In my many conversations with information management professionals, there are a few themes that have emerged recently. Do any these sound familiar?
- Our documents are stored onsite. Or we leave it to our offices to determine where and how they store our records.
- We continue to field requests to approve incremental spend for additional storage hardware/servers.
- Employees are responsible for filing and retrieving the records used in our business processes.
Each of these scenarios represents needless spending in the area of information management.
One way that companies increase profitability is by keeping more money in their organization. A recent study by Gartner noted that realizing cost savings remains a “top 5” priority among senior executives. To achieve this, business leaders tend to focus on things like reducing headcount or restricting other non-essential expenses.
Information management is an area that is often overlooked for cost savings. Because information management costs are present throughout different departments and locations, you may be unaware of the total financial impact of these costs — and how to identify and act upon the opportunities to save. In partnering with over 140,000 customers, we have learned that many are initially unaware of the costs associated with the information that drives the business. But as numerous customers have shown us, the savings are quite significant. Consider these numbers:
- $10 Million: The average amount that a company of 500 employees spends to manage hardcopy information*
- $14,000: The annual value of lost productivity due to workers’ inability to locate information**
- $500,000: The recommended eDiscovery budget for a moderately sized case***
What Can You Do To Realize These Savings Yourself?
- Eliminate unnecessary information in order to drive down the expenses related to storing paper and electronic records
- Improve availability and accessibility to save the money typically associated with locating or recreating misplaced information
- Implement tiered management processes to reduce the average cost of storage
By leveraging these principles, your company will be better equipped to:
- Realize savings related to storing paper and electronic information, and supporting legal discovery
- Define retention policies that are consistently applied to information of all types
- Avoid unplanned expenses, as well as the fines and penalties associated with keeping too much or too little information
How have you realized cost savings in your company by focusing on information management?
*Based on Employer Costs for Employee Compensation,–December 2010 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Dept. of Labor. (2011, March 9).
** IDC. “Hidden Costs of Information Work.” IDC, 2006. (Doc #201334, April 2006).
***Gartner. “Reducing the Cost and Risk of EDiscovery in 2009.” January 9, 2009.
