In a broad sense, information is well organised, processed and structured data that helps in decision making. It gives context to data and allows rationalisation of that data. For instance, a single consumer’s sale in a restaurant is data gathered from the relevant channels, which would be sales tax, time spent in the restaurant, meal frequency, price paid and the like. But it is common for us to get information from many sources and form many categories. In fact, we may not even know how to make sense of such categorisation, much less use it to our advantage.
The challenge is that information must be well-arranged, captured and made comprehensible to various stakeholders in organizations and enterprises. The process needs to be systematic and integrated in order to extract the maximum benefit and minimize waste. For instance, in an information system for the Department of Defense, it is common to have a system for the computers, the analysts, the acquisition, the budget, the personnel, the logistics, the training and the battle field.
Data may have many categories and subcategories and it is important to make sense of all the data. In fact, information technology has contributed significantly to the success of the businesses because information technology has made possible the extraction of the maximum value out of the enormous amount of information in the databases. In essence, database management software plays a significant role in improving the information systems of any organisation. The information systems of the Department of Defense may have so many categories and subcategories that it may become very difficult to assimilate the information, but with a help of database management software such categorisation, synthesis and analysis become possible and the information can be used and intelligently for decision-making.