About unstructured content

Manage unstructured content: it could be the most valuable information in your organisation

Information residing in a database is structured content since it is stored as a record which can be searched on any field. However, information in the form of an electronic document, a diagram, an image or a project plan is unstructured as the content has not been categorised in a way that allows an information system to work with anything but the entire piece of content.

The Gartner Group has estimated that up to 85% of the information residing within most organisations is unstructured. It is the type of information which is growing at the fastest rate. While we see the structured content being managed by the organisation, it is often the case that unstructured information is also unmanaged.

You can actively manage your unstructured content so that it is available to the right business processes, thereby unlocking the value of information. The solution is to categorise information in ways that are relevant to the business. As each item of content can belong to multiple categories, the process becomes one of tagging rather than generating silos of information. The tags are key to information retrieval and to managing information through its lifecycle.

That is what we call information asset management. It helps you get the right information to the right place at the right time.