| Very few people, including the management teams | | | | Of course, a company can choose simply to do |
| of a company itself, know the exact amount of data | | | | nothing when it comes to data management, but this |
| that circulates throughout a company's lifetime. It is | | | | is a bad idea. If an employee accesses certain |
| very hard for a company to manage every single | | | | websites on a business' server, and those websites |
| email that goes out within its servers, but every | | | | are illegal or manage questionable content, this can |
| successful business should take steps to implement a | | | | lead to huge lawsuits and legal problems for the |
| solid corporate information management system. | | | | company down the line. On the other hand, many |
| There is something known as an enterprise search | | | | personal documents and files that employees keep |
| engine, which effectively structures and manages | | | | are so insignificant that they aren't worth the cost of |
| documents around specific search terms. These | | | | managing, and so trying to manage them would be |
| types of search engines are quite simple to | | | | ineffective to planning your corporate information |
| implement and don't require a lot of maintenance or | | | | management structure. |
| supervision. However, they have their faults; most | | | | The best way to determine what type of corporate |
| engines are limited to find all documents that contain | | | | information management your company needs is to |
| a certain term rather than a document that may be | | | | determine what information is valuable to your |
| needed by a specific client. This leads to an employee | | | | business advancement, and what information is |
| having to sift through each and every document to | | | | insignificant. By realizing this, smarter investments can |
| find the exact one that is needed. However, this | | | | be made in your company's data management. |
| doesn't mean that enterprise search engines can't be | | | | Becoming aware of the value each type of data has |
| part of a good corporate information management | | | | for your long term strategy is the best way to |
| structure. They simply must be managed properly. | | | | determine whether it is worth your time and money |
| By contrast, enterprise content management | | | | to manage. |
| systems have much greater control over the type of | | | | Ultimately, having a corporate information |
| data returned, which yields better, more accurate | | | | management plan can only benefit your company, so |
| results - and many which can be pulled up within the | | | | there is no reason to to develop one. Information |
| blink of an eye. The downside is that they are much | | | | visibility and management is an important part of |
| more expensive and require many licenses and | | | | complying with the guidelines of the law, so you will |
| policies to be purchased by the company, as well as | | | | be reducing the risk of legal trouble down the line, |
| individuals to be trained in the usage of the content | | | | should an employee knowingly or unknowingly create |
| system. If planned for properly in terms of a | | | | data within your management system that harms the |
| company's budget, this can be another facet of a | | | | company in some way. |
| solid corporate information management plan. | | | | |