…And How to Make Information Work for You

AIIM (Association of Intelligent Information Management), the leading non-profit association dedicated to nurturing, growing, and supporting the information management community, has released its 2022 Industry Watch Report, entitled, “State of the Intelligent Information Management Industry 2022: It (Still) All Comes Down to the Customer.”

Based on up-to-date research with decision-makers, executives, and practitioners, the report uncovers the following key findings:

• Despite good intentions, organizations are struggling to get out of their risk/compliance comfort zone.
• Information management/governance programs focused on risk/regulations/compliance fail to move the needle in the right direction.
• Leveraging information for improved internal and external customer experience is the mantra adopted by those organizations reporting good and improved information management/business alignment.
• A holistic approach is ideal. However, a focus on information access, process automation, and data extraction/analysis are the most effective ways to fully leverage customer-centric Intelligent Information Management capabilities for immediate, incremental wins.

As in last year’s survey, organizations continue to earn a below-average “C-“ grade for aligning information management with business strategy. Simply put, many executives still don’t connect the dots between good information management and business success. One executive summed it up by saying, “Information management is usually just an afterthought.”

Others see the “perception of information governance as largely negative” with 28% of respondents saying, “governance efforts are largely defined by/confined to retention schedules/policies, and 30% of respondents saying their “eyes glaze over at the mere mention of the phrase ‘information governance.’”

What does seem to interest many executives is the fear of “reputational damage and loss of customer loyalty.” That’s why organizations are focusing on customer-centric capabilities that can be effective to achieve information management/business alignment.

The report spotlights improving access to information as one of these customer-centric capabilities that can move the needle; specifically providing workers with the tools to locate information quicker. One IT executive using Microsoft 365 noted,

“With our work going more digital, and our deploying [Microsoft] Teams,… search and finding information have become more important.”

The report concludes that “those companies seeing improvement have done so by getting back to a singular focus on the customer, both internal and external... They serve their internal customers by ensuring that the information needed to perform work is accurate and accessible. And, they have become more data literate to help the business extract meaning from myriad data sources. Learning from them, we see how the foundations of intelligent information management can truly be leveraged and optimized to parlay information into new customer wins.”

Watch a video to see how harmon.ie helps you find documents in Microsoft365: