How better knowledge intelligence accelerates your business
The Difference Between “Data,” “Information,” and “Knowledge”
In 2022, there’s no shortage of tools for collecting and sharing data within an organization. We create, respond to, and forward hundreds of emails a week. We write documents, swap slides, and populate spreadsheets on cloud-based file storage systems such as Drive, SharePoint, and Dropbox. We engage on collaboration apps like Teams and Slack, update relational databases like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Oracle, and subscribe to countless news feeds and services.
Today, our greatest challenge is avoiding becoming so overwhelmed with data that we no longer draw any benefit from it. The knowledge pyramid is a popular way to visualize data on its journey to becoming something more useful.
Data is simply a collection of items in raw form. For example, an email, a document, a cell in a spreadsheet, or an article in a newsletter.
Tools that help us answer “who,” “what,” and “where” questions provide us with something even more valuable than data: information. The spreadsheet formula that calculates what a company’s quarterly earnings were, for example, or the CRM that tells us when we last emailed a sales lead, or the alert that lets us know who the latest hire is at a company we’re following are providing us with information.
When you can determine “how” information is connected, and can derive new insights from that connection, you have arrived at knowledge. Knowledge is seeing how things go together and, ideally, how that information serves your goals.
Wisdom, at the top of the pyramid, is achieved when you have the right knowledge to make decisions and take actions. Wisdom is being able to answer questions such as “Is it better to go with Company A or with Company B?” or, “What is my justification for pursuing this project?”
Finding Connections, Getting to “How”
There is no one magic tool that performs all the tasks and provides all the information your business needs to succeed. Most organizations benefit from a collection of apps to perform necessary functions. So how do we determine the “how” of information connection when that information is all over the place?
One way to unlock the power your organization’s data connectivity is to use an AI-driven knowledge intelligence platform such as KnowledgeNet.ai. KnowledgeNet.ai integrates with existing systems to draw them together into one easily navigable network. It uses a simple, hashtag-based indexing system to build relationship intelligence and automatically recall related materials. It secures work in a single ecosystem that can be accessed by all members of an organization as well as external users.
Armed with the ability to create connections between siloed applications, establish relationships between discrete entities, order information in a meaningful way, and preserve what has been learned, you will quickly find your organization in possession of the kind of powerful knowledge that drives action and growth. Taking advantage of new technology to work smarter? Now that’s wise.
