The Value of Information

By Mark Roberti

July 19, 2010—I received an e-mail the other day from Pankaj Sood, the founder of the McMaster RFID Application Lab at McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada, who is now studying at the University of Cambridge's Auto-ID Lab.

Pankaj wrote: "As part of my Ph.D., I am trying to understand the perspective various industry professionals have on valuing and pricing information. I am still at the exploratory stages of my research, and would really appreciate it if you could assist me by answering three questions."

Here are his questions:
1. What does value of information mean for you?
2. How do you determine the value of information (systems)?
3. How do you determine the price of information (systems)?


I have thought quite a lot about the value of information, because RFID Journal is an information provider. It occurred to me, as I ruminated over these three questions, that CIOs—who have everything to do with managing information systems—often have little to do with acquiring and valuing information.

Think about it. A CFO doesn't just balance books and manage a company's bank account. He or she manages money, coming up with new ways to obtain, maintain and use that money. The CFO, in fact, puts value on money, helping his or her firm's CEO to determine whether it is better to, say, invest in a new IT system or a new store.