“Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
— The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Precious commodities evolve over time, creating a reflection of what’s valued most in the world at any given moment. It started with fire, but water, coal, gold, a range of currencies and oil have all taken center stage.
What is considered to be the most precious commodity of the digital era? Information.
Yet given how much data we have today, the concept that information is a precious commodity feels counterintuitive. According to a Gartner stat reported by Harvard Business Review, 38 percent of employees say they get an “excessive” amount of communications at their organization. And it’s not getting better — IDC predicts that the global datasphere will more than double in size from 2022 to 2026.
Organizations are capturing, storing, protecting and analyzing more data than ever before. And data growth at the edge, core and cloud — fed by mobility, big data and social media — is running rampant.
If not a rare commodity, then what?
If there’s so much of it, why is information so valuable? Simple: Getting information isn’t the issue, managing it and putting it to work is. Given how much of it there now is, turning that data into useful information, or insight, is a genuine struggle.
SD Times reported that 44 percent of respondents feel key data isn’t usable for decision making, and a further 41 percent cited a lack of data strategy — including policies, processes and standardized technology — within their organization as their top data-related challenge.
In short, too many of us are panning for gold, sifting piles of extraneous material for the nuggets we need to succeed. Unreliable reports plus inadequate information will never equal actionable insight. Little wonder the SD Times report mentioned that 68 percent of respondents don’t have the time needed to derive value from data. They don’t trust it but they don’t have time to fix it.
Overcome information overload
A study commissioned by OpenText reveals that while 96 percent of respondents say information management is crucial, 70 percent are struggling to do it. Why? Because there’s more data, more formats, more locations, more user demand, more regulation and more urgency than ever. This abundance of “more” requires the right solutions.
In the digital era, how you use information must scale to support everyone and everything, everywhere, all at once. The dilemma is, with organizations awash in information, knowing how to overcome the overload means you must comprehend what is meant by information. What is it? Where is it? Who needs it?
Modern information management is the use of advanced technologies and innovative cloud strategies to connect data, secure knowledge and apply intelligence for any user, any data type, anywhere, at any speed, for any rules.
- Any data – Derive understanding and insight from structured or unstructured data sources (image, voice, record, etc.)
- Any user – Support information capture, analysis and insight across all users, from accounts payable to application development
- Any speed – Keep pace with the rate of data creation and make the right decisions faster with instant digital insight
- Anywhere – Manage information regardless of where it exists in a multi-cloud, connected infrastructure
- Any rules – Comply with security, regulatory, ethical and environmental requirements so that information insight doesn’t sacrifice good governance or trust
Innovate to manage information
Modern information management delivers accelerated insights, regardless of where data resides, without introducing operational risk. As such, modern information management solutions are AI-led, secure, sustainable and multi-cloud. Using these technical capabilities, organizations can scale operations, unlock valuable insights and ensure data security across diverse systems and infrastructures. This powerful combination empowers organizations to navigate the complexities of today’s digital landscape, optimize their information assets and drive innovation with confidence.
Don’t get left behind
Failure to adopt modern information management can result in inefficiencies, poor collaboration, inaccurate decision-making, difficulty adapting to market changes, increased security risks and missed opportunities for innovation and competitiveness. It can hinder the organization’s growth, sustainability and ability to thrive in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
OpenText delivers modern information management to help drive digital success. Our solutions accelerate superior information insight at the scale that today’s businesses need, helping them to work smarter and gain the information advantage. Learn more about how your organization can benefit.
Read the subsequent blog posts in this series about modern information management:
