Information flow manager. Management: Information logistics system, Coursework

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Information management refers to the organization and use of information support systems for production and economic processes at an enterprise. It is based on a systems approach that covers all activities related to planning and managing processes aimed at providing the enterprise with relevant information. Each enterprise must have its own strategy for integrating information support for decision-making, determined by the product’s passport data, its life cycle and manufacturing technology, the chosen method of data processing, means of transmitting information to customers and partners, and other factors.

The importance of information support for the logistics process is extremely important. Emphasizing the independent importance of managing information flows and resources for the effective functioning of an enterprise, many experts highlight special information logistics.

Indeed, at the center of an effectively managed material flow there must be an effectively managed information flow. There are three options for the interaction of material and information flows, when information precedes, accompanies and explains the material flow after its passage.

Keeping the information flow ahead of the material aims to eliminate bottlenecks in the production process. The forward information flow in the opposite direction contains, as a rule, information about the order; advanced information flow in the forward direction is preliminary messages about the upcoming arrival of cargo.

Accompanying, when simultaneously with the material flow there is information about the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the material flow, it allows you to quickly and correctly identify inventory items and direct them to their destination.

The passage of an information flow with a lag behind the material one is usually allowed only for the assessment of the latter. Following the material flow in the opposite direction, information can pass on the results of cargo acceptance in terms of quantity and quality, various claims, confirmations, information on mutual settlements, etc.

The purpose of information support in logistics is to be able to manage, control and comprehensively plan the movement of materials and products. This requires complete control of the entire mass of information created and transmitted. The problem of continuous recording of the results of the system’s functioning is becoming increasingly pressing, which facilitates prompt changes in both the construction and implementation of production processes and product distribution. Today, those companies that are successful are those that are able to quickly collect and process reliable information (about the state of finances and warehouses, the movement of materials, prices of competitors, etc.) and, after analyzing it, make one decision or another - so as not to fall behind and play ahead.

The transformation of parameters and data into control information follows certain principles. The main one is the principle of the minimum required amount of information, which is based on the principles of universalization and optimal detail of information. No less important is the principle of reliability of the information collected. The high degree of randomness of emerging events often leads to unstable indicators that are temporary in nature, which can have, albeit temporary, a significant impact on the value of other indicators. The dynamics and random variability of modern production necessitate compliance with the principle of constant collection of production and commercial information.

Information flow management involves the implementation of the following basic typical functions:

Stream filtering, i.e. selective processing of some information and documents and rejection of others;
- accumulation of information and storage of data in an information array;
- combining and separating information flows in the structure of the information system and in communication networks;
- transportation of information flows;
- various elementary information transformations;
- processing of information aimed at obtaining data related to the implementation of logistics operations.

Information services of the logistics system must satisfy certain organizational requirements.

The main ones include the following:

A) systematic service, which manifests itself:
- in the complexity of types of information services, taking into account the nature of the activities of consumers and the tasks they solve in logistics processes;
- in comprehensively satisfying the information needs that arise among employees in the logistics system;
b) reliability of service, which presupposes such provision of information when, at each stage of the work, the consumer receives all the information he needs at the right time and in the most convenient form for him;
c) completeness of service, which implies:
- complete coverage of work performed by the consumer;
- completeness of delivery to a specific consumer of the necessary information selected for him from the information flow;
d) differentiation of service, consisting in the fact that each consumer is individually provided with information that helps solve the tasks assigned to him in the logistics process.

The main components of the information component of logistics are systems for processing information and transmitting logistics data. Making management decisions requires not only the availability of conventional technology for generating, collecting and processing data, but also the creation of an information infrastructure, i.e. creating a system for collecting and processing data at predetermined points in the supply chain, exchanging information between points and transferring information to various levels of management.

The large variety and volume of collected data also require a systematic approach to their processing. In the world, the volume of a wide variety of information transmitted through the information and telecommunications infrastructure doubles every 2-3 years. The problem of “information overload” is being solved today by extracting from the entire data array the information necessary for the user’s needs through the use of advanced means of circulation, further processing and timely updating of information. Modern technologies make it possible to solve issues of compression of internal and external information, the use of commercially viable interfaces, and the transfer of shared knowledge between organizational units and cooperation partners.

The rapid development of networks of local systems with a super regional and even international structure leads to the abandonment of the classical working fields of computer science and the widespread use of telecommunications. The creation and operation of an appropriate communication structure are among the tasks of information management, however, in contrast to the generally accepted understanding of information management, in information logistics, information flows between actions (operations) for intra- and inter-company coordination are in the foreground.

Logistics information processing

In a logistics system, the entire process of preparation and decision-making is largely a process of processing the information flow. Complete and timely processing of information should ensure stable communication between supply processes, accounting for production needs, and satisfaction of existing orders for. Under these conditions, a gap in information or its prompt receipt can lead to a disruption in the supply of a certain type of resource to an enterprise, disruptions in the production process, and a decrease in the quality of customer service.

Effective management of material flows is impossible in the absence of a powerful information system that provides managers at various levels with the necessary and reliable information for planning and monitoring the functioning of the logistics system. Making management decisions is unthinkable without proper exchange of information between various levels of management, without the presence of an information structure determined by a system of information flows both between sources and recipients from top to bottom (process management), from bottom to top (process control), and between parallel departments of different functional purposes.

Ideally, the information system plays the role of a “central nervous system,” linking together the production plan, logistics and sales plan, and providing integrated management of material and information flows circulating in the logistics system.

The corporate information system today ensures optimal management of production, inventory, vehicles, product quality, sorting and packaging, elimination of downtime, production maintenance, etc. She not only plans production using improved methods, monitors the implementation of the work plan, draws up technological maps, manages finances and labor resources, but also carries out a number of “non-production” functions. These include control of after-sales service, distribution of finished products and marketing.

It must be borne in mind that the creation of a corporate information system requires significant costs, the justification of which depends on a clear identification of the information needs of logistics.

The process of identifying information needs can be represented as a “trade-off” between the costs of obtaining relevant information and the benefit from risk reduction that is provided by the availability of this information. Questions about the amount of information stored in an information system, the speed of its transmission, processing, etc. are resolved in a similar way.

At the same time, when creating an information system, one should take into account the fact that the need for the quantity and quality of information at different levels of the management hierarchical structure is not the same. This means that the information system must provide each hierarchical level with the information necessary to make a decision at that particular level.

Modern information systems are essentially the result of the evolutionary development of automated enterprise management systems. New economic conditions have led to changes in the tasks of enterprise management. As a result, new requirements for automated information systems have arisen.

A modern information system is used for integrated logistics and production management, ensuring rational business processes.

Modern information technologies provide three advantages. This is a reduction in costs by optimizing business processes, including “compressing” them in time, guaranteed fulfillment of orders in the required volume and on time, ensuring product quality through the quality of production and management technologies.

The introduction of an automatic enterprise management system allows you to increase sales by at least 15%, and the economic effect from reducing losses pays for all costs of the system within 1-2 quarters after the start of its full operation. At the same time, operational losses or lost profits are reduced by 80-90%, and strategic losses by 60-90%.

For example, studies show that the overall effect of implementing the system by reducing losses in the sales process is at least 2% of sales. This is primarily due to the minimization of losses that are caused by disruptions in product deliveries due to failures and errors in supply planning, incomplete or lost information, due to the low speed of processing applications, low flexibility in taking into account customer needs, etc. Almost the same figure is obtained when calculating the economic effect of reducing losses in the field of inventory management. The system allows you to receive, in monitoring mode, information about the state of a specific material resource in any storage location in accordance with all external and internal documents on its movement, which allows you to ensure a continuous inventory mode.

The information system must ensure recording, storage and processing of all information essential for making management decisions.

Information flow management can be divided into external and internal.

An enterprise in a metasystem is an independent subject of activity with greater freedom of action, therefore its control by external systems is limited to a certain set of situations, in which it is subject to control influence when it gets into them.

A situation is usually understood as a one-time description of the state of an enterprise in the form of a set of its parameters.

The essence of external control is that the enterprise either finds itself in a certain given situation, or carries out regulated behavior when it voluntarily reaches a certain situation.

In our opinion, external management consists of transferring information products to an enterprise and monitoring changes in its behavior. However, the specificity of situational management is that control systems direct information flows not directly to the enterprise, but to the information field. The enterprise is obliged to independently find and acquire all the necessary information flows that regulate its behavior in the situations in which it may find itself. The absence of necessary information flows or their misinterpretation is not taken into account.

The daily activities of a manager include: setting goals, forecasting, planning, organizing, motivating and encouraging, monitoring and regulation, evaluating performance, and interpreting results.

Every step of his activity is accompanied by the adoption of a management decision.

To make an effective management decision, the manager must purposefully collect all the information about the state and operating conditions of his enterprise within the framework of the requirements of the control systems of the metasystem. In other words, the manager must select and acquire all information flows related to his activities.

However, information storage devices are created and placed without meeting the desires and needs of the manager. In market conditions, drives sell the information flows they have to the enterprise, however, their initial collection of information products and products is generally carried out chaotically. In other words, they cannot provide the manager with complete information support for his management decisions.

An enterprise's competitors are in the same information field, therefore, the more skillfully an effective system for searching and acquiring information flows is organized at an enterprise, the higher its competitiveness.

The external system directs its information flows so that the enterprise adequately changes its behavior, but this is only possible if the manager has previously been trained in the correct perception of the corresponding information product.

Researchers in the field of information theory draw attention to the fact that in order to understand and subsequently use a specific piece of information, the recipient must have a certain amount of knowledge. The body of knowledge that allows one to recognize a certain set of information products is called information potential

Training, or the formation of information potential, of a manager is carried out with the help of information flows generated by external systems and sent to the information field. It is natural to divide all information flows into control and training. It should be noted that the systems themselves do not imply such an explicit division.

While developing control information flows, the systems do not care about producing adequate training information flows themselves. It is assumed that managers have already received them previously in training systems or that some other system has already released them or will release them later. This is most clearly expressed in the financial sector, when government regulations are then explained by the tax service or the central bank.

Educational information flows are sent to the same global information field, where they are mixed with other control information flows and neutral information products.

When preparing a management decision, the development of possible options must also be consistent with the restrictions imposed by management systems. However, the degree of restrictions depends on the type of control system.

The attitude of control systems to the enterprise is determined by their position in the metasystem (government bodies) or the experience of previous activities (competitors, partners). The rights of some systems in relation to an enterprise can be unconditional (government bodies), others - conditional (voluntary interaction with partners), and others - mixed (conditional before interaction and unconditional after interaction with partners - contractual relations).

Direct and constant control over the behavior of the enterprise is carried out by the state management system, consisting of control and monitoring systems.

If the control system regulates the behavior of an enterprise only if its state corresponds to a certain situation, it sends situational control information flows. In this case, regulated behavior can be either mandatory (normative) or advisory. Control information flows can be divided into normative and methodological, respectively.

The information potential of a manager must ensure the perception of all types of information flows so that his management decisions do not lead to negative consequences for the enterprise. The viability of an enterprise directly depends on its information potential.

In the management process, a variety of situations, very complex problems and tasks are encountered. Therefore, the manager has to make organizational, environmental, organizational-economic, social, socio-economic, production, technological and technical decisions.

When considering organizational and economic decisions, it is clear that when making a decision, the manager must perform the following steps to ensure consistency with the requirements of the metasystem:

1. formalize the future situation in which the enterprise will find itself;

2. identify many systems that control the enterprise in a given situation;

3. classify these systems according to the degree of their rights in relation to the enterprise;

4. find and purchase educational information streams;

5. rework educational information flows to increase information potential;

6. find and acquire control information flows;

7. process control information flows and record the restrictions and requirements of control systems in relation to the enterprise.

When choosing the final option, it is necessary to take into account the results of information analysis of the requirements of the external environment.

In conditions of a shortage of necessary control information flows and corresponding information potential, the manager also generates harmful options for management decisions, which are considered along with useful ones when choosing a rational decision.

The way out is that several employees take part in the process of preparing decisions. The organizational structure of an enterprise provides for the division of functions between departments and individual specialists and, consequently, the distribution of decisions made between them. A manager, a person who personifies an enterprise and is responsible for the actions of his employees, gives their decisions the status of enterprise behavior.

However, the method of separation of functions does not guarantee the adoption of rational decisions, especially for strategic decisions.

The manager does not develop strategic decisions individually, but, as a rule, involves heads of functional departments and individual specialists, entrusting them, in addition to their main work, with carrying out individual components of the decision-making process. Functional managers, preparing decisions from their positions, as a rule, do not have the opportunity and need to coordinate them, taking into account the consequences for the entire enterprise.

To ensure the ability to recognize all control information flows, the chief manager can and should use the information potential of his team members and other specialists. The total ability of all members of the management team to transform the multitude of information flows entering the enterprise in the process of making management decisions is called the information potential of the management team.

Training and control information flows sent to the global information field are mixed with other sources of point information. The metasystem assumes that the initiative in searching and acquiring information flows should come from the enterprise itself. The absence of identifying features in information flows creates additional difficulties when a manager searches for the information flows he needs and leads to information losses. The shortfall in information products directly affects the amount of economic damage caused to the enterprise by control systems as punishment for violating established rules.

The problem of acquiring information flows is partially solved by specialized information service systems (ISS) outside and inside the enterprise.

Information service systems are a tool for managing the corporate information system of an enterprise.

SIOs, independently or by order, acquire information flows from management systems or information storage devices (libraries, stores), accumulate them, make duplicates, some of which go directly to the management team or other specialists for processing.

The information flows stored in the enterprise's information and information system become its information resource.

Some of the information flows accumulated in the archive never get processed (for various reasons), and, consequently, the enterprise suffers information losses, which lead to damage from the lack of information and from useless costs for acquiring information flows. The information resource of an enterprise in itself does not affect the quality of decisions made.

The need to distinguish between information resources and information potential is, first of all, that the manager, when distributing financial resources and planning work, clearly understands the procedure for increasing information potential.

Enterprise management is a constant cyclical process of making management decisions. No decision can be made independently of others. Having a management team can significantly increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this process.

All stages of development and decision-making are carried out by the team collectively, however, it is advisable to assign responsibility for initiating and processing each individual stage to individual specialists. As experience shows, only irresponsibility can be collegial; responsibility must be personal.

The economic, organizational and socio-political components of the management team’s competence are determined by their total information potential, that is, the ability to perceive and adequately respond to information products produced by external management systems.

The formation of the necessary information potential should be based on targeted systemic university and postgraduate education. Self-learning in the real conditions of an enterprise’s activities in a competitive, rapidly changing environment does not leave it a chance of survival.

Functional specialization of the management team

Making management decisions is the main and responsible function of a manager. Violation of the rules of behavior in the metasystem leads the enterprise to economic losses (up to bankruptcy and liquidation), making its activities meaningless.

It is advisable to create a team of managers at the enterprise consisting of: a general manager, a manager-lawyer, an economist-researcher, an economist-designer and a manager-technologist. The team must own a personal computer in order to be able to use information databases and apply mathematical models of the behavior of organizational systems when preparing and making management decisions.

Internal information flow management is based on the concept of document flow.

The success of management activities largely depends on how quickly and efficiently all necessary documentation is processed, the movement of which is carried out along certain routes from the place of preparation or receipt in the organization to sending to interested organizations or depositing in the archive. This movement of documents is called document flow. It should be organized in such a way that there are no delays and accumulation of documents at the workplace. For this purpose, organizations need to develop routes for the passage of documents and establish specific terms for their presence with each performer, and monitor their passage to all workplaces.

KURT HESSIG
Professor of the Department of Enterprise Economics
MARTIN ARNOLD
licentiate in economics
University of Zurich
(Switzerland)

The task of information logistics is to ensure and coordinate information flow throughout the entire logistics chain at all hierarchical levels
Work flow management as a tool for business process reengineering
Implementation and operation of the system require intensive personnel training

Information logistics refers to the organization and use of information support systems for production and economic processes at an enterprise. It is based on a systems approach that covers all activities related to planning and managing processes aimed at providing the enterprise with relevant information.

In the 90s, the world economy experienced a recession. Businesses must improve efficiency by implementing advanced manufacturing concepts, including resource-minimized production, time management, total quality management, best practices, process reengineering, and the like. The application of these concepts allows you to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve the quality of products and services, streamline production and ultimately survive in the market.

A promising tool for business process reengineering is Workflow Management, which is the management of information logistics based on computer technology, the development of which has recently made it possible to effectively organize information processing using separated systems and networks using appropriate software.

Basics of Workflow Management

Workflow management has become an independent discipline as a result of the rapid growth in computer performance, simplification of operating procedures, and development of effective communication technology. This discipline is focused mainly on the development of standard programs for electronic planning and management of production and economic processes in enterprises.

The promise of this discipline is confirmed by practice. Thus, the IBM personal computer plant in Austin (Texas, USA) began working on a work flow management project in 1990 with the aim of introducing computer software into the development of new products and production in general. At the same time, in contrast to the traditional practice of dividing information into divisions of the company and individual activities, the actions of employees have been integrated, their initiative and desire to coordinate efforts are stimulated.

Thanks to the work flow management system, information processing times were reduced, many problems were resolved in advance, errors were quickly identified and eliminated, and client satisfaction with the services provided increased. The following results have been achieved directly in the production sector:

The product manufacturing cycle was reduced from 7.5 to 1.5 days;

The range of products expanded from 19 to 85 types;

The development time for new products has been reduced from two years to 8 months;

The number of employees decreased from 1,100 to 423 people.

Production basis

According to the theory of enterprise economics, intracompany processes are aimed at solving clearly defined problems. Based on the results of the analysis, decisions are developed that fit within the framework of organizational rules. In this case, all information necessary both for planning and management, and for performing a particular task (for example, for processing objects of labor - products, documents, data, etc.) must be used.

Information should be considered as a factor of production. Therefore, information logistics covers all activities that are associated with information support of the entire logistics chain at all hierarchical levels.

The differences between process organization and information logistics are presented in Fig. 1. Organization includes only system design, i.e. building a process, determining the content of work, developing forms, documents, making decisions regarding hardware and software. Information logistics also covers system operation, excluding, however, the actual technological processing of objects of labor.

In contrast to the generally accepted understanding of information management, in information logistics, information flows between actions (operations) for intra- and intercompany coordination (transactions) are in the foreground. We are talking about a service function, which, as in the case of material flow logistics, is of strategic importance and serves to ensure the production of goods and services with the necessary resources at the right time and in the right place throughout the supply chain. In the field of information logistics, this concerns workplace information that is necessary to solve business problems.

It should be noted that information logistics management could be described as managing the flow of work without necessarily using computers. When using computers, information technology comes to the fore. Of course, physical (paper) documents can be used as part of work flow management. But the “paperless” enterprise is actually the ultimate goal of the concept. In this case, the division into tangible goods and intangible information becomes impossible. However, the analogy with traditional logistics of material flows still remains.

The work flow management system, which is an integrated set of software, provides the user with significant advantages: process planning and control are simplified; the organization of the process can be quickly adapted to the situation; information is accumulated and can be transmitted to the task performer. It is important that the system fits into the internal information and communication structure. It can be combined with production process software, which guarantees, in particular, their seamless integration (Fig. 2).

Electronic support makes it possible to organize work in a process-oriented manner. Group methods of work are of particular importance, since computer software can significantly improve communication between workplaces. This eliminates problems associated with the overlap of their functions, which increases the overall efficiency of the process.

Objectives of Workflow Management

The main goal is to provide activities to perform business tasks with the necessary information of the appropriate type, volume, quality, at the appropriate time and in the right place. At the same time, information support should be carried out in the shortest possible time, with minimal costs and at the highest possible level of service.

Achieving these goals within the framework of work flow management allows you to optimize the organization of the workplace and the work process as a whole, increase employee orientation to solving problems, improve control, etc. As a rule, work flow management targets are achieved only under the condition of fundamental changes in the existing organization of production processes. Changes in most cases are associated with the simplification and unification of these processes, which allows reducing costs and making the entire labor process more visible.

Organization and application of computerized
information logistics

The organization of production processes and information logistics based on computers is, as a rule, a complex project that requires step-by-step problem solving. When planning, various options for the corresponding procedure are usually outlined. At the same time, the transition from traditional to electronic information processing is associated with a significant reorientation of personnel, which can be characterized as reengineering of the business process.

Organizational phase

1. Planning. Using computer science tools, the organization of the work process is determined. This happens in the following steps:

Stage 1 - analysis of the economic situation and setting goals. Based on the current organization of the production process, the strengths and weaknesses of the enterprise are analyzed, which creates the basis for formulating goals and subsequent organization of the process. The goals relate primarily to deadlines, productivity, quality and costs.

Stage 2 - preliminary planning. A general description of the business process is given without taking into account the specifics of implementation. At the same time, the following questions come to the fore:

What places for processing objects of labor need to be created;

What information is needed for different processing locations;

Which processing places prepare the requested information;

What individual processing sites (products, documents, data, etc.) “produce”.

As a result, the process organization is roughly modeled, focusing on the interactions between processing locations.

Computerized information logistics uses semi-formal and formal graphic or text language for documentation. For graphic description, modern tools have convenient editor programs that provide input and processing of model elements.

Stage 3 - final planning. Input data is clarified and specified taking into account the conditions of implementation until the information flow and processing procedure are adjusted in all details. The results of the final planning (depending on the tools) are usually as follows:

A detailed definition of the process organization ( process level) - sequence of work, participants, sequential and parallel procedures, conditions for delegation and replacement of functions;

Linking processing tools ( functional level) with a process (for example, word processing, compiling tables, graphs, database programs, etc.). Ideally, the tools are included in the work directly by the system;

Accurate definition of data flow ( data layer) - sources and addressees of documents, control data, etc. are subject to identification. The data flow is organized so that it ideally automatically flows to the appropriate processing tools, and upon completion of the task follows a given route. The processor no longer has to search for and send data;

Establishing areas of contact with the external environment ( system environment level);

Determining the areas of contact between a person and a computer.

Such planned activities presuppose the existence of an appropriate information structure. These are primarily networks equipped with workstations and high-performance server stations (mainly work flow servers and data banks).

2. Grade. It consists of analyzing and actually evaluating process options (work flow).

Stage 1 - analysis of process options (work flow), which is carried out using static and dynamic methods:

Static analysis involves verifying processes through audit supervision and audits;

With dynamic control, the capabilities of work flow management tools are used, primarily simulating processes, and, if necessary, bringing them closer to the real situation. Such methods make it possible to study and analyze the behavior of a process over time, avoid excess capacity and shortages, calculate average work times and stochastic deviations, separate especially important orders, etc.

Stage 2 - assessment of process options (work flow) on performance, advantages and disadvantages, costs and benefits. This could be an analysis of the size of the benefit or a simple balance of pros and cons. If an option is found that meets the set goals, then they begin to implement and test the process.

3. Implementation and testing are aimed at solving the following problems:

Creation of the necessary machine and software prerequisites for the system;

Incorporating a work flow solution into the server system and individual workstations;

Process (work flow) tests, identifying technical and conceptual errors. In the first case, this is a check of the implementation results (whether the process really works as it was intended), in the second, a search for logical errors (the general solution of the designed process organization actually corresponds to them).

It often makes sense to implement work flow solutions on small, non-critical projects first, since technical problems can be more easily identified and corrected. At the same time, minor projects provide an opportunity to gain valuable experience for further expansion of the computerized information logistics system.

Operational phase

Operating the system requires software to handle business tasks. The process manager initiates the formulation of the task, controls its implementation, and comes into contact with users (Fig. 3). The latter use application programs (standard or individual) to process tasks or carry out some operations manually. Once a business task has been processed, work continues (ideally by electronic means) and the system is transferred to a new operating state.

With the productive use of a work flow management system, the possibilities of computer support are revealed, and therefore this system can be considered in the following qualities:

How documentation tool- interaction of processors and graphical interpretation within the entire system allow for complete documentation of the process, which is of particular importance given the certification of the International Standards Organization;

How production visualization tool- the monitors clearly show the so-called invisible reserves at processing sites, which allows bottlenecks to be identified and eliminated in a timely manner, making appropriate adjustments;

How monitoring system- each order can be requested at any time, thanks to which you can assess the status of the order portfolio and take further steps to process it;

How control system- logging processes allows you to obtain specific information (processing time, start and end times of work, problems, causes of problems, subsequent processing, etc.);

How quality information system- accumulated information and experience of employees can be considered in “quality circles” in the spirit of the Japanese Kaizen system. The flexibility of work flow management tools allows you to quickly and easily make changes to the process;

How user support tool, which are exempt from the data management function. The system automatically launches the appropriate processing tool, and also searches and provides access to the data to be processed, guaranteeing the completeness of the tasks being solved.

Continuous monitoring of the computerized process allows it to be systematically improved. Since all key information about the organization of the process is presented in machine form, it can be evaluated very quickly using a computer. Users themselves, using the available tools, can easily make changes to the processes being implemented. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the human factor. Technical and organizational adaptation of business processes should always be carried out in combination with personnel measures. Ongoing employee training should be an important part of ongoing process improvement.

Personnel training for a work flow management project begins at a very early stage. Involving personnel to participate in the process already in the organization phase gives a certain learning effect. However, this is clearly not enough. The introduction of a system usually means a radical departure from the traditional organization of work. Even in the most favorable conditions for using a new system, intensive training of personnel (at least process managers and users) is necessary, which should primarily address the following issues:

Understanding the process as a whole in terms of computer implementation;

The logic of using the system at each workplace;

Application of application software required to process tasks.

In conclusion, it should be emphasized once again that planning, implementing and operating a work flow management system involves significant difficulties that are associated not only with technical aspects. For the success of such a system, human prerequisites are also extremely important - the ability to learn, a culture of group work, openness to innovation, etc.

The article is published with the kind permission of the Swiss publishing house Paul Haupt.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT (SIM) IS A MODERN DIRECTION IN COMPANY MANAGEMENT. STATE OF SIM AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
Koltsova L.N.
Office file No. 119-120 December 2008 - January 2009

The emerging crisis will not only change the Russian economy, but will also serve as an impetus for innovative changes in the management system itself in organizations. Information in this case becomes not just an engine of progress, it is essentially part of organizational management, which cannot function and depend on the “chance” of obtaining information or “possession of information by a select few,” but must work as a process - allowing it to provide decision-makers with the necessary optimal practical information that will allow them to achieve their goals.

Information, communication – why is it needed?

We live in a world where everything is closely connected and the solution to a management problem directly depends on the awareness of the decision maker. Moreover, according to the data provided on the portal HRM.ru:

« Employees of American companies most often learn about changes in their organizations from their colleagues, rather than from management. Informal information channels are the main source of information for 68% of government employees, 65% of high-tech employees, and 46% of financial sector employees. Participants in a survey conducted by the International Survey Research center (16 thousand employees from 104 American companies) most often mentioned “rumours”, “gossip” and “conversations around the drinking water dispenser” as information channels. .

The problem is relevant not only for Western companies; below I will give not statistical data, but one example of management in a Russian company:

“The financial department was tasked with reducing accounts receivable, and the marketing and sales department was tasked with attracting new customers by providing an expanded list of benefits.” At first glance, correctly set management tasks were not only not solved, but also led to a serious conflict between the organization’s divisions, due to the lack of coordination of the divisions’ actions. Often, the lack of information about what a neighboring unit is doing leads not only to severe economic losses, but also to a more complex loss: “the loss of faith that the well-being of one largely depends on the success of another.” But it seemed that it would be easier to establish the process of “internal information flows”, the main task of which is to bring to the attention of employees the relevant and reliable information they need for fruitful work, to paint a complete picture of what is happening in the organization. But information alone is not enough. Only when it is appropriately converted and processed, i.e. when communication connections arise, the existence and effective operation of the organization is ensured. At the same time, under information we understand - the totality of stored and transmitted information about the surrounding world and the processes occurring in it, perceived by a person or a special device. And under communication- means of communication and communication, information contacts, which include six elements: source, message, communication channel, recipient, as well as encoding and decoding processes.

Let us consider the ways of evolution of the process “information flow” into “information management” and for this we will use the life cycle diagram of organizational development (Fig. 1.) proposed by E.N. Emelyanov. and Povarnitsina S.E. (Organizational Development, 1996, No. 2).

Rice. 1. Organizational life cycles

1 - formation of an organization, 2 - intensive growth, 3 - stabilization, 4 - crisis

The first development cycle is the “party”.

At the “get-together” stage, the organization can afford the individual work of an employee or department to collect, process and transmit information. In this case, the main efforts of management are focused on honing professionalism in partner communications. The main tasks that management solves in a business process that has not yet been identified are formulated as follows:

• Ensuring high-quality negotiations,
• Application of interactive communication methods, incl. issues of face-to-face interactive forms of work (organization of work with groups of different levels, seminars, trainings, training of moderators from among company employees),
• Use of corporate media tools (discussions via newspaper, intranet, Internet conferences, video conferences, suggestion boxes),

To implement these tasks in the field of communications, specialists from the fields of advertising and PR and/or human resources are attracted, since their professional skills allow them to solve these issues.

At this stage, the stage of “receiving and transmitting information” is very important, while the owners of information turn into key employees, and information is concentrated in departments according to the type of their activity, i.e. If data on staff turnover is needed, it can only be obtained from the HR department. Management, experiencing an information hunger, spends a lot of effort on teaching employees how to transmit information to each other, while employees who have often acquired the skills to transmit information begin to use it with “maximum benefit for themselves.” Management, realizing the complexity of the situation, when it is essentially a hostage of an employee who can (wants) or cannot (does not want) provide information, is trying to control this process. But control over the transfer, as well as the presence and absence of information, can be very difficult and the current situation forces management to move to the next stage of development mechanization of storage and processing of information data.

Second development cycle – “mechanization”

At the stage " mechanization" the purpose of management is systematization of information data. The task of preserving, replenishing and promptly providing information at this stage is designed to be provided by IT services. For this, IT specialists implement systems: to manage relationships: with customers (CRM) and suppliers (SRM), with personnel (HRM), to streamline information flows, they introduce electronic document management, etc. At the same time, the information repository is not a separate department, but business software - which is a working tool for controlling resources, including and informational. At the same time, the awareness of the information consumer depends on the setting of “employee access rights” by the IT department specialist. A paradoxical situation arises - the “information flow” business process has already been allocated, but it still does not have an owner, because specialists who previously performed individual tasks do not have the full range of knowledge and skills to manage it, and IT services do not want to deal with issues beyond their competence. At the same time, any change in communication channels (for example, in granting access rights to information) very often suffers from slowness (on the part of IT specialists) and weak control (on the part of management). Having resolved the issue of control over information and communications at the key employee level, the organization becomes hostage to another service – IT. In addition, the question arises about professional communication management, both within the organization and outside it.

The third development cycle is intrapreneurship or target management (MBO).

Upon reaching the third stage of development, the goal is formulated as follows - improving the process of information transfer, while we are talking about managing communications in each individual business process. The organization needs not only the collection, storage and speed of transmission (processing) of information, it needs to know who is responsible for the quality of transmission of this or that information. task quality within the framework of a dedicated business process, professionals are called upon to decide (they have received specialized education in this field). This is how the organization gets specialists in internal corporate, marketing and PR communications, as well as specialists in working with shareholders and.

For them, information is information that reduces the uncertainty of consumer knowledge about certain objects or processes (for example, business), and as a result, all their efforts consist in implementing information aspects: creating and maintaining funds of branded information, preparing analytical materials, creating advertising products in their direction. Moreover, very often their actions are not coordinated. So, for example, an internal corporate communications specialist may simply not be aware of the events that a marketing communications specialist is conducting, and a PR specialist may not be aware of the programs conducted by an IR specialist. These problems often arise from the fact that each of the above-mentioned specialists implements their functionality within the department in which they work, and there is no general corporate policy “in the field of information and communications” or is known only to the first person. The work of a specialist in the field of information and communications is monitored by the boss who manages a specific business process and whose goal is to achieve key performance indicators in his area. Since the activities of any organization are aimed at optimizing the use of resources and therefore the management of the company faces the question of information management.

Fourth development cycle – quality management

High-quality use of resources at this stage is achieved through systematic management of information and communications in the organization, i.e. The question arises about information management. Information management is the process of managing not only people who have information, but also actions that make it possible to identify chains of business processes, to which organizational structures and IT support are adjusted. At the same time, information management is one of the few processes in an organization that exists within strictly defined restrictions, such as:

• The input of the process is an information need, and the output is a generated information service that is provided to the customer and end user.
• The process occurs regardless of the organizational structure and functional business tasks/operations.
• The information management process can also proceed in the opposite direction: from the formed service, the I T-infrastructure is analyzed and a new need is identified, which was not previously considered or was unclaimed.

This goal is achieved through the Information Management Process, which begins (at the input) with identifying or receiving the information needs of the internal customer of the system, and at the output a list of tools and data necessary to achieve the goals is formed. The task in this case is to identify this process, its regulation, reengineering (drastic restructuring of the process), as well as the creation and support of basic information services. Information flow management specialists (managers) are responsible for managing this process, and all this is realized through the implementation of an information management system (SIM), while it is an integral part of the overall management system.

Rice. 2. The role of SIM in decision making in an organization

The information management system (SIM) allows you to establish control over the flow of information through: formalization of access to information, the presence of standards for the form and quality of transmitted information, as well as a predetermined channel for its transmission.

Rice. 3. Components of SIM in an organization

This is clearly seen in the experience of implementing SIM at a Russian company with a network of extensive divisions. The goal that the company's management set when introducing SIM was formulated as follows: Increase the speed and quality of information flow from the CEO to the ordinary employee. To solve this problem, the specialists who carried out the implementation used existing descriptions of business processes and conducted research on the state of the information field in the company. As a result, data was obtained on:

• Availability of this or that information in departments;
• Employees' information needs;
• Consequences of poor performance of functionality: due to lack of necessary information or excessive information content of the employee;
• Information flows flowing in the organization;
• Suggestions from employees to improve work with information;
• Satisfaction with the quality, quantity and speed of information provision.

Based on the data obtained, the tasks facing the organization as a whole were identified:

1. The need to carry out work to implement management of the “Information Flow and Communication” business process, identifying those responsible for managing it.
2. Development of standards for receiving and transmitting information for each position and area of ​​activity, incl. creation of a bank of reports and other documentation in 1C:Enterprise8.
3. Changing the order of interaction with customers, suppliers and employees through the transition to automated means of communication (creation of sections within the existing Internet page for individual work of personnel, customers, suppliers).
4. Changes in corporate culture due to:

• Development of horizontal and vertical communication channels with stationary departments on the 1C:Enterprise8 platform in integration with external programs (Internet, mobile mail, bank client, online store, etc.)
• Introduction of the “Mobile Mail” service for operational work with non-stationary employees.
• Closing the corporate newspaper direction (as an ineffective channel for informing employees), switching to SMS messages (for urgent transmission of information) and developing the individual web page direction (with organized Internet access or using mobile mail).

To implement the task set by the management of the enterprise, it was necessary not only to implement “1C:Enterprise 8”, but also to significantly expand it with additional types: directories, documents and reports, organize online work of all remote departments, organize work with mobile mail, the Internet, conduct work on equipping remote units with video cameras. For example, the introduction of working with mobile mail required not only entering data about the mobile phone of each employee (giving him certain access rights to an individual page), but also simple training on how to use the service provided. In addition to all company employees, representatives of customers and suppliers also received training. In Fig.4. you can see how daily data is generated not only by company employees, but also by counterparties (customers, suppliers)

Rice. 4. The role of SIM in relationships with counterparties

The introduction of SIM was accompanied by a number of changes:

• Resistance (inertia) to changes in the organization has decreased
• Changes have occurred in the corporate culture of the organization due to not just the acceptance of changes, but the majority of employees receiving pleasure from the introduction of “new items” on their site. We can say that the company has become innovative
• Communications inside and outside the company have changed. The company has learned to quickly implement effective IT and communication solutions necessary to achieve the company’s business goals

The implementation of only “1C:Enterprise8” would not solve the issue of increasing the communication of departments. The integrated use of all possible communication channels with employees for the organization gives a visible effect when carrying out global organizational changes.

Moreover, different groups of workers assessed the changes positively.

Thus, managers first of all appreciated the opportunity to use the “report to the manager” report in the 1C:Enterprise8 program (it allows you to organize the regular generation and delivery of information to responsible persons about the current state of affairs at the enterprise. It is important that for this the manager does not need to make requests himself and even just launch "1C:Enterprise". Once configured, the "Report to Manager" mechanism can, in accordance with specified regulations - for example, every day at 9:30 automatically publish on the intranet or send a report containing various information to specified email addresses about the activities of the enterprise is concentrated in a convenient and visual form for the manager). It also turned out that it was possible to significantly reduce labor costs for business trips between offices. For department heads, the effect was to increase the speed of the business process, so previously the HR department spent 1.5-2 hours of time on registration of one employee, and this was at best, but now it takes a maximum of 40 minutes. The effect was achieved due to the fact that there was no need to call the departments: occupational safety and health, accounting, health and safety, future mentor, because They began to receive data promptly. The HR officer no longer leads candidates to briefing, but the safety engineer comes to the meeting room and while HR is formalizing the employee, the engineer conducts training on health and safety. And ordinary performers felt the positive impact of the introduction of an information management system. For example, previously, in order to obtain any certificate, they had to repeatedly come to the head office (or try to call them by phone), now the employee orders the necessary certificate on his web page and receives it by courier the next day.

To summarize, we can conclude that:

• The need to manage such a resource as information arises with the emergence of the need for quality management, which is especially important during times of crisis.
• Not only managers, but also all employees of the organization are interested in implementing an information management system, since not only management efficiency increases, but also ease of work
• The implementation of an information management system in a company is a manifestation of its corporate culture, shows the innovativeness and modernity of the company, and allows it to respond to new challenges with dignity.

1) IR (Investor Relations) - a specialist in relations (relations) with investors, who is responsible for increasing their level of understanding of the factors affecting the value of assets.