Why Companies Suffer From Information Gridlock

By Dennis McCafferty | Posted 2015-08-24

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Why Companies Suffer From Information Gridlock

A significant number of employees are considered mobile or remote workers, yet relatively few of them can access key business apps via their mobile devices.
Elite Status

Only 17% of survey respondents work for organizations that are considered champions of information mobility.
Top Benefits of Information Mobility

Increased revenue: 77%, Better business process workflow: 72%, New customer acquisitions: 70%
Hard Copy

Just 41% of respondents work at companies that have automated most or all of their core business document workflows, and 58% still rely on paper documents.
Brain Trust

38% said company information is kept either in filing cabinets or "in employees' heads."
Communal Need

Only 40% of respondents said their company provides the platforms and training needed to maximize employees' ability to collaborate.
Lack of Integration

Only 24% said their organization is integrating business process workflows throughout departments to a major extent.
Virtual Office

46% of the workers in the organizations surveyed are either "mobile" or "home remote" employees.
Stuck in Neutral

Only 29% said their organization's employees can access most or all core apps via mobile devices, and just 27% said workers can print as easily from cloud apps as on-premise ones.
Fact-Finding Flaw

One-half said their employees need to access at least six data repositories to do their job, but only 18% said their companies enable a search function through all these repositories.
Under-Equipped

Just 27% of respondents work for companies that make collaboration tools available to all employees, and only 30% said their organization provides basic Web conferencing.
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Only a small minority of companies are making enough use of automated and collaborative tools to be considered champions of information mobility, according to a recent survey from Ricoh. The resulting report, which addresses information gridlock, indicates that a significant number of employees are considered mobile or remote workers, yet relatively few of them can access key business apps via their mobile devices. Whether staffers connect from off-site locations or in an office, their productivity is limited because of a lack of automated business document workflows. In fact, a surprising number of organizations still store important enterprise information in filing cabinets—or even in "employees' heads"—according to the research. What's needed is an investment in essential technology solutions and training to maximize the advantages of information mobility. The report defines information mobility as the seamless movement of information among paper, digital and legacy formats—from any IT platform to another—as well as the ability to find and integrate information within all repositories, whether on-premise or in the cloud. More than 290 executives from IT and lines of business at director level or above took part in the research, which was conducted by IDC.

Dennis McCafferty is a freelance writer for Baseline Magazine.