Marketing guru and blogger Seth Godin recently wrote about companies that specialize in ‘information about information.’

He cites Bloomberg, Google and Facebook as companies that aggregate, analyze, and sell information as their core business. “They create a meta-layer, a world of information about the information itself.”

Business acumen in data collection and analysis extends beyond internet companies. Many manufacturers, CPG companies and retailers (Wal-Mart, for example) owe as much of their success to their vast information infrastructure as they do to the products that they make or sell.

On the other end of the spectrum, we talk to a lot of companies that struggle to harness their data. At businesses large and small, critical pieces of information about customers sit on individual laptops and personal spreadsheets instead of being funneled into a larger centralized database or CRM solution where the information can be managed, shared and analyzed for the benefit of the enterprise.

SAP CRM and SAP Business Objects are powerful solutions sold by RunE2E that help companies organize valuable business information. And why is this so valuable?

Because, says Godin, information compounds. “A tiny head start in access to this information gives you a huge advantage in the stock market. Or in marketing. Or in fundraising.

“Many people and organizations are contributing to this mass of data, but few are taking advantage of the opportunity to collate it and present it to people who desperately need it.”