KATHMANDU, NEPAL: "Strategic business imperatives are driving investments today. However, these vary by industry. It is important that you drive value in what you have invested in," suggested Subramanyam Venkatakrishnan, vice president - Information Management Software, IBM India, during his presentation on  "Information Agenda: Transforming Information into a Strategic Asset for Competitive Advantage" at C-Change 2009.

He said, "New investments are increasingly focusing on optimization. Organizations are striving for competitive analysis today." "Typically, most banks spend a lot of money building core banking infrastructure and also on building the data center. Application capabilities exist in silos. Your businesses will ask more of you from your investments in IT."

"Market leaders are optimizing their business with information. The objective of optimization is to drive incremental value on your existing applications. The key challenge is to unlock the value of information," Venkatakrishnan said.

"Information on demand is key, he said, adding, "This implies unlocking the business value of information for competitive advantage." "Performance management is all about finding out what has gone wrong and why, and what you need to do to set those right."

How do we create information agility? Create an information agenda for your organization. Invest time in building a business case that users appreciate and can measure. There should be an entry point of information on demand. "Become an information-based enterprise," he said.