The importance of a modern approach to information management [Q&A]

Information is now a critical asset for businesses, but it's only of real value if you can manage and access it efficiently.

More and more data now is in an unstructured form too, so has the way we manage information changed, and what do businesses need to do to make the most of it to inform their day-to-day decisions? We spoke to Antti Nivala, founder and CEO of M-Files to find out.

BN: What do today's intelligent information management solutions provide, that was missing from legacy document management technologies?

AN: The reality is, many businesses have content siloed across several systems or repositories, which can create chaos when no one knows exactly what documents or data there is, and where it can be found. This is especially true when employees are unable to get the information they need to make critical decisions.

Legacy document management systems simply provided a place to store information, but today's intelligent information management solutions go a step beyond -- enabling employees to access and use content anytime, anywhere, on any device. Unlike their legacy counterparts, today’s modern solutions enable organizations to do more than simply manage documents. They provide the automation and capabilities required to improve document security, keep up with evolving compliance regulations, enhance search functionalities, and even improve collaboration.

Modern intelligent information management solutions are more than a means to store documents, they provide the context to connect people, processes, and technology together meaningfully to drive business forward.

BN: What role do modern information management systems play in helping organizations secure and control information across their organization?

AN: Today, organizations must navigate an ever-increasing amount of data brought on by digital transformation. Modern information management solutions play a key role in keeping an organization’s data secure and enforcing policies throughout the organization.

By providing a 360-degree view of information stored across all systems and repositories, modern solutions help employees surface content in the right context, avoiding both content duplication and data sprawl. Information management solutions provide the guard rails to easily control user and access rights with metadata, as well as automate version control and audit trails so nothing bypasses security requirements and sensitive information stays secure. However, perhaps one of the biggest benefits is that information management systems can help organizations understand how data and business processes flow across the enterprise, so organizations can better adhere to strict compliance requirements.

BN: How can information management solutions help organizations increase the productivity of employees?

AN: When employees can't find the information they need when they need it, they get bogged down, spending countless cycles searching, or worse, recreating it from scratch. That time wasted searching for information is time that could have been better spent on value-adding tasks.

Employees that spend less time searching for documents or tending to manual, repetitive tasks have more time to dedicate to revenue-generating work. That's where information management solutions can step in, to provide an easier and faster way for employees to find the information they need, when they need it, quickly and securely.

Information management systems can help create a more structured, stress-free working environment that enables teams across the organization to function effectively, which in turn enhances productivity, increases customer satisfaction, and contributes to greater profitability.

BN: How do today's information management systems utilize artificial intelligence and machine learning?

AN: Simply put: to put content into the right context, for a personalized experience, thus improving the visibility, security, and processability of information.

Artificial intelligence helps extract and classify unstructured information from documents, then automates the tagging process for improved search and productivity. AI enables smarter recommendations for contextual searches, which are often personalized based on a user's previous journey and preferences, and leverages machine learning to help find the right document at the right time. This removes the burden from employees, as learning happens completely behind the scenes. With AI, there is often no extensive, upfront manual-dataset training. Instead, AI seamlessly helps employees perform their everyday work with no additional steps needed to find the content they need, when they need it, in real-time.

BN: What role have information management systems played in successfully allowing organizations to embrace remote work?

AN: Working in a remote setup can be especially challenging when there is a need to collaborate with others to get tasks done. Employees don’t have that natural interaction they would at the office and cannot simply ask a nearby colleague where a file is saved or the status of a certain project. As we continue to embrace this new working model, data and information remain an organization’s most valuable asset. If information is trapped and unable to move freely from one department to the next, the people who need it to make better and more informed decisions don't have it, creating a negative ripple effect across the organization. The fact that everyone is now spread so thin while working from home only compounds this issue, making communication and collaboration an uphill battle on the best of days.

Intelligent information solutions enable employees to find and use the information they need with the context that matters to improve productivity and drive better business outcomes. With an information management solution, it doesn’t matter where something is stored -- be it on a network drive or in cloud storage or somewhere else entirely -- people will be able to easily find it with a Google-like search and relevant results. It also doesn't matter where someone is located, whether they are working at home or are still coming into the office. Information management systems can provide the single source of truth -- or one version of any document that everyone in the company uses -- so that there is never a misunderstanding about the status of the document, or the current state of relationship with the customer.

Information management solutions empower employees to not only have access to the information they need, when they need it, but collaborate in-real time without delays or frustrations.

BN: How do today's information management solutions enable better collaboration across internal and external teams?

AN: It is not enough to have meetings in Teams or share documents in Outlook -- or Gmail for that matter. Sending documents via email can create a confusing process that is prone to errors, especially when it comes to version control.

Information management solutions allow employees to collaborate internally using co-authoring tools, while enabling them to effortlessly share information with one another from the devices they're already comfortable using. Automated workflows ensure that documents are always correctly routed from one person to the next as needed, thus empowering more efficient collaboration, so organizations have one less thing to worry about in the age of hybrid and remote work. Metadata-driven permissions and access controls provide secure collaboration for external content as well.

With the right tools to help drive efficiency, organizations can help employees centralize communication, tasks and documents to make collaboration effortless.

Image Credit: aslysun / Shutterstock