A Universal Concept for the Systematic Arrangement of Static Data

Many organizations are accustomed to considering the strategic data in their possession as an exclusive resource that requires a specific data base structure and management software. This way of perceiving things leads them to develop exclusive management tools related to their own specific applications. This "autarky" reduces the inter-organizational information flow and creates redundancy in software development efforts. It also hinders the organizational ability to exploit the potential inherent in the correct and systematic arrangement of data since the expertise of an organization lays in the application of the information and not in its systematization. A comprehensive analysis of an organization's strategic information needs reveals surprising uniformity as to the structure of the database, to its maintenance logics and to the forms of retrieval required.