Managing business information today is more complex than ever. The amount of data is exploding and it does not look like this is going to decrease in the near future. What also blends into this development is the fact that information is scattered across numerous different systems and repositories. Consider, for example, the central network drive, in e-mails, in document management systems and file-sharing applications. We call these information silos.

Earlier, we discussed the 4 factors for successful information management, a fifth now seems to be added.

Generally speaking, the larger an organisation, the greater the amount of information and often the more systems and repositories the organisation operates. Providing employees with quick and easy access to that same information is crucial so that they can do their jobs. In addition, that access to information is vital for potential business success.

M-Files surveyed how IT decision-makers within organisations deal with the complexity of managing this information. All respondents work for large organisations, with 51 per cent working at an organisation with at least 5,000 employees.

How and in what ways do companies manage their information?

The first thing surveyed was where organisations store and manage their information. The majority use Microsoft Sharepoint or OneDrive (34 per cent), closely followed by folders on the network drive (25 per cent) and other line-of-business applications such as a CRM and SAP (11 per cent). Despite this, only 10 per cent have access to a purpose-built document management (DMS) or enterprise content management (ECM) solution.

Most organisations (55 per cent) store their information in two or more systems or repositories. Not surprisingly, this fact coupled with the lack of ECM solutions leads to several information management challenges.

Information management challenges

It then examined what the biggest information management headaches are for these organisations. The following three headaches therefore come as no surprise:

• 24 per cent of respondents indicated that information stored on multiple and fragmented repositories is problematic
• 20 per cent indicate that finding information is difficult and especially time-consuming (which is not surprising since they have to search in different places)
• 16 per cent face duplicate content, which gives uncertainty about the correct, accurate and latest version of the information.

The use of multiple information repositories often leads to information silos. This occurs when information resides in a system that is unable to communicate freely with other systems. The lack of communication between different information silos can cause several problems. Employees need to know where information is stored before they can find it.

Duplicate or duplicate content is common with multiple information silos. Information from one system cannot be used to enrich information from another system because there is no communication between systems.

28 per cent of those surveyed indicate that their organisation experiences problems due to information silos. Only 27 per cent say they do not experience it as a problem and the remaining respondents have no idea.

Information anywhere, anytime

Accessing information while employees are on the move or working remotely is another major challenge for organisations. Only 16 per cent report that all employees can access information and approve documents from their mobile devices. 80 per cent have only partial or even no access to information via their mobile devices. The lack of quick and easy access to information via mobile devices drastically reduces productivity. Moreover, it tempers employee satisfaction and easily creates annoyances.

With the strong emergence of mobility and the ability to work wherever and whenever increases employee productivity, reduces obstacles and delays in document reviews and approval processes. Altogether, this strengthens organisations' competitiveness.

A look to the future

With the identification of information management problems for organisations, the confirmation of information silos, the lack of mobility and the need for quick and easy access to information as major challenges, it was then asked what the information management priorities of 2017 are.

For many organisations (28 per cent), bringing together information repositories is their top priority.

For 19 per cent of organisations, the transition to a paper-free organisation is something they will tackle in 2017.

Finally, making information mobile accessible is the top priority for 16 per cent.

It has become clear that for organisations, the amount of data and the lack of visibility and communication between different repositories is problematic. In view of the continuous increase in the amount of information, this problem is growing. The forthcoming European privacy legislation (GDPR) also requires organisations to have a better understanding of their information.

Clearly, adding another storage system is not the solution. These challenges require a different approach. The future of information management is increasingly about adding context to content. It is becoming more important for organisations to look at what information is rather than where it is stored.