European firms are failing to unlock the value
ofunstructuredcontent in their
organisations.
According to a survey of 530 leading European enterprises
conducted by
Oracle, two-thirds of senior IT decision makers across Western
Europe claim to have unstructured data adequately managed, or are
making significant inroads to do so (43%).
But this is countered by the fact that when it comes to making
decisions, 60% admitted to either having too much information, or
that the information they needed to make decisions was buried in
irrelevant data.
The understanding of the term
"
unstructured content" was also widely misunderstood among
leading enterprises surveyed in Belgium, France, Germany,
Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
But in the UK, the understanding of the term "unstructured data"
was higher than many European rivals, with only 16% of respondents
unfamiliar with the term.
However, of all those that claim to understand the term, it
appears that many have adopted a piecemeal approach to content
management, said Oracle, with the average number of content
management systems per organisation being 4.28.
More than half (58%) were now looking towards a consolidation
plan to deliver post-implementation strategic value. This raises
the question as to whether European organisations actually
understand that unstructured content is an enterprise-wide issue
that requires a strategic enterprise-wide system, Oracle said.
The survey found that 63% consider e-mail as the primary source
for managing unstructured content, with 86% admitting that e-mail
is used as the primary source for sharing content. Surprisingly,
said Oracle, e-mail is the source of information to which people
are most likely to turn to when making decisions.
Javier Cabrerizo, Oracle EMEA senior director for enterprise
content and collaboration services, said, "There are clearly
identified barriers to successfully managing unstructured content
today: email is overused for managing content, and a departmental
approach to content management creates difficulties for sharing
content between groups."
He said, "You don't buy five different ERP or CRM systems. Only
with a single system can companies aim for a truly collaborative
environment that involves and benefits all departments when it
comes to unstructured data."