Defining your organizations' information requirements;

              Defining Your Organizations' Information Requirements
by VITO G. PETRUZZELLI Consultant, Management Advisory Services, Chicago Office
Presented before the Data Processing Management Associa­tion,
Northern Illinois Chapter, Chicago—March 1967
ONE of the most important jobs any speaker has is to capture the attention of his audience at the beginning of his remarks. A very effective technique for accomplishing this job is to establish a common identity among all members of the audience and the speaker. Here, this evening, there are many categories in which we might choose to classify ourselves. There is one, however, generally applicable classification which we have chosen because it is a word that you have found before you in the newspapers and on television. Frankly, when you hear the word again, after this evening, we hope that you will remember this evening's presentation and the context in which the word was used.
The identity we share is the identity of revolutionaries. The revo­lution
in which we are engaged is one that has been going on for over one hundred years. In her book The Rich Nations and the Poor Nations, the noted British economist Barbara Ward states that four revolutions are responsible for the substantial economic well-being of the North Atlantic community. The first three are revolutions of equality, material change, and biology. As for the fourth, let us allow Miss Ward to speak for herself: "The fourth and perhaps the most pervasive of all the revolutions of our day is the application of science and saving—or capital—to all economic processes of our life. In fact, the application is much wider. We have begun to apply science and reason to nearly all our
forms of living, to administration, to office management "
So you can see as participants in this most pervasive revolution, we certainly qualify as revolutionaries.
PREPARING FOR THE EFFORT
What sets off the chain reaction of events that leads to a decision to define an organization's information requirements? As with revolutions, this decision is generally preceded by an idea or an evaluation of condi­tions.
For those companies interested in increasing their profits there are some areas that are prime candidates for evaluation:
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