Taming Information Overload With Document Management Software

The Age of Information Overload
The twenty-first century is well under way, yet the dream of the paperless office has yet to materialize. Access to information has exploded with digital storage and the advent of the Internet, yet more paper than ever is being generated. Computers sold without printers are considered incomplete, and every day millions of them in businesses around the world churn out record numbers of ultimately disposable hard copies. Add to that the artifacts of the pre-information age: cabinets with file folders stuffed full of paper records; photo archives made up of prints and negatives; and drawers filled with slowly decaying microfilm. Consider, too, that the world’s hard drives are yet another fount of information, virtually overflowing with records that add to the current deluge of information. Indeed, we are at a time in history when we have unparalleled access to information in a plethora of different forms – and therein lies the problem.
-The average document gets copied 19 times during its life cycle.
-7.5% of all documents get lost.
-3% of all documents are filed in the wrong place.
-While professionals spend 5 to 15% of their time reading information, they spend up to 50% of their time looking for it.
It should also be noted that the free flow of information is further impeded by the very twentieth-century solutions that were designed to make things more efficient.



