With modern technology continuously expanding, there are numerous ways to receive information – both structured and unstructured. Today, paper documents and mail are becoming outdated as sources such as social media, mobile apps, and Web sites take over in volume and significance.
These new information sources are known as “big data,” and they are explosively increasing. Big data gives businesses more data that is available to be analyzed, which in return makes for better decision making.
However, many businesses find these sources to be “chaotic or difficult to manage,” according to AIIM’s report titled “State of the ECM Industry 2011.” Paper documents are easy for businesses and organizations to manage because they are easily organized through a capture system. But how does one organize a Tweet, e-mail, Web document, and a phone call all about the same thing?
For example, say you get in a car accident. You would take a picture on your Smartphone of the damage, call your insurance agency to explain what happened, e-mail the photos from your Smartphone, and depending on how you feel about your insurance company’s service, you might Tweet about your experience.
The insurance agency must then manually enter all of that data you provided to them into a unique customer claim case folder – which can be very tedious and time consuming. Ultimately, this work will provide the insurance agency with instant photos of the case, instant communication with the customer, and overall details about the claim straight from the scene.
Businesses that are able to expand (and manage) their information sources with the proper solution will find that big data does not have to be time consuming and frustrating, but overall very rewarding.
Do you have any questions about multi-source integration? Read more about this topic in our whitepaper.
Nikole
