Information systems sprawl is growing, according the annual gobal industry survey undertaken by The Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM) in January February 2023 and focused on the intersection of people, processes, and information.

“The information management landscape is constantly changing, as are the terms used to describe it,” notes AIIM at the outset of its report.

“For example, the discipline that started as archiving via microfilm has since transformed through terms such as document management, enterprise content management, and, more recently, content services platforms.

“To determine the current en vogue way of describing this area of practice, we asked our respondents which terms they use to describe their role and work.”

Information management comes out firmly at the top of the list (69%); however, slightly more legacy terms such as records management (62%) and document management (51%) follow closely behind.

“The distribution of terms used is not surprising, given the wide range of activities the information management community performs. However, what is strikingly obvious is that despite the best efforts of analysts and vendors, the term “content services” is still not resonating with the marketplace.”

One of the key findings of the survey was that Digital transformation (DT) appears to have stalled. “Yes, over 65% of organizations have achieved significant successes with DT, but that still leaves at least a third who have not. The difference between digitizing most of an enterprise and finishing the job is vast — if just one process still involves paper and manual handling it acts like the metaphorical thorn in the side of your department.”

One of the metrics to emerge from the survey that caused concern was the continued increase in the number of information systems that organisations use, up to an average of nearly 5 in 2023.

“The rise of IM systems appears to be both fuelling the information chaos within organizations and trying to solve the problem,” the report concludes.

The average number of content systems in organizations has risen from 3.14 to 4.95 over the last ten years. The most significant growth area is for those with 7-10 systems - accounting for just 3.6% of organizations in 2013 but 14% in 2023.

“Technology is proving to be a double-edged sword for many. A huge majority (78%) feel that technology usage is driving the vast volume, velocity, and variety of information that is flooding their organizations. However, just over half (55%) also believe technology is winning the war against information chaos.”

While almost two-thirds (65%) of organizations have achieved significant digital transformation, up from 46% in 2018, the challenges blocking further digital transformation remain consistent - lack of money, focus, and rigid culture.

The survey also uncovered a seeming contradictory approach to information governance. While compliance was identified is the top information management-related goal at organizational, departmental, and individual levels, this did not seem to be reflected in enterprise architecture.

Most content systems (74%) are not connected to other lines of business (LOB) systems, meaning only 26% of document, content, and records management systems integrate with other core applications.

“Organizations’ rating of their effectiveness in information management-related areas is not particularly positive. Except for long-term preservation (aka archiving), the digitizing, automation, and integration of processes, and legacy system modernization, none of the IM areas we asked about rated better than average by more than 50% of our audience.

“Around 1/3 of respondents rated their organizations below average in core information management areas, such as managing information through its lifecycle and applying governance and compliance.

“Interestingly, legacy modernization and migration rank above average for the majority, yet cloud migration has a split decision.

“This could suggest that the modernization of systems is either to newer on-premises solutions or to cloud-enabled versions of existing solutions that users do not perceive to be true “migrations.”

To download a full copy of the survey results, visit https://www.aiim.org/resources

If we consider Digital Transformation to be the process of streamlining a company’s core operations and customer value propositions using technology, how complete is the digital transformation within your organization?

Which of the following is your BIGGEST obstacle to your efforts towards digital transformation?

Which other applications do you use to store and/or access content— and how do they integrate to other information management systems?

Which of the following technologies do you use today to assist with information management within your business?

Which of the following technologies have no part in your future plans to assist with information management within your business?