Experts predict that from 2020, the amount of data within an organisation will increase 4300% per year. Numerous organisations are already drowning in their data and document management at the moment, how will it be from 2020 onwards? And how much of that data and documents is actually accessible, accurate and usable?

At most companies, the data and documents of interest are still in silos, in different formats and in a variety of applications.

And how, for heaven's sake, do you maintain an overview? Let alone insight!

The volume, diversity and complexity of documents and data continue to increase year after year. New tools and applications are pushing organisations towards a turnaround in their strategy around their documents and data. This evokes resistance from the market, which I think is very understandable. Many organisations simply do not know where to start. Thereby, the change is often perceived as too drastic, with all its consequences: things are left as they are and that data mountain becomes more and more unmanageable.

So where do you start?

Immediately change your entire strategy? Few organisations are keen on that.

So start small with a scalable solution

Did you know that 55 per cent of document management, ECM and automation initiatives fail? To meet the ever-changing needs of the market, organisations need a solution that is easily scalable. Good scalability allows an organisation to start small, for example with a department, team or process group. With solutions like M-Files, scaling problems evaporate and organisations can start immediately with a small step and then grow further if required. A department can serve as a blueprint for the rest of the organisation. Moreover, this narrow focus reduces risks.

Start small, compact and manageable. Measure success and then make the next step.

360-degree view delivers unprecedented value

With the dizzying growth of data and different sources and formats, organisations need to harness the information contained therein. This requires that information, data and documents be related to each other. After all, they often have a relationship, only this is not reflected in the storage and processing of these objects (documents, projects, cases, files, customers, etc.).

Example: customers are stored in a CRM system.

The invoices in yet another system.

The drawings, plans, advice (or whatever services are provided) elsewhere again.

A central network drive also holds important documents.

Finding something quickly is out of the question, above all, it doesn't really give an overview.

The ball is in the court of information managers, IT managers and basically anyone responsible for data and document management within an organisation. They need to bridge the gap between teams and departments and connect the data, tools and insights they use. Applications like M-Files offer a 360-degree view that is customer and file view, departmental and team-transcending. This means that all relevant information around an object (a customer, project, case, etc.) is available in one storage. The average knowledge worker wastes about 2 hours a day searching for information. That is a thing of the past with a 360-degree view, moreover, it provides insights that were previously missing.

And the great thing is, with a platform like M-Files, you already exploit these benefits within a department, division or team.

The glue between all your information objects

M-Files acts as a digital glue between all these objects. Think of it as someone giving you an order. Imagine the following, you walk into a huge department store (IT landscape of the organisation) and you are looking for a specific outfit. This outfit consists of separate garments (documents) and is for a specific occasion (occasion). Then you can search that entire department store for all the separate garments (takes a lot of time and you don't know if you'll see everything) or you ask a clothing consultant to do this with the occasion of your outfit as the assignment. This person pulls all the desired elements together and you have the perfect outfit. M-Files is that clothing consultant.

With M-Files, you easily bring all information, documents and data together in one accessible and user-friendly place. There is no need to migrate, everything stays where it is if you want. So no rigorous turnaround, but immediate benefits without risk.

 

Bastiaan Brefeld
Intelligent Information Management Specialist
bastiaan.brefeld@geone.nl