Information Management in Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises

Citation

Ghosh, S.B. (1999), "Information Management in Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 9, pp. 357-359. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.9.357.6

Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) play a crucial role in the economic development of any nation. In many countries, SMEs are not professionally managed and are not in a position to develop efficient information systems, so there is a clear need for high quality information management in these organisations.

This publication is a collection of five papers encompassing various areas of information management in SMEs, written by experts in the area from different countries. The paper by Joyce Kirk (Australia), “Information organizations: directions for information management”, discusses the importance of information in general and information management in the business sector in particular and tries to suggest guidelines for integrating and managing the business strategy and information

The paper on “EIS and SMEs: electronic information systems and the information needs of small and medium‐sized enterprises”, by Helge Claussen, presents the findings of three Scandinavian surveys on uses of public libraries network for business information services. The decreasing trend in the use of public libraries is due to the increase in end‐users and access facilities of databases and the Internet. The authors suggest that the users of the electronic information services need to acquire professional skills to retrieve high quality business information.

The paper on “Usage of business information in Estonia and Lithuania”, by Sirje Virkus and Elena Maceviciute, presents the results of two parallel studies on usage of business information. These studies show the increased usage of Internet over the years for business information. In view of the difficulties in finding relevant and quality information, there is a continuing and urgent need for training specialists to offer courses on types of information services in the business environment.

The third paper, “Study on information needs of small and medium‐sized enterprises in Poland and Hungary”, by Barbara Stefaniak et al., is the result of a Polish‐Hungarian joint study on information needs, assessment of importance of information, needs for publications and information services and, most important, use and evaluation of information services in SMEs in these two countries. The study is based on a total of 244 enterprises. Among many recommendations, it suggests a countrywide network for online access to business information and high quality service provision.

Svetlana Jashukova et al., in “Make‐up and management of the small business information system in Russia”, deals basically with the creation of the small business information support system (SBISS), which is based on information and analytical centres created on the regional branch principle and with territorial problem orientation. The final paper in this document, “The deployment of information technology by small and medium‐sized enterprises in ROC”, by Paul S. Cheng and Teresa M. Lin, discusses the status of SMEs in Taiwan. This paper focuses on the gradual loss of competitive advantage over the years and suggests government initiatives in launching an industrial automation programme to foster automation technologies and create an automation industry which will provide domain‐specific knowledge on information sectors. Taking the manufacturing industry as an example, the authors stress the need for training and education programmes in support of computerisation in SMEs. To develop sufficient talent for capability in absorbing the new technologies is the most crucial factor in this direction.

It is worth noting that the FID is taking special interest in the area of information management in SMEs, particularly at a time when society is moving towards a new information society. This publication gives the business information scenario in SMEs in some representative East European, Scandinavian and Asian countries, and this perhaps represents a global view as far as similar nations are concerned. However, the perspective could have been made more comprehensive had the information management scenario for a few developed nations been included in the document. Nevertheless, this collection of papers should be of value for planners, policy and decision makers who are concerned with development of the business information sector at national, regional and global levels and will be a valuable addition to the collection of those who are concerned with information management in the business sector.