We have known for quite a while that people, teams and businesses have trouble managing their electronic information. But the findings of a recent research report by the content management company AIIM put a number to the level of pain that is felt by this lack of management: 52% of companies rate their overall effectiveness in managing electronic information as terrible.
Certainly, the number is staggering enough, but to call the existing management of information "terrible" is also very telling. I believe the reason for this is that it is so easy to get electronic information management wrong. As a company grows, changes, and matures, the structures and processes put in place lose their effectiveness and have to be modified. But in the case of electronic information, there is usually so much data that the job of managing it is completely impossible.
The common culprits of poor information management are shared network drives (where nothing can be found), isolated repositories (from a thumb drive to an old desktop that is still clinging to the network because you have hidden it under your desk), and 'Gatekeepers' (those people who make a living by being the single source for creating and maintaining large amounts of information). These are the problems that we hoped to solve with the BrainKeeper Enterprise Wiki.
We have enough structure to help you find what you are looking for, but it is flexible to be easily modified if needed. Tagging and other classification capabilities also help build structures on the fly so that content is constantly updated to be relevant to what matters to your company today- not 5 years ago. The idea that anyone can contribute anything for the greater good breaks down all real and perceived barriers to getting ideas and opinions out of your staff.
Software should empower you to do a better job- whatever your job is. A wiki is the most empowering software that you can offer to your team and your organization. See how one can work for you with a free trial.
