The role of data and information in Asset Management Systems (ISO 55001:2014)

11 September 2019

With the heightened risk of theft of information and intellectual property, the security of data and information becomes increasingly more important for all organizations on a daily basis.

But do you think of data and information as an Asset?

Asset Management systems do and in fact treat data and information security as pivotal to the strategic direction of the business. It is for that reason that many organizations are now considering data and information as an asset and ensuring they continue to monitor and mitigate risks associated with the lifecycle of that data on a regular basis.

So what does data and information mean in the terms of an AMS?

There are two types of Assets associated with this: Asset Data and Asset Knowledge.

Asset Data covers specific data quality measures including:

Accuracy – the data is a true reflection of the physical entity it represents
Completeness – complete set of data is available for each data record
Consistency – data is consistent in its definition, rules, format and value
Validity – all data held complies with data storage rules
Timeliness – data reflects the current state of an asset, data on new assets is available in a timely manner
Data requirements (attributes)
Data quality
Interaction with other Asset Information Systems such as BIM (Building Information Management) and GIS (Geographical Information System), Financial Systems

Asset Knowledge is a much more subjective topic which is:

Derived from combination of experience, values, information in context and insight
Reliant on key individuals to recall specific events or know where information is stored
Affects reliability and quality of decision making forecast and for that reason requires an individual’s knowledge not data
Designed to ensure the security of personal knowledge and insight in order to counteract potential loss (for example should your source of knowledge suddenly win the lottery)
In the construction and facilities management world Building Information Modelling used to prevent loss of knowledge.

What typical data may be stored in an Asset Information System?

Location
Attributes
Planned Preventive Maintenance (PPM) schedules
Corrective Maintenance (CM)
Financial information

ISO 27001 covers the security of information for organizations, however if an organization is to treat its knowledge and data as an asset, that impacts the future strategic direction of the organization, then the inclusion within the asset management system (ISO 55001) is integral.

For further information on information security (ISO 27001) or personal information management aligned with the requirements of GDPR (ISO 27701) click here.