Mexico. Undoubtedly, the proper management of information within an organization strengthens business, and at the same time, it is a competitive advantage in today's local market. On the other hand, today, employees and customers can access business-critical data from anywhere, through cloud applications and using any mobile device such as smartphones or tablets.
According to an IDC study, the worker is able to find the information they need only 56% of the time, while almost 36% of their time is spent searching for information without getting results. On the other hand, a PwC study[2] found that 96% of companies failed to see the full potential of their data. 40% of businesses said they got little tangible benefit from their information, and only 23% said they got nothing from it at all. Clearly, adapting to the information age is not the same for all organizations. However, leaders have to take into account that with investment in technologies and solutions to achieve efficient information management, they will be able to transform their processes and make them more agile and optimize them.
Faced with this situation, Ricoh Mexicana, a global technology company specialized in IT, offers 5 recommendations for organizations to take advantage of their information:
1.- Establish a company-wide information management system with a high-level executive in charge (Data Director). Having a manager who properly manages the information of each business unit can help the company create risk controls and categorize the information to reduce search time.
2.- Perform an audit of the company's information to find out where the costs and bottlenecks come from. Converting documents into digital format will allow companies to be accessible and offer their employees an easy search. Not only will this save money and help your employees be more productive, but it can lead to new business ideas.
3.- Eliminate unnecessary storage space. Physical and digital storage costs businesses a lot of money. That is why it is necessary to regularly carry out reviews to eliminate information that is no longer needed and to be able to free up space that could be occupied to store information that gives value to the company.
4.- Use an enterprise content management or data management system. That includes Word and Google documents, emails, PDFs, PowerPoints, videos, audio files, images, and even social media posts like Facebook and Twitter. Conventional spreadsheets will not fully analyze this type of information; that is why it is necessary to use content management systems or data management to have business intelligence.
5.- Apply data analysis to company information to detect trends and make predictions. With the huge volumes of information available to be analyzed, it's important to ask the right questions and focus on areas where you can save on costs or develop new revenue streams. Such as analyzing the supply chain, resorting to surveys to know what customers think of the company and analyzing the data from their social networks.
Once these recommendations are implemented, organizations will be able to efficiently use all their information, in order to empower their employees to improve in their daily tasks and at the same time, obtain more income for the company.
