Member Article

Flawed information management and handling practices will continue to hamper digital transformation efforts unless addressed, warns M-Files

Recent findings from M-Files reveal that 95 per cent of UK office workers struggle when searching for documents across their corporate network.

At a time when UK businesses are readily championing digital investment, it is critical firms take this opportunity to address vulnerabilities in their digital infrastructure, notably sub-standard information handling and management. This is according to Tim Waterton, Director of UK Business for M-Files.

Vodafone recently published findings from a report into digital readiness amongst UK organisations. It revealed organisations prioritising digital transformation investment were more confident about future growth, with more than half of UK businesses planning to invest over £100,000 in digital transformation projects over the next two years.

Waterton welcomes the findings but stresses that for these projects to succeed, organisations need to prioritise the right investment. Recent research carried out by M-Files revealed that UK businesses are still failing to address key flaws in their digital infrastructure, notably when it comes to information handling and management. Findings from the M-Files 2019 Intelligent Information Management Benchmark Report recently revealed:

95 per cent of UK office workers report having issues when searching for the most recent version of a file or document. 86 per cent of UK office workers have been forced to recreate a document simply because they’ve not been able to find it on their corporate network. 44 per cent of UK office workers experience challenges when searching for documents and information, within an organisation.

Waterton comments, “Vodafone’s findings reveal many UK organisations are championing digital investment but it’s all too easy to lose focus on where to target that investment. Digital transformation is a concept we are all familiar with but it’s sometimes more productive to focus on the digital workplace as opposed to the transformation itself. Think of the digital workplace as the destination or desired outcome, and transformation as the journey you will take to get there.

“A digital workplace is a whole lot more than pure technology. While it will undoubtedly lean on best-of-breed technologies to build out a more digitally progressive environment, the ultimate goal is to enable employees to work more efficiently and deliver an improved service to their customers. Our data shows that far too many organisations are simply failing to provide employees with the right platform to efficiently manage information in the workplace and this represents a very real exposure in their digital aspirations.”

Waterton continues, “Managing information and data coherently across any organisation is more challenging than ever before. The volume of content the average organisation generates is growing spectacularly. Furthermore, it is typically stored in a wide range of different systems or spread across shared network drives and intranet sites. This makes it increasingly tough to manage and time consuming to find and control. For employees, the need to jump and switch between systems to get to that content slows them down and impacts on productivity. Organisations need to address this as a priority as part of their digital investment.

“Time spent looking for documents and recreating those already in existence comes at the expense of other, more productive tasks and can directly impact on a business’s profitability. In Vodafone’s report, Anne Sheehan, Vodafone’s Enterprise Director, outlines the importance of the digital journey firms must take and stresses that the divide between those who have embraced digital transformation and those who haven’t will become more and more stark in the coming years. For firms with digital aspirations, it is critical that senior management listen to their staff, understand the challenges which exist for them when managing information and take account of this when building out their digital strategy,” concludes Waterton.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by M-Files .