IM BLOG: Selling the Value of Information: How Infonomics Is Reframing R&IM for the C-Suite
Across the records and information management (R&IM) profession, a strong, bold message is taking hold: R&IM must articulate its value in the language executives understand. This shift is visible across the Australian and international IM landscape, championed by leaders who suggest that R&IM’s future depends on its ability to demonstrate value, influence strategy, and speak with confidence beyond the confines of compliance.
This renewed focus builds on earlier conversations, including John Mancini’s 2016 exploration of infonomics, the idea that information behaves like an organisational asset and should be measured, managed and valued as such. Mancini’s provocation resonated at the time, but today it has become urgent. As organisations face digital transformation, AI oversight, heightened regulatory scrutiny, and demand for accountability, the profession is rediscovering the need for a structured, persuasive way to demonstrate the value of managed information.
Leaders across the RIMPA Global community have been amplifying this message: it is not enough to “do” R&IM work, the work must be seen, understood, and valued. The profession’s visibility depends on its ability to translate its contributions into business outcomes and risk-aware metrics that resonate with CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and boards.
The Moment We’re In
Between the rapid growth of AI, mounting regulatory obligations, cybersecurity risk, and heightened public expectations for accountability, organisations are rediscovering that information is not simply a by-product of operations. It is a strategic asset and a potential liability, with measurable effects on:
- decision-making
- risk exposure
- service delivery
- institutional memory
- operational efficiency
- public trust
This landscape demands that IM functions show not just what they do, but what they enable.
Where Infonomics Fits and Why R&IM Should Pay Attention?
The promise of infonomics is not that it monetises everything. It provides a structured vocabulary for describing information value in ways that resonate outside the records function. Infonomics breaks value into dimensions such as:
- Intrinsic value - quality, reliability, completeness
- Operational value - efficiency, cycle time, reduced duplication
- Business or risk value - defensibility, improved decisions, compliance alignment
- Strategic value - readiness for analytics, AI, continuity and transformation
These categories align tightly with the work of R&IM professionals, especially in authenticity, provenance, metadata, and trustworthy lifecycle management, but frame it in a way the C-suite understands.
If we want our organisations to recognise information as a core asset, then RIM needs to become its asset manager, equipped with the language and tools of valuation.
Internal Marketing: The Skillset RIM Needs Now
R&IM has never lacked technical depth or regulatory expertise.
Internal marketing isn’t about spin. It’s about making the value of R&IM:
- visible
- understandable
- measurable
- aligned with enterprise priorities
R&IM professionals increasingly need to show how their work contributes to:
- reduced legal exposure
- improved business continuity
- faster service delivery
- reduced operational costs
- readiness for AI governance
- greater public accountability
These are the outcomes that leadership invests in.
And they are outcomes possible only when information is managed as an asset, not tolerated as a burden.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Practical examples of this value-centred approach include:
- Demonstrating how improved metadata and disposition reduce FOI response times.
- Quantifying the risk reduction achieved through consistent lifecycle governance.
- Showing how reliable, accessible records underpin analytics, AI, and service transformation initiatives.
- Framing archives and government memory as enablers of public trust and institutional accountability.
- Presenting IM maturity improvements as a “value dividend”, not just cost recovery.
In each case, R&IM becomes more than a compliance function: it becomes a strategic capability.
A Call to the Profession
Information value must become a core competency of RIM.
To deliver that value and to have it recognised R&IM professionals must master:
- value storytelling
- internal marketing
- executive-level communication
- risk-benefit framing
- metrics that matter
R&IM’s future visibility and influence will depend on how well we articulate not just what we manage, but why it matters and what the organisation gains when information is treated as a true asset.
The tools, concepts, and frameworks are already out there. The challenge is bringing them together, strengthening our shared vocabulary, and making value a central pillar of the R&IM identity.
Meet your blog author:
An experienced information professional with a career spanning the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and consulting, they have played a key role in modernising digital information and records management across the US Federal Government. Their expertise includes records governance, policy and regulation, compliance, digital transformation, training and international standards. As an active contributor to ISO TC 46/SC 11, they also help shape global standards for digital preservation, metadata and information governance. Today, they advise organisations navigating the intersection of records governance, AI, emerging technologies, risk and digital strategy.