Author: Kerry Clark

App Information Services Defined

Posted on by Kerry Clark

Why Information Needs Have Moved From Big Corporation to the Home?

App Information Services (AIS) – Part 2

Before we can offer “app information services” to others, I must first define it for you.  It’s information services for the applications (apps) we all need and currently use in some shape form or fashion today.  It’s the app information needs used on your desktop PCs, home PCs, tablets, smart phones, and other mobile devices. It’s the information we use everyday for our personal lives, homes, churches, small businesses, and even enterprises.  This content, however, doesn’t apply to enterprises or large businesses and corporations who already have many working solutions for their data needs. “App Information Services” refers to applications used for productivity, to keep your records, collect data, metrics, and support your various data needs and creation.  To help you further understand, we will define what it is not, then outline its components.

Not information systems (I.S.) or technology (I.T.)
To put it as simply as I can, “app information services” has nothing to do with I.S. which stands for information systems, the systems running on machines and it has very little to do with I.T. which stands for information technology, the machines and devices themselves.

Most people, especially individuals, small businesses, and churches have no idea what information systems and technology really is, although we hear it referenced daily.  Large businesses, enterprises, and post-secondary education have made these concepts very complicated. Trust me, I’ve worked on both sides of these areas for over two decades and sometimes I feel as if I don’t understand them.  They’ve become so vast and terminology driven that they no longer appeal or cater to the basic unit who manages data needs, people.  Yet, the fact still remains it’s all about our information needs at every level and the most basic level, the individual seated behind the devices.

A Few Examples of Your Information Needs
Now would be a great time to introduce you to a few examples of your information needs-what individuals, small businesses, and churches don’t know.  Individuals, homes, churches, small business, and non-profit organizations need:

  • Ways to manage and share their calendars easily. 
  • A place to hold their contacts.
  • Email and a place to review tasks, manage their pending tasks, and quantify their completed tasks. 
  • Productivity apps for creating documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. 
  • To know when a database is more effective than a spreadsheet.
  • Ways to store and find the files they create and anyone on their staff creates.
  • Protection from losing all their hard work when their computers (I.T.) inevitably crashes.
  • A way to track their business data and transactions.

These needs are no longer isolated to big companies or big business.  Do any of these sound like something you could use? Is it something that you see a need to do better in your life, home, organization, small business, or church?  These needs due to the growth in and rise of technology have brought these “app information services” needs down to the lowest levels, that would be you. Where in years past, you’d only find the need for these type of information services in a desk-job, now these needs are in the home and even elementary grade-schools.  This content will address those needs and much, much, more.

“App Information Services” (AIS) has many of the answers, solutions, and ideas for handling the majority of your most pressing data needs.

Introduction to App Information Services (AIS)

Posted on by Kerry Clark

Defining App Information Services (AIS)

App Information Services (AIS) – Part 1

“App Information Services” is a big term, so put it out of your mind as I explain it in simple terms.  For more than two decades, I’ve worked with people who all had varying levels of technical skills and we all manage our own data differently.  No two individuals use their digital tools in the same manner. If you looked at how one person stores their data files, they might have them arranged in neat folders while the person next to them might have all their files on their desktops.  One person might use a spreadsheet for every type of work while the next uses a word processing application. The point still remains, people are the basic unit of managing their information. So to aid them, we’ve decided to offer what we call “app information services.”  This service is designed to help you make the most of what you already use and to show you, you don’t have to purchase any other high-price software and hardware to get the job done.

People are the basic unit of managing data needs; they use app information services.

Our team noticed a huge gap in the technology needs for individuals versus large enterprises.  The gap widened more for those who started their own small businesses. But as we analyzed this gap, what we found interesting was this.  The information needs for all three: individuals, small businesses (including churches and other non-profit organizations), and large enterprises all have individuals at its core, individuals who use the technologies.  In other words, people do the work required for their individual information needs, whether on their own (personal needs) or in their small businesses, or in ministries & non-profit organizations or in their positions with large corporations.  Their information needs were basically the same. So we’ve decided to give this gap and your information needs a name, “app information services.”

Making one tool work at multiple levels and in multiple ways

The problem is this.  Because no one has ever explained these needs, no one knows what tools, methods, and resources are available to meet their personal information needs for performing work, be it as an individual, a person working in or starting a small business, or those who work in “big” business.  Most people use software and tools that are provided by their workplaces. If my company uses, Microsoft Word, then that tool is the one I use in the office, at home, and in my small business (if I ever take such a leap). It is in this process of not knowing what you should use that leads to an individual purchasing software they don’t need or a small business buying an expensive server just for email, or that company executive purchasing a custom ticketing platform that costs millions when the system is only needed in one area.

What we have to offer at Kerry A. Clark & Co. are practices on how to use what you already have, provide you with suggestions of free/low cost tools you’ve not considered, and provide recommendations on how to use the tools in ways you’ve not considered to meet your data needs as individuals, in your church ministries, in your non-profit organizations and in your small businesses.  

Next we will define “app information services” for you in more detail.