Preface to [Challenges of managing information quality in service organizations]

Abstract

[Overview]: There have been three major interrelated trends in global markets over the last three decades that have brought the concept of information quality (IQ) to the forefront of management attention. These trends are as follows: Innovation: The current era is associated with widespread and successive waves of technology-driven innovations in information and communication technologies (lCT). Technologies such as the Internet, electronic commerce, World Wide Web (www) and mobile commerce bring with them ubiquitous connectivity, real-time access and overwhelming volumes of data and information. Information economy: The world has experienced a transition from an industrial economy to an information economy. Data and information have become as much a strategic necessity for an organisation's well being and future success as oxygen is to human life (Eckerson, 2002). Almost every activity in which an enterprise engages requires data. Data are the critical inputs into almost alJ strategic and operational decisions ofan enterprise (Eckerson, 2002; Redman, 2001). Mandatary requirements: Organisations realise that they must provide the quality information expected by their customers 'or run the risk of legislation that forces them to provide such quality' (English & Perez, 2003).