Info management a priority for Irish firms

12-09-2006

by Ciara O'Brien

Businesses are facing major challenges in the near future, with a third identifying the quality of information management as a key concern.

At the 2006 Info Ireland event on Tuesday, attendees were told that document management was high on Irish companies' agendas, and is now a corporate issue, not just an IT issue.

According to Enterprise Content Management industry group AIIM, document management is proving itself good value for money, with 40 percent of companies describing the return on investment for electronic management and forms-scanning projects as better than other IT spending. A further 47 percent classified the return on investment as consistent with other projects.

"As organisations develop their ECM (Enterprise Content Management) strategy to gain control of document processes, they find that significant amounts of paper are still swimming around", says John Mancini, president of AIIM.

"Capturing these documents and forms to digital, and re-engineering the subsequent processes, is producing significant productivity improvements -- with the added bonus of on-going control of records for compliance."

Speaking at the event, Ciaran Kelly, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that although Irish businesses were recognising the need for information management, investments needed to lead to improved organisational performance, better strategic decision making and help in providing enhanced customer service.

"Effective information management projects are as much about managing the 'people' or 'change' element as they are about the technology. Business leaders need to recognise this if they are to execute information management projects successfully," said Kelly.

Data management can have a significant effect on businesses. Justin Scanlan, performance improvement, PwC, said that the company's data management survey revealed three out of four companies have reported "significant problems" because of inaccurate data. This led to added costs, failure to meet strategic objectives, poor service and reduced shareholder value.

"Information management is no longer an IT issue and is now firmly on the corporate agenda," said Scanlan.

Meanwhile, Doug Miles, managing director of AIIM Europe, warned that many organisations were risking legal and compliance problems because of poor control of electronically originated documents.