Conference article

Rapid development and improvement of information technology changed business environment – organizations now have more data than they know what to do with; consequently it is difficult to separate poor information from high quality. Business processes like planning; product development and production; purchasing; market; sales and distribution not only drive all business; but also generate precious information. Methods and principles of quality management that were designed to improve the quality of mentioned processes for a long time were not adjusted to information (Al-Hakim; 2004; Ballou; 2003; Kahn et al.; 2002; Wang; 1998). However; the efficiency of the mentioned business processes relies on the IQ; because quality information that organizations use in due business time and position scores a great business success. So organizations that want to gain competitive advantage should treat information not only as a subsidiary business element; but also as a product that quality may differ and that should be managed efficiently using appropriate methods; principles and means of quality management (Ruzevicius; 2005; 2006). Latterly; information and various information sources are booming; the understanding of information consumers and managers about information also grow. On the other hand; far from boosting productivity; the constant flow of poor quality information can seriously reduce an employee’s intellect and ability to focus on tasks (Knight; 2005). So; poor IQ can have significant negative impact on organizations’ success. Consequently; organizations should implement IQ assessment methods to separate poor and quality information and to improve it. Organizations cannot implement effective business management without properly IQ assessment (English; 2000; 2003). IBM revealed the results of their research; which identified organizations’ attitudes towards the information. According to IBM research more than 60 percent of business executives say quality information is their top priority for improving business processes; employee productivity; and customer satisfaction (IBM...; 2006). But still most organizations struggle to use and create information effectively. Consequently; organizations start to “sink in information slough” with a lot of information duplicates; unnecessary data storages; inefficient data soft wares. So many different versions of the truth slow decision-making; responsiveness; and the ability to pursue new business opportunities or react to market forces (IBM…; 2006). IBM research revealed that organizations that are highly effective at information management and integration across the enterprise are five times more likely to drive value creation than those who are poor at it (IBM…; 2006). So only properly managed high quality information enables to have reasonable business solutions. These arguments confirm the relevance to develop the methodology for the information quality (IQ) assessment; this is crucial to international and Lithuanian business. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the key information quality (IQ) dimensions; define its management and assessment peculiarities and according to the results of the questionnaire research to assess Lithuanian business organizations information maturity level; distinguish the prime IQ indicators and problems for them.

Information quality; quality assessment; quality dimension; model; information maturity