Information has long been held as the lifeblood of every organization, and while this tenet remains relevant today, the rules of the road have changed significantly since the mass migration of files toward digital formats began. Now, virtually every industry has moved away from paper filing systems in efforts to modernize their information governance frameworks and leverage more efficient storage technologies.
Organizations operating in the health care and financial services sectors have been especially active in data-related automation deployments, and simultaneously created a good pool of examples of how these efforts should be shaped among other types of entities. With higher compliance and security requirements, as well as an increased need for swift IT deployments that fit the evolving demands of the modern consumer, these industries have been at the forefront of innovation related to content management.
In many ways, automation has been one of the core drivers of advanced content management over the past few years, especially considering the fact that the average company needs to find ways to eliminate data entry on a large scale. When proper management and oversight practices are in place, automated content governance can quickly improve a company's ability to get the most out of its digital knowledge and reduce the risk of security or compliance shortfalls.
Automated content management at a glance
First and foremost, it is important to remember that content management can never be completely automated, as supervisors, leaders and ground-level employees need to keep an eye on governance to ensure everything is moving along smoothly. However, leveraging automation to make the management process more simplified, efficient and effective can have broad-reaching positive impacts over time.
Bob Cramer, writing for Bidness Etc., recently explained that automation has been viewed as a core productivity driver among corporate leaders for the past several years, especially in certain industries such as manufacturing and health care. According to the author, one study from McKinsey revealed knowledge-related work that automation software is completing on an annual basis is equivalent to somewhere between 110 and 140 million full-time employees.
Considering the fact that the automation software industry is still relatively new in many ways, especially in terms of targeting such a wide range of organizations with customized products, these figures will likely continue to rise. In fact, Cramer pointed out that as computer manufacturers find ways to bolster processing speeds and strengthen the power of their devices, the opportunities for automation software to progress will become a bit more robust.
From the content management angle, this is a relatively holistic evolution, especially as data volumes continue to grow at even faster rates on the global scale. Businesses that do not find ways to make sense of all that information will not be likely to gain a competitive advantage over others in their industries, and automation might represent the best step to take to avoid this fate.
What automation yields
Again, some analysts are concerned that automation software will completely eradicate the need for knowledge workers within the average business, but this is not true. Going a step further, approaching automation in a way that is meant to replace an employee with a piece of software, is certainly not best practice, especially when it comes to a task as sensitive as content management.
Rather, automation is best used to improve employee engagement and productivity as a, for lack of a better phrase, performance-enhancing supplement. At its best, it will ensure that employees have all of the tools and power they need to maximize content management efficiency, eliminate data entry where possible and improve operations across the business.
