact the expectations of our shareholders and private investors?
   
• Then won't our bad decisions lead to internal losses, missed opportunity, or disappointed customers? Who then relate their frustrations to friends and family through word-of-mouth, damaging your brand, ruining your reputation? 

GIGO, right? Garbage In, Garbage Out?

Understanding the role Information Systems plays in your business begins with thoroughly studying the first and last datum stored. Managing the information system means stepping back, all the way back through your assumptions, to see how data is being accurately captured, recorded, preserved, and maintained. Do you know this? Where your data comes from? How it's accuracy is guaranteed?

Next: What is Information?

R

The Power of Perception

What Others See Matters

Over the last several weeks, I've been talking about the strategic application of technology: how the timing of tech spending relates to material benefits, what you should expect as a return from your tech spend, and the improvements you should feel from improved speed, accuracy, and reliability.

In sum, what we've been talking about is managing technology spending to yield strategic and competitive advantages.  If you're not proactively managing the technology problem, you're reacting to it - and probably hastily and poorly - and that doesn't inspire confidence in anybody.

Perceptions Matter

Confidence is 360-degrees, baby.

If you're not controlling your IT spending or your spending doesn't line up with strategic outcomes, it's a problem that's visible to you, your employees, your suppliers, and your customers.

What does it say to these stakeholders when your company:

• Makes significantly more mistakes than your competitors?
   
• Is chronically late on assignments, appointments, and deliverables?
   
• Doesn't have the capability and convenience offered by your competitors?
   
• Isn't listening nor responding to consumer complaints, needs, and concerns?
   
• Is significantly more difficult to work with than other business partners because you don't have the automation to make their business processes more streamlined?
   
• You're using email, contact, calendar, and business productivity solutions that knowingly - based on their own terms and conditions - expose your customer's personal private information to spammers and advertisers?
   
• You don't respond when someone in your organization loses a cell phone, a laptop, or is hacked, nor attempt to understand your degree of exposure, risk, or legal obligation when these events occur?
   
• Never thinks twice about installing wireless electronic devices on a business network shared by point of sale stations or credit card swipes?
   
• You're down for a day, two, or three, after a catastrophic systems failure?

The point is that perceptions really do matter. They can say a lot about a company, its products and services, its management team ... It's a signal.

What do you think that message should be saying about your company? 

Managing technology risk is part and parcel of modern business management today. Small business owners wear many hats and can't be expected to know everything about every subject, but that's why they hire CPA's, HR professionals, marketing companies, and web designers. They should also think very carefully and proactively about who they bring on as a trusted IT advisor.

Is it going to be your cousin? An intern? Another 'Geek-Guy' from down the road? Or somebody serious, with real business experience? Well, as they say ... the choice is yours.

Next: What is an Information System.

R

Reduce Your Stress: Tell Your Phone Who's Text is Important

Your cell phone is a relentless master. And it has you trained better than Pavlov's Dog.

When it vibrates, you look at it; it twerps, you look at it; dings, you look at it; even when you're not supposed to be, you're looking at it. We do this with our phones because we've unwittingly created an unhealthy addictive response cycle in our brain, yet none of that constant anxiety really helps us to become more productive or more efficient. In fact, it just fuels a mounting sense of anxiety.

If you're ready to take control of things, and put more investment in the current moment, here's a couple of good suggestions on how to manage text messaging more effectively. These instructions are for an iPhone, but a similar process can likely be followed on any mobile phone system. Okay, ready?

1. Turn off Vibration for Text Messages. On an iPhone, you can do this by accessing Settings > Sounds, and de-selecting both of the vibrate options.

2. Turn off Sound for Text Messages. In the same space, you'll want to put the text tone to None.

3. Enable a Text Tone for Important Contacts. In your Contacts, find a Contact from whom you always need to be alerted when they text you. Think of somebody important in your life - not clients, not just anyone - who you really want to be notified when they text you. 

4. Edit a Contact. Change the Text Tone to a tone of your choice. Leave the Vibration selection off. Save your changes.

Final Thoughts

Okay, you might ask me, why turn off vibration entirely?

• Well, first off, you and others around you can still hear it, even when it vibrates, and it disturbs the moment of Now. That's not useful.
   
• Second, by not disabling it, you train your body to listen by feeling for the vibration, even to a point of creating imaginary false positives where you think you're feeling the vibration of your phone but you really aren't.  That's actually kind of creepy.
   
• Third, vibration drains the cell phone battery faster than playing a tone. So, yeah, it serves a practical purpose. Use less energy. Save the planet. Yadda-yadda.

If your goal is to disassociate the habitual response of checking your cell phone with each and every incoming text message, by telling your cell phone specifically who is important, you can filter out the noise of irrelevant and meaningless messages that pull your mind away from Now. You can check text messages as if they were email messages - on your own time and schedule that works for you - and with substantially less drooling.

R