Most Organizations Not Yet Aware of Information Management Inadequacies
AIIM research shows a surprising lack of awareness about the true state of information management effectiveness.
Silver Spring, MD (Vocus) February 18, 2009
A new AIIM survey among 400+ IT decision makers and influencers found that 89% of respondents think effective management of electronic information is “very important” or “important” to the long-term success of their organizations. The respondents claimed a surprising confidence in their information management systems with 63% indicating they were “very confident” or “quote confident” that they could prove their electronic information is “accurate, accessible, and trustworthy.” Only 9% of those surveyed expressed a lack of confidence in their information management systems.
“This is clearly a case of ‘not knowing what you don’t know,’” notes John Mancini, President of AIIM, an industry association for information management. “Survey after survey we have done with executives indicate that the MORE organizations know about the integrity of their information management, the LESS confident they are about their ability to meet basic tests of information integrity. These results clearly point to a lack of understanding about the actual state of information management readiness in most organizations.”
This survey (performed in February 2009) was different from many previous AIIM surveys in that the sample was drawn from a group of executives completely unconnected with AIIM. The 400 executives were from companies with more than 10 employees and were responsible for “ordering, recommending, approving or initiating computer hardware or software decisions.”
“Past surveys of information management readiness among those companies that have thoroughly assessed their systems paint a far different picture. These companies place the same high importance on electronic information – in excess of 90%. But among the companies MOST experienced with the challenges of information management, 49% express a lack of confidence in their systems – a huge awareness gap from the 9% reported in the current survey, ” states John Mancini.
“Organizations need to first reach a state of ‘conscious incompetence’ relative to information integrity before they can begin to move down the path to becoming world class organizations,” concludes Mancini. “Clearly the content and records management industry has work to do in helping organizations overcome the state of denial that exists relative to their current systems.”
Mancini recommends executives ask the following questions to identify confidence in their business information:
1. Is your organization able to handle the explosion of digital information? Does the continuing influx of information make your organization less and less effective?
2. Can your employees find information when they need it - in the daily course of business, as well as when an emergency or more urgent event occurs?
3. Can your employees collaborate on projects no matter where they are located in the world, to take advantage of trends towards work spread across the globe, and workers that are at home or on the road 90% of the time?
4. Has your ability to document what your organization did, why you did it, who did it, and when they did it gotten better or worse in the past 5 years?
5. Can your customers find information when they need it? Or are they abandoning your organization for a competitor who outstrips your ability to provide the information they need?
“Increasing awareness is one key reason why AIIM has introduced online and classroom training programs covering how to find, control, and optimize information assets,” states Atle Skjekkeland, Vice President of AIIM. “Close to 10,000 IT and Information Managers have attended our courses over the last year, and we see a growing need for training to improve collaboration, content management, and findability.”
To download key points from the survey "Making the Case for Document Management in Challenging Times," please go to:
Http://www. aiim. org/Research/MarketIQ/Making-the-Case-for-Document-Management. aspx (http://www. aiim. org/Research/MarketIQ/Making-the-Case-for-Document-Management. aspx)
AIIM ESSENTIALS ONLINE COURSES:
Evaluating SharePoint - Learn to assess whether, where, and how to use SharePoint Imaging and Recognition - Learn ways to improve your scanning and recognition processes Web Content Management (WCM) - Improve your understanding of Web Content Management technologies Digital Asset Management (DAM) - Improve your understanding of Digital and Media Asset Management technologies eDiscovery - Learn ways to build a successful eDiscovery process PDF/A - Learn best practices for preserving your organization's digital documents using PDF/A
The new AIIM Essentials programs have been designed for use as a series of standalone online courses that are focused on very specific topics applicable to any organization, and are a perfect complement to enhance the training our students have received from our current educational Certificate offerings.
AIIM CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS LEADING TO AN AIIM PRACTITIONER, SPECIALIST, AND MASTER DESIGNATION:
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) - Learn how to take control of your information assets Electronic Records Management (ERM) - Learn how to take control of your electronic records Business Process Management (BPM) - Learn how to improve your business processes Information Organization and Access (IOA) - Learn how to optimize findability and enterprise search Email Management (EMM) - Learn how to improve the control of corporate emails Enterprise 2.0 (E2.0) - Learn how to use Web 2.0 technologies to improve collaboration and innovation across the enterprise
For more information about AIIM training programs, please go to http://www. aiim. org/training (http://www. aiim. org/training) or call AIIM at 301-755-2631/800-477-2446.
About AIIM
AIIM (http://www. aiim. org (http://www. aiim. org)) is the community that provides education, research, and best practices to help organizations find, control, and optimize their information. The AIIM community has grown to over 65,000 professionals from all industries and government, in over 150 unique countries, and within all levels of management including senior executives, line-of-business, and IT. For over 60 years, AIIM has been the leading non-profit organization focused on helping users to understand the challenges associated with managing documents, content, records, and business processes. Today, AIIM is international in scope, independent, implementation-focused, and, as the representative of the entire enterprise content management (ECM) industry - including users, suppliers, and the channel - acts as the industry's intermediary.
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For more information, contact:
AIIM
Beth Mayhew
Senior Director
301.755.2681
Bmayhew(at)aiim. org
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