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CONTENT MANAGEMENT
What we
mean by
‘dark data’
is when
somebody
creates
something
that they
store in some
folder and
nobody ever
finds again.
It goes dark
For decades, document and then
content management systems have
been promising an end to document
chaos. Yet, according to a recent
survey by M-Files Corporation,
95% of UK organisations still face
challenges when trying to find,
access and edit documents.
n
63% sometimes have difficulty finding
information
n
64% find that documents are often
saved in incorrect folders or systems
n
Half of workers complain about ‘version
creep’, with multiple versions of
documents saved in different places
n
Four in 10 encounter problems caused
by the incorrect naming of documents
n
29% have problems accessing
documents from different devices
n
63% say they have had to recreate
documents that already existed because
they were unable to find them.
Clearly, there has been progress in
content management – flexible working,
digitisation, mobility and the cloud attest
to that. Even so, a list from 10, 20 or 30
years ago might have looked very similar.
So, why do these problems persist?
Information silos
One reason, claims Greg Milliken,
vice president of marketing at M-Files
Corporation, is the proliferation of
information silos, including network
folders, Sharepoint, traditional ECM
systems like Opentext and Documentum,
emerging file sharing systems like Box and
Dropbox and core business systems like
CRM and ERP systems. Research by AIIM
shows that less than 40% of the ECM
systems in use are integrated with another
core business system.
“There’s a lot of fragmentation out
there. Even a small to medium-sized
business might have Sharepoint and some
file shares and maybe Salesforce. Just
that presents challenges. Even with these
systems, it is difficult to find stuff. A given
system might be great at finding what’s in
it, but what if something you need that's
related to that customer is off in the file
share or in Sharepoint? How do you get to
it when you’re in Salesforce or any other
flavour of CRM or ERP?” he said.
This, says, Milliken creates the problem
of ‘dark data’.
“What we mean by ‘dark data’ is when
somebody creates something that they store
in some folder and nobody ever finds again.
It goes dark. Being able to overcome that
so you can always find the most relevant
and valuable information when you need
it is what’s driving interest from companies
– finding and harnessing what they have,
eliminating duplications and unifying access
anytime, anywhere,” he said.
What customers don’t need, he says,
is another repository. “The message we
hear is ‘Don’t come in here and tell us that
you can just give us another system that is
going to fix everything, because that’s how
we got multiple silos to begin with.’ We
think what’s needed is the ability to get
more value out of existing assets through
integration.”
Ease of use
Central to this is improved ease of use.
“Traditionally, ECM systems have been
really complicated, they’ve required lots
of services and customisation, which have
created barriers to the idea of unified
access to information and ensured that
legacy systems retain their position – every
company we talk to still uses network
folders, for example. Users have resisted
ECM systems not only because they're
complex to implement but also because
they can be complicated to use. People will
even resist using a tool like Sharepoint,
which is in almost every company, saying
‘I’m not going to put it up in Sharepoint
until I’m done with it’ or ’If I put it up
there and change a copy here things will
get out of sync’. Day to day challenges
like that have been heavily influenced by
the architectures of these systems: they’ve
been static and they’ve been heavy around
services, so hard to adapt, which has held
back adoption.”
Milliken added: “The rise of Box and
Dropbox is an immediate indicator that
usability has been lacking. Granted, they
don’t do a whole lot – they’re just a folder
structure up in the cloud – but they’re
simple and they’re easy. So we think that’s
We are on the cusp of a new wave in enterprise content management in which
automatic content analysis and machine learning provide better access to
stored data. James Goulding speaks to Greg Milliken about what the future
holds and why M-Files is viewed as ‘an innovator’
Look and learn
a fundamental part of the future.”
Stumbling blocks
The other two really big stumbling blocks
with traditional ECM are the need to
migrate data from a file share or legacy
system to the new system and the need
to train up and overcome the resistance
of people who might have been perfectly
happy with the old system.
“If you could truly integrate and unify
information you would lessen the need
to migrate data and maybe eliminate it
entirely. You might ultimately want to
migrate the data, because you want to get
rid of a legacy system and you don’t want
to pay for two systems, but the idea that
the first step doesn’t have to be migration,
which is often expensive, is a really key
point,” explained Milliken.
“Then, once you’ve chosen to use a
new system and you begin to migrate your
data, you have to train up all those people
who are happy with the old system in how
to use the new system. That’s very often
even bigger than the migration problem
and where a new project gets derailed
because people are resistant to change
and just aren’t going to shift.
“What we think’s really interesting
is that innovation in companies usually
comes from smaller groups – someone in
legal decides they need to handle their
contracts better, someone in HR wants
a better system for managing employee
information, someone in accounting
has to deal with invoice processing and
accounts payable in a different way.
Enabling one small group to innovate on
a process without forcing everyone else
in the company to change enables faster
innovation and productivity.
“We think the future will encompass
Greg Milliken
