How to Overcome the Chaos of Information
Kevin Craine, MBA
Most organizations understand the problems created by information overload. The impacts are felt in every aspect of doing business today. Whether its difficulty finding the right information, managing the growing quantities of sensitive data, or leveraging information in ways that make a real difference, organizations struggle to keep up.
Organizational performance is impeded by the ever-pressing data crush. Two thirds of office workers today say that the volume of data they must manage negatively affects their job. And even though information overload is a well-known challenge, it seems that most businesses haven’t found the right solutions to stop it.
Enterprise organizations everywhere are facing a reckoning as the long-term trend of information overload continues to accelerate. Nearly half say that understanding and integrating enterprise data and systems is their biggest digital transformation challenge.
We create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. On top of that, enterprise organizations have, on average, five distinct information repositories or content databases, often with years of legacy data packed away. And that is not counting the many file shares, business applications, and personal computer drives that contain hidden and overlooked information.
Even though information overload is a well-known challenge, it seems that most businesses haven’t found the right solutions to stop it.
The Cost of Chaos
The chaos of information overload costs organizations in a number of important ways, not only in terms of systems, hardware, and hard dollars, but also in areas like teamwork, customer service, and process performance. In far too many organizations, siloed content repositories and disconnected pockets of content create an environment in which making meaningful process improvements and transformative changes in workflow are all but impossible to achieve. This ultimately increases both cost and risk, while inhibiting an organization’s ability to innovate and improve.
New Strategies Are Needed
Traditional notions of “ECM” essentially assume you can manage all your information in one place. But even the most modern content management systems can become islands of information. And in reality, this represents a mere sliver of the amount of information organizations must contend with today. Any number of cloud repositories, file shares, and mobile apps can operate outside the scope of “records management.”
Add to this diversity of content the emerging need to retain and manage new types of data that have never been within the scope of “information governance.” One example can be heard in a podcast interview I did with Regina Martin, Records Manager at Howard County Government in Columbia, Maryland where she discusses the challenges of ingesting and retaining audio files from police dispatch 911 calls. Regina and her team routinely scan over 1 million pages of paper every year. Now they must also manage gigabytes of audio files and body camera footage. What is their strategy? They’re saving everything – forever – just to be safe.
Battle Information Overload
How can you begin to battle information overload? It is important to first understand what you are up against. In short: you can’t govern what you can’t grasp.
If you don’t know what information you have --- what risks it represents and what opportunities it can offer – it’s impossible to craft meaningful strategies for information management.
Crawl Before You Run
Advanced techniques using artificial intelligence and machine learning provide the ability to inventory and understand all of your data, no matter where it is located. Systems essentially “crawl” through massive amounts of data at machine speed to create a federated and centralized index of all your information. A number of dashboards and reports provide a comprehensive view of the entire content ecosystem. As a result, you can immediately begin to gain important insights.
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Records are Everywhere
The old notion of consolidating your enterprise information into a singular monolithic system are outdated and no longer viable. Once you accept that “records are everywhere,” and adopt thoughtful approaches using automated systems to locate, understand and analyze ALL your data, you can begin to take steps to modernize and innovate. Here are some benefits to consider.
Understand all your information - Connect and crawl your scattered file shares, cloud repositories and legacy systems to create a comprehensive index of information.?
Get a full understanding of your data – Quickly see how fast your data is growing, how old it is, and where it resides.
Analyze the information environment – Reports with robust AI-powered analytics make it easy to assess the risks and to uncover opportunities to leverage data in new ways.
Get rid of the ROT – Find and eliminate redundant, obsolete, and trivial files that increase your risk and make it more costly to operate.
Get more value from information – Instead of data just sitting there, make it work for you. Once you inventory all your information you can more effectively use it in processes that improve customer service, system response, and revenue.
Powerful Competitive Advantage
Having a better understanding of all your information is a powerful advantage for any organization. Indeed, according to research from Forbes and the Project Management Institute, 92% of C-level executives believe that improved information agility is critical to their future business success; yet only 27% consider their organizations to be highly agile. Imagine if your organization was one of those at the top of the pile in terms of improved agility, service and performance?
By getting a handle on all of their data, top performing organizations introduce new levels of flexibility and adaptability enterprise-wide, and allow their teams to respond faster to fluctuating market conditions, improve overall organizational efficiency, and enhance customer service and satisfaction. The improvements are measurable in terms of new revenue streams, new customers, and new market positioning.
Moving Forward
Knowing what information you have, where it is, what value it has and what risk it represents is perhaps the most important competitive differentiator today. In the past this type of comprehensive analysis would have been costly, complex, and most likely incomplete. But with advanced capabilities in machine learning and artificial intelligence, organizations can now effectively contend with information overload and begin to make meaningful strides toward meaningful digital transformation.?
Organizations that continue to have disjointed connections and siloed pockets of content risk being left behind by their more nimble competitors.? Look for providers and partners with the right mix of expertise, capability, and vision to make the most of your efforts.
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Kevin Craine, MBA is a business technology journalist and internationally recognized reporter on digital transformation. He was named the #1 Content Management influencer to follow on Twitter. Find him at CraineGroup.com.
The idea of using AI and machine learning to create a comprehensive information inventory is fascinating! Being able to see all my data in one place would be a game-changer, as nowadays I really feel overloaded with a big ammount of information ??