New research has revealed the persistent challenges global organisations face in managing information assets. For example, 83 per cent of office workers admit to recreating documents which already exist because they have been unable to find them on their corporate network. This follows a global research study commissioned by M-Files, the intelligent information management company.

The M-Files 2019 Intelligent Information Management Benchmark Report, accounting for the UK, US and France, as well as the DACH, Nordic and ANZ regions, was conducted by Vanson Bourne, surveying 1,500 office workers from private and public sector organisations, in order to understand their document and information handling practices and challenges in the workplace. Specific lines of questioning were deployed around four primary areas of interest:

• General Document Management: The overall end-user experience of managing company documents
• Document Management on the Move: Accessing and managing company information from off-site locations with mobile devices
• Data Repositories: Managing company information contained in multiple systems and silos
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): The perception and use of AI to contextualise company information

"Information and the speed at which it flows throughout an organisation is a key determinant of business success. The faster your staff can find and leverage information, the better your chances will be for achieving a competitive advantage," commented Greg Milliken, Senior VP of Marketing at M-Files. "Looking at the results it's clear that all organisations - regardless of sector or geographical position - are united in the challenges they face towards information management practices.

THE FINDINGS REVEALED THAT:

• 45 per cent of employees find searching for documents and information challenging and time consuming.
• The UK and US have mirrored experiences when searching for documents and information with just under half (43.5 per cent for the UK and 45.6 per cent for the US) of organisations reporting challenges around this.
• 96 per cent of all employees globally face some sort of difficulty when looking for the most recent version of a document or file.
• 95 per cent of UK employees equally express frustrations when searching for the most recent version of a document or file.

According to M-Files these findings reinforce the persistent frustrations felt by employees towards information handling. They suggest that it is imperative that organisations find better, more intuitive ways for managing documents - failure to address this could have severe repercussions for an organisation. This could include hampering productivity and staff retention, as well as an organisation's ability to demonstrate compliance in accordance with regulations such as GDPR, when handling and protecting information.

"Managing the information and data within an organisation is more complicated than ever," explained Greg Milliken. "The volume of content that the average organisation creates has risen significantly and it's often stored in a wide range of different systems or spread across shared network drives which makes it difficult and time consuming to find and control. For employees, the need to get-to-grips with multiple interfaces is slowing down user adoption and decreasing productivity. It must become a priority for organisations to address this."

Milliken went on to explain: "Time spent looking for documents and recreating work that already exists, comes at the expense of other, more productive tasks. Wasting time searching for information across a plethora of repositories and folder hierarchies is incredibly counter-productive and will have a direct impact on a business's profitability. "Additionally, in the wake of potentially severe financial penalties for failing to comply with regulations such as GDPR, organisations need to think carefully about whether they are truly able to quickly and easily identify what content and information they have, and where."

Intelligent information management systems can help organisations address content chaos and support greater productivity and workplace efficiency, particularly as the demand for remote and mobile working practices increases.

"Organisations recognise the benefits that flexible working can bring to the workforce yet so many workers are unable to even access information remotely," argues Milliken. "For employees, particularly the ever-increasing number of digital natives entering the workforce, they expect to be able to consume and share business information in the same way they consume personal information - instantly and from anywhere. If a company fails to provide the tools that enable this, they'll simply go to an employer who can. This could have big implications on organisations looking to attract and retain the best talent."

Milliken concludes: "By implementing a flexible, powerful and simple to use information management solution, employees will no longer need to waste precious time searching and recreating documents, enabling them to work far more productively, and add far more value to their organisation. This is true, regardless of where that information is stored, and whether it's being accessed in the office, or remotely."

The full research report can be downloaded from: go.m-files.com/2019-Intelligent-Information-Management-Benchmark-Report-EN-UK.html
More info: www.m-files.com