Data Access Means Driving Business Forward

Everyday operations for today's companies create massive volumes of usable digital content. Strong use of the information generated can help companies differentiate themselves from competitors and develop projects that are exactly what staff and customers alike call for. There is a catch, however. If the content is hard to locate, all of these advantages will become less pronounced. Spending time and staff effort digging through archives to find a relevant piece of data is a waste of resources, and efficient operations call for the removal of issues like these.

Potential power of companies' data

The information businesses store every day comes from a variety of sources. Some of it is transactional data, logs of interactions with clients and other companies that have been stored automatically. Some has been intentionally gathered to solve a particular issue through research. Still, other resources come from information that predated digital operations, scanned through document imaging plans. This mass of data can improve decision-making by giving employees a new perspective on every move they make. Some departments will find content on a daily basis, others only when they need it for a specific project, but nearly everyone can seriously benefit from access to old and new information.

Data access is good for improving everyday practices, but absolutely vital in another regard: firms may be legally required to keep certain pieces of content available. Companies are watched over by both local and federal regulatory bodies, and failure to comply with relevant information retention laws could lead to serious fines. Similarly, legal action often calls for fast data discovery. If ordered to produce records in court, organizations must be prepared to comply, or else face the legal consequences. With both operational assistance and legal requirements at stake, having data readily accessible at all times is a vital consideration.

Problems and solutions

There are many factors preventing businesses from having the content visibility they need. The varying ages and formats of the files involved is one of these, as is the sheer volume of archives. The rate at which new content is being created is also a worrying element. This means all three of the highly touted qualities of "big data," volume, velocity and variety, are all working against businesses. Migrating and converting documents to make them easy to find could lead to serious problems, as these plans are not assured to succeed and take significant time and monetary investments.

The answer could come from enterprise search and indexing solutions. With tools like ViaWorks from VirtualWorks, businesses can change the way they operate, giving each employee a simple search interface that is user-friendly and powerful enough to look inside of documents and find them by their actual content rather than their metadata. With this access, new projects can be backed with strong information from companies' entire digital infrastructures, and legal requirements can be satisfied. It's a simple way to resolve a complex business efficiency problem.