As organisations manage ever-growing volumes of content, they are looking to gain business advantage from that content by deploying content analytics to derive meaning and insight.

The operative verb there is “looking” – as it seems, as things stand, content analytics is a wish-list item, not a to-do list one.

Even though nearly 60% of business executives contacted think it be essential within five years, only 20% of enterprises are using content analytics today, according to new research AIIM has just published.

Driving auto-classification for tagging and routing to archive

What’s the problem? The answers are clear – lack of money and insufficient skills. 43% of those surveyed see considerable investment as an implementation challenge and 35% cite a lack of expertise needed to make it all happen.

What’s frustrating: the few who have got content analytics up and running are already reaping rewards – with 61% of respondents telling us the intelligence they’re getting is providing better insight and decision making capabilities, while 37% feel it has already improved product or service quality, and 25% say their processes are flowing faster and more smoothly as a result of using inbound analytics.

There are some real touch points for ECM in our findings – with content analytics reported as driving auto-classification for tagging and routing to archive by 22% of respondents, while nearly half (43%) of respondents telling us that data is being captured from peripheral devices like multi-function copiers.

Meanwhile, the volume and breadth of content being analysed is enormous, a sure indication of its potential – all the way from security systems (access readers, cameras, etc.) to facilities equipment (HVAC, lighting, etc.) to the Internet of Things (IoT). That shows what value and insight is to be found in a variety of content types and how this needs to be recognised for any planned content analytics projects you may be contemplating.

Talk to your customers now to see if content analytics could help them

It’s frustrating that there’s so much promise and interest in content analytics, but practical issues are holding it back.

To move things forward, we recommend organisations should be identifying opportunities for its use, as well as investing in training so their teams have the skills to ensure content analytics is deployed effectively as soon as they are able to green-light such programmes.

I think content analytics is shaping up to be one of the most interesting markets for ECM in the next couple of years, so I encourage thedmcollaborators community to look into it as soon as possible.

Bob Larrivee, AIIM’s Chief Analyst

Bob works for AIIM, the global, non-profit organisation that provides independent research, education and certification programs to information professionals, and whose mission is to ensure that information professionals understand the current and future challenges of managing information assets in an era of social, mobile, cloud and big data.

For more details on what Bob was talking about here, download the research, Using Analytics: Automating Processes and Extracting Knowledge, here.

That research is partly based on a poll of 276 AIIM members during September and October 2016.