Silver Spring, Md., October, 2017 – According to new research by information management analysts at AIIM, only thirty-four percent of important business information is still filed and referenced as paper documents and only forty-two percent of respondents say that contracts, orders, and booking forms are still signed on paper. This research also found that when asked about multi-channel capture, fifty-nine percent of respondents feel they have addressed it quite well but forty-seven percent still feel they are struggling with their email.

The study, “Improving Business Operations in 2017: Capturing Vital Content, ” asked respondents to assess the maturity of their content capture practices. “We found that inbound digital correspondence is on the rise according to eighty-eight percent of our respondents”, said Bob Larrivee, Chief Analyst for AIIM. Larrivee continues, “We also found that according to sixty-eight percent of respondents, their inbound paper correspondence is decreasing significantly, and that more than half of those in HR are capturing their recruiting, applicant, on-boarding, employment management, and off-boarding information digitally.”

The emphasis is to capture vital business information early in the process and to bring it under corporate control, governance and security as quickly as possible. In this way the information can be acted upon faster. This requires businesses to implement more focused and stricter information governance (IG) policies, practices, and enforcement efforts with capture as a front-end trigger to business processes.

Here are a few more points from this report:

It is a struggle to match paper and electronic content when dealing with multi-channel inbound.

Nearly one-third report printing electronic information for handling.

The human factor is still the biggest issue in removing paper from business processes.

There are many opportunities for businesses to introduce the concept of paper-free or less intensive paper processes to their organizations. AIIM 2016 Industry Watch research found that “58% of respondents described their inbound handling of content as ad-hoc”. This is not surprising given paper is still fairly dominant in many businesses due to human desire to keep paper in hand for reading, note taking, and still today, signatures. This study examines the challenges businesses face in relation to:

Digital Transformation of their business operations

Capturing and managing multi-channel inbound content, including paper

Steps taken to automate the information capture process

Use of analytics to enhance the identification and classification of captured information

A look ahead at the next 5 years to understand where businesses are focusing their efforts and funding

A copy of the report can be found at http://info.aiim.org/improving-business-operations-in-2017-capturing-vital-content.

About AIIM

AIIM has been an advocate and supporter of information professionals for 70 years. The association’s mission is to improve organizational performance by empowering a community of leaders committed to information-driven innovation. AIIM is a global, non-profit organization that provides independent research, education, and certification programs to information professionals.

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