Data and Information

Way too often, I find there is confusion between the terms data and information. Put simply:

Data - A collection (or collections) of "stuff". It is either unorganized, or organized along a single dimension (e.g., the number of phone calls a customer service person handles in a day - the single dimension is the count of calls; nothing else is taken into account about the calls themselves, merely the gross number.)

Information - A collection of data that is considered together with other data collections, past and present experience, and a healthy dose of intuition. Information is organized, often along multiple dimensions (e.g., the number of phone calls a customer service person handles in a day, the amount of time each call took, the question being asked, the number of times a single customer called, and the number of times they called about a specific issue.)

A single piece of data taken in isolation can result in awful management decisions. Lets take the example I included in parantheses above. If the only metric you use to determine productivity or usefulness is the gross number of calls a customer service person handles in a day, you are losing out on a wealth of information: Is there a particular product that is causing a problem? Is there a particular demographic that is having a problem? Is the customer service agent that is taking more time on the phone more effectively helping the customer, or are they just wasting time.

Look at the reports you regularly review. Do they contain data or information?