Glossary: Data vs information

But once you start fitting them together in a thoughtful way, you get a full picture—that’s information. For example, a spreadsheet full of numbers is data; a report summarizing those numbers to show a trend or support a decision is information.

When this leads to erroneous conclusions, it is said that the data are misleading. Often this is the result of incomplete data or a lack of context. For example, your investment in a mutual fund may be up by 5% and you may conclude that the fund managers are doing a great job. However, this could be misleading if the major stock market indices are up by 12%. In this case, the fund has underperformed the market significantly. For example, a list of dates — data — is meaningless without the information that makes the dates relevant (dates of holiday).

The missing piece: turning information into intelligence

• In each case, the raw data ( temperature readings, student grades, stock prices) becomes meaningful information after being processed, analyzed, and presented in a relevant context.
• Unprocessed information—or raw data—must be refined before it is useful.
• Without additional context, they’re just entries in a database.
• It’s the raw material you need before you can create something useful, like a report or a forecast.
• For example, a Harvard study highlighted the real-world impact of biased data, finding some Airbnb users were 16 percent less likely to be accepted as guests due to their names.
• The translation of raw data to information has a significant impact since it may affect decisions.

With clean information in place, platforms like Introhive can apply scoring, mapping, and enrichment to surface relationship insights in real time. This is where actionable intelligence happens, knowing which relationships are strongest, which opportunities have the most potential, and where white space exists. Here’s what the value chain looks like in a law firm, from comprehensive data to clean, contextualized information, all the way to true data intelligence.

By automating the process of gathering, cleaning, and connecting relationship data, firms can free up partners and fee earner to focus on strategy. It’s the bridge between knowing and doing, turning your CRM from a static database into a true data intelligence platform that drives growth. That’s the moment when raw, isolated data like a contact name in the CRM becomes valuable information that can lead to collaboration and opportunity. Simple examples of law firm data (before it is cleaned or given context)

Top 5 Differences

Turning raw data into actionable Intelligence is a step-by-step process and each stage builds on the one before it. You can’t have Intelligence without clean, accurate Information, and you can’t have that without comprehensive data. Firms that want to move from data information knowledge to true intelligence need the right processes and tools in place. “It understands that people and their jobs and their relationships change over time… and it brings the insights based on that information to you when and where you work. And it does all this without requiring people to do a bunch of data entry.” Now imagine that same list after it’s been cleaned, de-duplicated, and enriched with context from billing systems, practice group notes, and email engagement data.

Related Words

It transforms raw facts into actionable insights for decision-making. Information is defined as structured, organized, and processed data, presented within a context that makes it relevant and useful to the person who needs it. Data suggests that raw facts and figures regarding individuals, places, or the other issue, that is expressed within the type of numbers, letters or symbols. Intelligence is the evolution of data information knowledge into targeted insights, much like customer intelligence, but designed for the unique relationship-driven growth challenges law firms face. In this context, the question of ‘what is data and information?

Word History and Origins

Both data and information are important for decision-making. Data is raw facts or statistics, and on https://traderoom.info/difference-between-information-and-data/ its own, it might be meaningless. But information is the data that is processed and structured. Information is easy to understand and provides a context for data. The difference between information and data is that data consists of raw, unprocessed facts, while information is data that has been organized and contextualized to make it meaningful.

Professional Certificate in Data Science and Generative AI

Information is described as that form of data which is processed, organised, specific and structured, which is presented in the given setting. It assigns meaning and improves the reliability of the data, thus ensuring understandability and reduces uncertainty. When the data is transformed into information, it is free from unnecessary details or immaterial things, which has some value to the researcher. Data is defined as the collection of facts and details like text, figures, observations, symbols or simply description of things, event or entity gathered with a view to drawing inferences. It is the raw fact, which should be processed to gain information. It is the unprocessed data, that contains numbers, statements and characters before it is refined by the researcher

The term ‘data’ is derived from the Latin word ‘datum’, meaning “to provide something”. Data has turned out to be the plural of datum throughout time. Information is used for decision-making, machine learning, and data analysis. Organizations use business analytics to extract meaning and derive value from data.

Marks of students in a class are an example of data, while the average marks gained by students of the class are information derived from data. “Adoption doesn’t necessarily mean people are logging in to the CRM. If the data is being used anywhere to build your business, that is adoption.” During the webinar, Matt described how this plays out in practice at Osborne Clarke.

While data, on its own, might be meaningless, information is always meaningful. We can describe data as the smallest unit of factual information we can use for reasoning, calculation, or discussion. It can range from concrete measurements to abstract statistics. Furthermore, we can categorize data into two main categories as quantitative data and qualitative data. Quantitative data take numerical forms and include prices, weights, temperatures, etc., while qualitative data take a descriptive but non-numerical form. Some examples of qualitative data include names, addresses, physical characteristics of people, etc.

The term ‘data’ is the plural version of the Latin word ‘datum,’ which signifies the ‘thing provided’. It is also derived from the Latin word dare, which means ‘to give’. This may be observations, measurements, facts, graphs, or numbers.

’ is less about defining terms,  and more about understanding how to move to integrated intelligence that supports business development and client relationships. As law firms look ahead to 2025, the focus is shifting from simply adding more contacts to building deeper, more strategic relationships with clients, prospects, and alumni. Moving from data, information, and knowledge to intelligence is where the real transformation happens, making growth more intentional and focused on the best opportunities. Information refers to processed, organized, and structured data. It gives context for the facts and facilitates decision making. In other words, information is processed data that makes sense to us.

• When these three layers are working together, your CRM shifts from being a static database to a true data intelligence system that actively supports BD efforts, client retention, and strategic growth.
• Marks of students in a class are an example of data, while the average marks gained by students of the class are information derived from data.
• Data become ‘information’ when analyzed and possibly combined with other data in order to extract meaning, and to provide context.
• Other software in the company’s tech stack can then supplement it.

More meanings of difference

Information is a collection of data that has been meaningfully processed in accordance with the stated criteria. To make information relevant and valuable, it is processed, arranged, or presented in a certain context. Understanding these key distinctions helps organizations centralize knowledge, improve organizational efficiency, and enhance knowledge management practices.

By analyzing pieces of information, businesses can make informed decisions and forecast future trends. Suppose we have marksheet with us , now in this case we have marks as the data and the complete marksheet is information. In common usage that is less likely to recognize datum, “data” has become a mass noun in many cases and takes on a singular verb (e.g., The data is ready.). When this happens, it is very easy for “data” and “information” to be used interchangeably (e.g., The information is ready.).

Data is always interpreted, by a human or machine, to derive meaning. Data contains numbers, statements, and characters in a raw form. Data is a raw and unorganized fact that is required to be processed to make it meaningful. It can be considered as facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.