T
he concept of work in the traditional
sense, has changed. The pandemic
combined with exponential
advancements in technology have
forced organizations around the globe
to shift to a modern way of working as they adopt cloud and
hybrid solutions, undergo massive digitalization efforts,
and further enable their remote
and in-house workforces.
While technology creates
efficiencies, one area that
remains very inefficient – in
fact, a huge waste of worker
time – is search. The average
knowledge worker spends 1.8
hours a day or nearly 20 percent
of their work week, searching
for documents, according
to McKinsey. Searching for
documents often resembles
looking for a needle in the
proverbial haystack, and this
wasted time costs firms millions
of dollars each year, according
to AIIM.
One reason finding
documents is so difficult and
time consuming is that content is trapped in siloes and
disparate applications. The term "content sprawl" has
become ubiquitous and law firms and legal departments
face a sizable challenge attempting to rein it in. This is
partly because users save documents wherever it is most
convenient for them, rather than where the record is
needed. Further, end users rarely save documents with
the proper metadata and retention label tags — a critical
step for ensuring for searchability, compliance, and
proper retention and disposition. The good news is that
most organizations understand the significant difficulties
created by overflowing and incompatible information
silos, and they recognize both the need to fix the problem
and the upside of doing so. According to AIIM, 70% of
organizations surveyed agree that retaining, maintaining,
and accessing organizational knowledge can be a key
strategic differentiator.
Leveraging the right
software tools, combined with
the right business processes, is
great way out of this quagmire.
Both the tools and processes
need to be intuitive and easy
for end users. If the tools or
processes are too complicated,
workers just won't use them.
Filing emails correctly (for
legal, regulatory, or compliance
purposes) is an example of a
process that is surprisingly
challenging and induces a lot
of friction, particularly because
content and emails need to
be tagged as they enter the
system of record or repository.
Expecting end users to do this
manually and correctly is not realistic, and this is a major
pain point for many IT leaders and law firms.
Enter: automation
Fortunately, software solutions exist to add more
automation, reducing the need for manual processes and
removing the room for error. Partial or full automation
makes completing tasks easier for end users, which
increases user buy-in and adoption of technology.
"The average
knowledge worker
spends 1.8 hours
a day or nearly
20 percent of
their work week,
searching for
documents."
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