No matter the size of an organization and regardless of industry, data drives business. From insurance claims to manufacturing purchase orders to contracts, company emails, strategic presentations, and e-invoices. Big or small, companies run on information—both structured and unstructured.
Structured information is data in fixed fields in a spreadsheet or a relational database that is housed in ERP systems. ERP tools share a common data model, covering operational end-to-end processes, such as those found in finance, human resources, supply chain, etc. These processes depend on large volumes of data.
Unstructured information is the conversation that forms around this data. It is the archived supplier invoice, expense report, receipts, presentations, faxes, memos, emails, social media, videos, and more. It is unsystematic, difficult to dissect, and represents a staggering 80 percent of the enterprise’s data today.
EIM – Single Source of the Truth
All this data is the new currency in a digital economy. But for its value to be truly realized, it must be located, managed, shared, protected, and understood. This requirement is only intensified by extreme connectivity—expectations for fast and immediate access due to higher bandwidth capabilities, mobility, and other disruptive technologies.
Integrating unstructured and structured content across silos is a challenge that every organization faces. Sheer volume is impacted by the systems and departments it must flow through. An integrated EIM platform helps information flow securely and effortlessly across departments and throughout the value network to partners, suppliers, and customers—on-premises and in the Cloud. It gives every company a consolidated view of its information, its resources, its business network, and its customers. It provides a single source of the truth.
When enterprise information—in its hundreds of formats and thousands of sources—resides in one centralized and trusted place, organizations can securely embrace disruptive technologies and evolve to a better understanding, a cognition of their information. With a single source of the truth, information flows freely across the digital enterprise: from one context to another, from need to result, from opportunity to outcome.
Cognition, speed, and agility are key competitive differentiators, and they are a product of a complete integrated digital platform. In my next post, I’ll explore how OpenText Release 16 delivers cognition, speed, and agility—and much more—making it the transformative platform of choice for information companies.
