The much anticipated Information and Data Pack is now available for download.  This release marks a major upgrade to the way that Information and Data is captured and managed within Essential and, we think, puts Essential Architecture Manager at the leading edge of Information and Data Architecture.

The Information and Data Pack introduces a major evolution in the Information layer of the Essential Meta Model, by separating the capture and management of Information from the capture and management of Data. This separation is fundamental in providing strong support for:

• Information Architecture activities
• Enterprise Information Management initiatives
• Enterprise Data Management initiatives

We use a simple definition (that may be familiar) for understating the distinction between data and information; Information is data in context, whereas Data has the same value and meaning regardless of the context in which it is used.

However, it is important to remember that Data is not always just the facts. Information changes over time and its uses differ from one department of the organisation to the next. New areas of the business will require new Information to analyse and understand how this area is operating. The underlying Data, which provides the building blocks for the Information – some of them facts –remains relatively constant.

Data is managed across a number of categories, such as Master Data, Reference Data, Transactional Data, as simple basic data and complex data elements that are constructed from other data elements.

Information is produced and used by business processes and applications, such as reports, Business Intelligence dashboard contents, details on an application screen or the integration messages that are exchanged by applications.

A way to think of it is that data is the elements or the building blocks that are used or manipulated to deliver information. This distinction allows you to understand what data is used and consumed by which applications to deliver which information, not only from a data perspective, but also from a business process and an application perspective.  At a glance, for example, you can understand what data is used and managed by an application, whether that data is the master data source or whether there are numerous different sources of data. These insights, combined with details about the qualities of the data and information, such as accuracy, timeliness or completeness, enable you to understand the implications for the business as it consumes this information.

The Information and data release also provides a number of different views ‘out of the box’, which are all navigated to via a number of different catalogues.  Some examples of these are shown below:-

To download the release visit the Information and Data Pack download on the Community Share page.  We recommend that you read the release notes and installation guide before commencing the download.  The Introduction to the Information and Data Pack Tutorial provides an overview to the meta classes, relationships and views.

Free support can be provided on a best endeavours basis via the forums, or dedicated support is available via Essential Services.