The evolution of digital technology is having a profound impact on the way people interact and work together. We find ourselves in an increasingly virtual and interconnected world. Business is now done in a world where employees, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders can be anywhere, and traditional barriers like time zones and distance are no longer excuses for not getting work done.
Content is the lifeblood of business, but barriers are stemming the flow
Trying to conduct business in this interconnected ecosystem has become increasingly unwieldy. Businesses today have information scattered across disparate places worldwide, such as corporate data centers, public and private clouds and content management systems. We’ve spent the last 40 years of evolution building physical and digital boundaries to address security concerns, risk mitigation and compliance requirements. We’ve constructed firewalls around our data and applications, and put our information in silos and legacy introverted management tools designed to prevent data leakage.
While collaboration technologies have improved internal efficiency, employees are largely on their own when it comes to sharing content outside the organization. The internal tools and processes that work for sharing content internally break down when this same information is then shared externally due to security and compliance challenges that diminish ease of use and content integrity. Current approaches to external sharing are clumsy, inefficient and often incredibly vulnerable. Email, USB and FTP solutions don’t protect against what can happen when sensitive content intentionally or unintentionally enters a recipient’s inbox or device where it can be forwarded, edited, and compromised. These inefficiencies take a significant toll on productivity. According to Harvard Business Review, we’re spending 50% more time on collaboration activities than we did 20 years ago, and many of us spend around 80% of our time at work just trying to gather disconnected information. It should be getting easier, not harder.
Needed: a new approach to business productivity
Businesses need content tools that make collaboration and business productivity frictionless and that thrive in today’s competitive business environments. This new approach will enable sensitive information to flow securely and compliantly across extended business ecosystems while still providing rigorous control. Collaboration can then span information silos, geographies and corporate boundaries, connecting people, process and content, and allowing modern workers to accelerate and fully engage in an interconnected world. Those who do not adapt will be left behind.
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