INFORMATION QUALITY INDICATORS AND ITS USE IN INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Integrated management systems implementation impacts on organizations in several dimensions from organizational culture and climate changes up to relationship changes with its suppliers and clients. Broadening the group of suppliers and clients presupposes the availability of reliable information and the existence of business partners with access to such information. This paper highlights the readiness of reliable information by means of the use of information quality indicators in integrated management systems implementation. Based on the theories of information quality elaborated by Huang, Lee and Wang (1999) and information quality assessment by Lee et al. (2002), the pursued objective is the presentation of a methodology for the assessment of integrated management systems implementation success based on the use of information quality metrics or indicators. This study was guided by the research question: the assessment of success in the cycles of integrated management systems implementation with the use of information quality indicators helps the cyclic implementation process? The case study accomplished shows the use of the proposed methodology for an organization that had finished the first cycle of an integrated management system implementation and that studies the beginning of the second cycle. In this case study there were defined metrics of information quality related to the financial-accounting information, and the previous and the posterior phases to the first cycle of implementation are considered. The results for the studied organization are described and they highlight the easy understanding of the methodology, among other positive factors.