Is your enterprise overwhelmed with data and struggling to make sense of it? You are not alone. IDC estimates the average worker spends about 36% of their time looking for information. A PwC study reveals that 96% of businesses fail to unlock the full potential of the information they have. 23% of companies do not benefit at all from the information they hold. 

Too much data becomes more of a burden than an asset. Extracting relevant information from huge data volumes is resource-intensive and stressful. 

The solution lies in information management (IM).

Enterprise data comes in various forms. It can be digital or physical. Digital content, which constitutes the bulk of data these days, comes as structured or unstructured. Digital content also comes in various types and forms, including documents, images, videos, chat messages, social posts, and more. Information management is the collection and management of information from such data sources. 

Effective IM provides a structure to store, manage, and distribute information, regardless of the source or format. The enterprise can use the structure to organise its information and benefit from it. 

1. Informed decision-making

A well-structured information management system delivers accurate and timely information to users. Decision-makers can use such insights to make fast and informed decisions. 

A typical IM system gathers intelligence on customers and market trends. The enterprise uses such insights to understand customer needs. Decision-makers can use such insights to decide on product development, marketing campaigns, and more. They can take quick decisions that improve responsiveness to external changes and challenges.

Adopt the following strategies to unlock insights that lead to better decision-making:

• Apply big data analytics to the captured data to spot trends and make predictions. Success depends on focusing on specific areas and asking the right questions to the analytics engine. For instance, focus on the supply chain to set right delivery or sourcing problems. Ask questions to find out what customers think of the product delivery. 
• Use the analytics engine to scour social media channels and other sources for genuine feedback. Surveys and feedback forms rarely give the correct or complete picture.
• Sync operations data with market demand data to identify product or service delivery gaps. Such insights throw up opportunities for new products and services. For instance, market demand data may show many customers becoming environmentally conscious. The enterprise could respond with environmentally friendly packaging. 
• Conduct an audit of the company’s information to pinpoint cost centres and bottlenecks. The main culprits are almost always legacy systems and paper documents. Digitising documents improves accessibility and enables including more relevant data in analytics. The added information unlocks new or more accurate insights. 

2. Improved efficiency and productivity 

A good information management system improves how employees store and retrieve information. The system keeps information organised and accessible. The workforce can access necessary information with a few clicks or swipes. They spend less time searching for information, making them more productive and efficient. It also makes it easier to share and disseminate information, improving collaboration.

Structuring information flows makes relevant information available to the right person. For instance, a field service workflow could include checklists to ensure safety compliance. It could also co-opt information repositories for field agents to access the work order and customer details. Field agents can refer to such resources without wasting time seeking directions or instructions.

Likewise, the IM system can structure a workflow that provides information to customer support teams. The support team gets all information related to the customer without having to search for it. They get transaction details, service history, and more at their fingertips. Such deep and comprehensive insights allow fast resolution of customer issues. The inability to access information quickly causes extended wait times, degrading the customer experience.

To get the best results:

• Configure the IM system to make sense of unstructured data. Many enterprises focus only on formal, structured data. But these days, unstructured data makes up 80% to 90% of all enterprise data. This includes emails, videos, audio files, images, and social media posts. Ignoring such data leads to missing out on vital information. 
• Co-opt data mining solutions for accurate data classification. Accurate data classification makes the information traceable and searchable. 

3. Better security and compliance

Traditional security deployments such as firewalls have limited effectiveness in today’s cloud era. Effective security today depends on protecting the data rather than the network. Likewise, the spread of digitisation has led to a corresponding increase in regulations. Businesses have to comply with various mandates that impose safeguards to protect sensitive data. For example, the EU General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) mandate rules and regulations related to processing and protecting personal data. 

Information management reduces the risk of data breaches and improves compliance. Proper organisation and classification of information:

• Identifies the location of regulated data across the enterprise. The enterprise can ensure appropriate security controls for such data. For instance, the IM system identifies personally identifiable information, to ring-fence such data. Breaches of such sensitive data attract back-breaking fines from regulators.
• Make explicit what is essential and what is expendable. The business can protect critical information through encryption, access controls, or other measures. They do not have to waste time and resources safeguarding useless information.
• Allows setting up workflows that enforce compliance with laws and regulations. Regulatory compliance reduces the risk of penalties, loss of reputation, and potential disruptions.

4. Improved scalability and resilience

An information management system ensures accuracy, consistency, and reliability during the data lifecycle. Most designs are cloud-based and scalable. Integration with key enterprise systems such as CRM and ERP makes data available for analytics. 

The IM system: 

• Allows businesses to add to their workloads without concern about the data architecture or size. 
• Provides transparency into data patterns, which makes structuring workflows and identifying risks easier.
• Provisions for backups that retrieve information in a disaster or cyber attack. Such disaster recovery capabilities strengthen business continuity plans and make the enterprise resilient.
• Integrates with analytics to identify leading risk indicators. The enterprise can formulate strategies to mitigate the impact of unanticipated events.

5. Cost savings

Data costs can add up and often negate the gains of digitisation. Data collection, analysis, information storage, sharing and destruction are capital-intensive activities. In today’s competitive age where businesses try to reduce overheads, the costs associated with managing data and information become counter-productive.

Information management keeps costs in check. The investment in setting up the system recoups in a short while and generates huge ROI afterwards.

The IM system:

• Automates data processing, doing away with manual labour. 
• Makes data searchable and accessible, relieving pressure on time and resources.
• Cleanses data to remove duplicate and irrelevant data. 
• Optimise data storage. An optimal combination of on-site and off-premises storage solutions eliminates unnecessary storage. 

How to optimise Information Management systems 

Benefiting from information management requires a clear and robust information management policy. 

Many enterprises limit their information management initiatives to deploying new technology solutions. Effective IM requires configuring the solutions to meet the specific needs of the business: 

• Set up or integrate disparate enterprise systems and databases. A centralised data repository works best to make data accessible. When centralisation is not feasible, APIs can ensure free flow of data.
• Establish robust data governance policies, including access controls and storage protocols. 
• Appoint information stewards for business units or departments to control risks. An unfettered flow of information may create security, privacy, and confidentiality issues. Information stewards can strike the right balance between transparency, efficiency and safety.

Information is power in today’s digital age. Used the right way, the information management system becomes a powerful tool enabling the enterprise to thrive and reap competitive advantages.

Top information management services such as OpenText allows enterprises to harness the power of information in innovative ways. OpenText offers powerful capabilities, including automation and AI, to ensure critical information does not get lost in the data sprawl and allow users to make smarter decisions. The tool connects clouds at scale, offers self-service capabilities, strengthens security, improves visibility, and does much more, helping enterprises streamline information management and reap rich competitive advantages.