Making the most of information is a priority for many organisations. However, a new study from storage and information management company, Iron Mountain shows that a lack of understanding between those who manage and those who use information is making it harder to achieve this goal.

The study found that 83 per cent of European business leaders don’t fully understand what their information managers do. In return, 69 per cent of European records and information managers admit they don’t know exactly what senior business leaders want and need from information.

The study shows just one in ten (12%) of the business leaders surveyed had complete confidence in their organisation’s ability to extract the full value from its information.

“In today’s knowledge-driven world our study has revealed an unexpected obstacle on the road towards return on information,” said Sue Trombley, a director at Iron Mountain. That obstacle does indeed seem to be a massive lack of understanding in companies about what information managers actually do, or perhaps, cannot do.

“Business leaders need to better understand what records and information managers can contribute; at the same time information professionals need to align more closely with business needs,” said Trombley.

The study found that just 27 per cent of firms say their employees have access to the data they need, and 42 per cent admit that access to their data is cumbersome.

The survey quizzed business decision makers and records and information managers at 900 organisations with between 250 and 999 employees, within the healthcare, public sector, retail, legal, financial services/insurance, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and energy sectors, in the UK, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany and in the US.

On top of this, the survey also found that two thirds of business leaders are confused about the information needs of colleagues in marketing, manufacturing and finance.

Trombley said, “The gap is created by a lack of understanding and poor communication rather than inability to deliver.”

The full research can be found HERE.