Businesses now using informationalization to enhance products and services

Posted by Justin Hesser on June 29, 2012

As technology begins to increase the expected turnaround and reaction time for many services and goods – due in part to new social media and consumer services – customers have begun to expect companies to be able to improve their products at an alarming rate as well.

Obsoletion has become a very real threat in almost any industry. In order to combat the rapid pace of product evolution, many companies have begun using what Harvard Business Review contributor and author Thomas Redman calls “informationalization” where companies will add or use data to enhance their products and services, something that can be very useful to evolving products and managed with a custom database software.

The clearest example of informationalization is, actually, in the beer industry. Major brewery Coors Light added a feature on their labels that inform drinkers when their beer is cold. They used a very basic form of information – coldness – as a means to advance their product and engage customers.

“Most companies are only beginning to realize the power in data, so these issues are demanding,” writes Thomas Redman. “There is no standard business model for informationalization or a tried-and-true list of basic questions. This, of course, is the real work and the fun of the unfolding data revolution.”

While adding more data to products or customer services can help businesses improve the quality of their work – and customer satisfaction – the maintenance of this data can be a heavy burden for any company, but absolutely necessary. In order to effectively store, categorize and maintain this wealth of information, companies may want to consult a FileMaker developer to create a custom database software for their specific needs.