According to virtually every business writer, we are in the midst of a new "information age," one that will revolutionize how workers work, how companies compete, perhaps even how thinkers think. And it is certainly true that Information Technology has become a giant industry. In America, more that 50% of all capital spending goes into IT, accounting for more than a third of the growth of the entire American economy in the last four years. Over the last decade, IT spending in the U.S. is estimated at 3 trillion dollars. And yet, by almost all accounts, IT hasn't worked all that well. Why is it that so many of the companies that rave invested in these costly new technologies never saw the returns they had hoped for? And why do workers, even CEOs, find it so hard to adjust to new IT systems? In Information Ecology, Thomas Davenport proposes a revolutionary new way to look at information management, one that takes into account the total information environment within an organization. Arguing that the information that comes from computer systems may be considerably less valuable to managers than information that flows in from a variety of other sources, the author describes an approach that encompasses the company's entire information environment, the management of which he calls information ecology. Only when organizations are able to combine and integrate these diverse sources of information, and to take them to a higher level where information becomes knowledge, will they realize the full power of their information ecology. Thus, the author puts people, not technology, at the centre of the information world. Information and knowledge are human creations, he points out, and we will never excel at managing them until we give people a primary role. Citing examples drawn from his own extensive research and consulting including such major firms as A.T. & T., American Express, Ford, General Electric, Hallmark, Hoffman La Roche, IBM, Polaroid, Pacific Bell, and Toshiba Davenport illuminates the critical components of information ecology, and at every step along the way, he provides a quick assessment survey for managers to see how their organization measures up. He discusses the importance of developing an overall strategy for information use; explores the infighting, jealousy over resources, and political battles that can frustrate information sharing; underscores the importance of looking at how people really use information (how they search for it, modify it, share it, hoard it, and even ignore it) and the kinds of information they want; describes the ideal information staff, who not only store and retrive information, but also prune, provide context, enhance style, and choose the right presentation medium (in an age of work overload, vital information must be presented compellingly so the appropriate people recognize and use it); examines how information management should be done on a day to day basis; and presents several alternatives to the machine engineering approach to structuring and modeling information. Davenport makes explicit what many managers already know in their gut: that useful information flow depends on people, not equipment. In Information Ecology he paves the way for all managers to build a more competitive, creative, practical information environment for their companies.

The Definitive Guide to Enterprise-Level Analytics Strategy, Technology, Implementation, and Management Organizations are capturing exponentially larger amounts of data than ever, and now they have to figure out what to do with it. Using analytics, you can harness this data, discover hidden patterns, and use this knowledge to act meaningfully for competitive advantage. Suddenly, you can go beyond understanding "how, when, and where" events have occurred, to understand why - and use this knowledge to reshape the future. Now, analytics pioneer Tom Davenport and the world-renowned experts at the International Institute for Analytics (IIA) have brought together the latest techniques, best practices, and research on analytics in a single primer for maximizing the value of enterprise data. Enterprise Analytics is today's definitive guide to analytics strategy, planning, organization, implementation, and usage. It covers everything from building better analytics organizations to gathering data; implementing predictive analytics to linking analysis with organizational performance. The authors offer specific insights for optimizing supply chains, online services, marketing, fraud detection, and many other business functions. They support their powerful techniques with many real-world examples, including chapter-length case studies from healthcare, retail, and financial services. Enterprise Analytics will be an invaluable resource for every business and technical professional who wants to make better data-driven decisions: operations, supply chain, and product managers; product, financial, and marketing analysts; CIOs and other IT leaders; data, web, and data warehouse specialists, and many others.

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Thought provoking
-Time Magazine Welcome to the attention economy, in which the new scarcest resource isn't ideas or talent, but attention itself. This groundbreaking book argues that today's businesses are headed for disaster-unless they overcome the dangerously high attention deficits that threaten to cripple today's workplace. Learn to manage this critical yet finite resource, or fail! "A worthy message"
-Publishers Weekly AUTHORBIO: Thomas H. Davenport is the Director of the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change and author of Process Innovation and Working Knowledge , Harvard Business School Press. John C. Beck is an Associate Partner and Senior Research Fellow at the Accenture Institute for Strategic Change.

The definitive overview of knowledge management, now available in paperback. This influential book establishes the enduring vocabulary and concepts in the burgeoning field of knowledge management. It serves as the hands-on resource of choice for companies that recognize knowledge as the only sustainable source of competitive advantage going forward. Drawing from their work with more than 30 knowledge-rich firms, Davenport and Prusak - experienced consultants with a track record of success - examine how all types of companies can effectively understand, analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets, turning corporate wisdom into market value.They categorize knowledge work into four sequential activities - accessing, generating, embedding, and transferring - and look at the key skills, techniques, and processes of each. While they present a practical approach to cataloging and storing knowledge so that employees can easily leverage it throughout the firm, the authors caution readers on the limits of communications and information technology in managing intellectual capital.