With organizations largely dependent on information for their daily operations, a new technical report for the management of data aims to make it easier for them to improve information sharing and, in so doing, reduce costs.

Any organization, whether large or small enterprise, needs to collect, keep and process information about its own operations, its external environment and its interaction with its environment. As information flows into and out of an information system - interacting either with persons or with processes, including other information systems - it is necessary to create standardized facilities to permit the sharing of data by a number of users.

ISO/IEC TR 10032:2003, Information technology - Reference model of data management, is intended to look at ways of improving the interface between information systems and users accessing the facilities by identifying areas where standards may be improved or developed.

The technical report will help to improve the shareability of resources located at one or more computer systems as well as to help minimize the cost of supporting an information system, including design, development, operation and maintenance costs. It is also expected to reduce the number of standards required and simplify the content of such standards.

ISO/IEC TR 10032:2003 defines a reference model of data management by providing a common basis for the coordination of standards development, while allowing existing and emerging standards to be placed into perspective.

"The new technical report offers a frame of reference to understand the common concepts pertinent to all data held in information systems," says Mr. Douglas Mann, Secretary of the subcommittee that developed the new standard. "It provides some terminology and structure that may be used to communicate underlying ideas for data management".

ISO/IEC TR 10032:2003 costs 142 Swiss francs and is available from ISO national member institutes and from ISO Central Secretariat. The new standard is the work of joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, subcommittee SC 32, Data management and interchange.