Pointing out the tremendous difficulties businesses now face in information and intellectual property management, Connecticut-based research firm Gartner has released a report citing four key "innovation forces" IT leaders can exploit to tackle data and IP management challenges.

Gartner analyst Ted Friedman pointed out that innovation and technology-focused companies that do not adopt comprehensive management systems "are unable to fully achieve the benefits of information infrastructure." As information resources are central to an IP-centered economy, systems need to be adopted to manage and optimize the use and transmission of crucial data.

The first "innovation force" involves information-centric organizations, notably that such organizations need to make changes in personnel that will encourage a focus on innovation, intellectual property and information.

Second, information must be viewed as an asset or even a liability. "Leaders must set aside their traditional 'engineering mindset' and focus on the value of the information itself," Friedman says.

Third, companies need to encourage an "adaptive information infrastructure" - a policy of seeking out relationships across data fields so as to provide a wider understanding of the information at hand.

Finally, innovation and information-based companies need to implement "alternative delivery models for information infrastructure." This means, among other things, applying cloud and other flexible computing services to maximize transmission of data across relevant channels.