The beginning of information flow starts with the gathering of data. There is a wide range of data to be collected in any organization. Data is collected from different departments within the organization. There is also a wide range of departments for data to be collected from, depending on the type of business. Information such as invoices, e-mails, employee performance, job promotions and openings, and paid salary can be collected from the internal offices. There is information to be gathered from various other departments as well. The main ones that are important are production data, sales data, management data, human resources data, research data, and online data. An example of gathering information is having an employee record on a piece of paper each pallet of candy bars that has been loaded into a truck and made ready for shipping. All of this information is produced by things that are happening, have been researched, or have been recorded and defined for a particular reason.

The next part of the information flow process is conversion. The gathered data then needs to be converted so that it is all in the same format. An example of this is entering the production records from the day into a computer system. Another example is transferring new employees records from a paper file into a database of all employees. Information conversion can also include converting numbers, classes, or descriptions so that the formats match and it will then be workable and ready integrate with other data.

Once the data has been converted it is ready for integration into the system, or another way to put it is that it is organized into its data set. This means putting the information into the correct database for reasons of recording it, comparing, transferring it, or reviewing it later.

The next part of the information flow system is the review, or use of the information.