Optimizing Your Content Management Through File Analytics

All data is not equal. Performing a data inventory allows you to identify and categorize your data— showing what should be kept, what needs to be migrated, what belongs in your archives, and what can be destroyed.

Whether you undertake a data inventory as part of a cloud migration project plan, as preparation for a new content management system, a document digitization push, or as a regular part of your content security management process, the findings from an inventory exercise will help provide a deeper understanding of the nature and complexity of your current content.

Identify Suboptimal Data 

Throughout your content management system, files and artifacts that you may need could be sitting there, unused. Spreadsheets with links, password-encrypted files, and scanned documents that are not text-searchable can all limit the efficacy of your data usage.

This can happen because clients or partners are using outmoded storage systems or a piece of data was saved incorrectly, or for any number of reasons. You can always go back and update workflows to eliminate the causes of suboptimal data— but you have to find those files first.

Additionally, duplicate files can make up as much as 30% of your stored content. And again, the reasons for file duplication can vary wildly. Some apps automatically create duplicate content because there was a typo in one of the data fields they use to identify a file. 

By identifying problematic data sources and applying a context-aware duplicate files fixer, you can free up storage and reformat important documents to ensure that they are discoverable. Most importantly you eliminate user confusion on which file is the source of truth without potentially deleting the primary version of a file accidentally. 

After that, your data usage will be more efficient, and your analyses will be more accurate because you won’t have duplicate information skewing your results.

Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial Analysis (ROT)

In order to help save you money, harness your information, and remove the risks associated with gaps in content security management and privacy controls, a TEAM IM Inventory Report helps you remove ROT (redundant, obsolete, trivial) content.

Taking this step makes your journey much easier and cost-efficient. By eliminating the content that takes up your storage space without offering any value in return, you immediately improve the efficiency of any process that relies on searching through and utilizing your stored content.

Group and Categorize Your Data

Support your business case, migration project, e-Discovery planning, privacy compliance and assessment processes, records management, and data protection. Even improving your security controls by identifying PII or sensitive data in documents and either redacting that data in place or moving those documents to a more secure location.  Do it all while eliminating obsolete data storage practices.

Leveraging a Data Inventory to better understand the ins and outs of your content is one of the greatest essentials of business analytics— data files should inform quality, actionable business decisions. A TEAM IM Data Inventory Report makes sure that your content does exactly that.

By recognizing that data which is relevant to your ongoing operations and business relationships, you ensure that your business decisions and high strategies moving forward are based on the most accurate information possible.

Additionally, clearing your primary data storage spaces of artifacts that can be archived or eliminated ensures out-of-date, or duplicate data does not exert undue influence on your business.

Use the Approach That Best Fits Your Organization

An inventory assessment is the first step toward better managing your data— and it is remarkably easy. Once complete, you will have clarity on your options and the best approach for your next moves.

Whether you are forming a business case, running a privacy audit or migration, or simply making it easier for your users to find the information they need, a data inventory gives you a map of your company’s landscape. This gives you a better picture of the best direction for your next steps.

TEAM IM offers multiple data inventory assessment packages to ensure that you will get the right service for your needs. The package that best suits your needs often depends on what programs and apps your company uses to gather data and the content management system you use to store that information.

To give you a basic idea of the differences between our data inventory services, here are some snapshots of our three primary packages: 

Inventory Assessment

Find out about our Inventory Assessment Package to profile your unstructured content in file systems, email systems, and content management systems.

SharePoint Inventory

A SharePoint Inventory Assessment is designed around a review of your SharePoint On-Premises system with a view to migration to the SharePoint Online or another system.

Inventory and Search

This package includes an enterprise-grade search tool to help manage and re-use this information over time without needing to migrate content. We can also remediate problematic content found during the inventory.

Build a Strong Foundation

Now more than ever, your data is the foundation upon which your business is built. By taking stock of the information in your possession, you ensure that your foundation remains strong.

A data inventory is an absolute necessity for migration projects and helps ensure that your company is not basing decisions on inaccurate information. Identifying and categorizing your data helps your processes work more accurately and efficiently.

Data inventory exercises can also help you identify information that may have been missed by privacy controls or that may have been corrupted. Your content security management can only be bolstered by a quality inventory.

Don’t let ROT weaken your business’s foundation. Contact our experts to select the inventory package that best suits your organization today.