For optimal performance, iWorkers (workers who rely on electronic and printed information in their daily jobs) need their information optimized to make them most productive. They need to securely access exactly what they’re looking for wherever they are, whenever they need it and in whatever form that suits their present needs. As the volume and variety of business information flowing through an enterprise continues to increase, so does the challenge—and necessity—of optimizing it.
Optimized information helps iWorkers perform more effectively, better satisfying the needs of customers and employees alike. Optimizing information also provides greater business insight and better decision making in an era of Big Data. Thirty-eight percent of CIOs believe using Big Data is highly advantageous, almost half (47 percent) encourage gathering and developing Big Data, and a similar proportion (45 percent) expect to boost their investment in Big Data next year.1 But to make all that data work for you, you need systems and processes that appropriately feed it to make it
Harness the Power of Your Information
You can’t fully realize the value of information if you don’t know where it is, and if it’s trapped in a format that either slows or prevents its use. The most common example of trapping information is storing it in an unstructured format — for example, hardcopy invoices in Accounts Payables, or documents relevant to legal discovery but not classified or flagged in any way for retrieval. And if you can’t find the information easily, it’s almost the same as not having it at all.
Making this unstructured information useful may require converting it to a different form and/or indexing and classifying it to extract its value to a more accessible location. Information originally formatted and optimized to serve a specific purpose in a specific department may need to be transformed so that it can feed into a Big Data initiative and be used in business analytics. This transformation has the benefit of breaking down silos and making information sharable and functional across the enterprise. And it reveals why optimizing information is best accomplished not in isolation but as part of a large-scale reengineering of business processes.
It isn’t always easy: each business function and category of documents has its own specific information access requirements, formats, workflows and metrics (like quality standards). You can’t optimize such a diverse pool of information with a one-size-fits-all solution. So businesses are increasingly looking to experts who are able to adapt to service their unique needs, help them reach optimal performance and make information work for them.
Have the Resources You Need Ready
Success in optimizing information for wider use, especially in meeting the demands of Big Data, is putting additional strain on both infrastructure and those who manage it.
- While 88 percent of CEOs are exploring better ways of using and managing Big Data, only 28 percent have made any headway in coming to grips with Big Data.2
- Less than half of CIOs have an information foundation fit to manage Big Data.3
To make information accessible to their increasingly mobile workforce, businesses are extending their infrastructure with cloud and virtual server and desktop technologies. And with infrastructure broadening and growing more complicated, the tasks of management and security grow in kind. IT staff will feel the strain of deploying and supporting the technologies required for information agility at the same time they labor to keep sensitive information secure.
Again, this is where an experienced partner like Ricoh comes in. We can help you harness the power of the information flowing through your business, we can also free your IT staff to maintain focus on strategic initiatives.
The Bottom Line
Optimizing information helps ensure everyone in your business has access to your most valuable information in the form that makes them most effective at their jobs—not just within one area or business process, but across the entire enterprise. The logic is undeniable: for optimal performance and growth, you need optimized information.
1 Harvey Nash CIO Survey 2013
2 PwC 17th Annual Global CEO Survey (2014)
3 IBM 2013 Global C-suite Study
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