In recent years, we’ve witnessed an explosion of data in content and systems. We’ve reached a point where the sheer volume of unstructured data has become too vast for human interaction alone to process. The pace of decision-making and business processes has accelerated to a point where traditional data serialization and non-digital formats pose barriers to success.
To successfully future proof your business, it’s imperative to align data, content, and processes. One common challenge hindering this transformation is the unequal treatment of structured and unstructured data within business processes.
The Potential of Unstructured Data
The IDC estimates that 37% of unstructured data could benefit businesses through proper analysis, potentially leading to $430 billion in productivity gains. To harness this potential, companies must adopt strategies that incorporate unstructured data effectively into their operations.
Revolutionizing Industries: Examples of Successful Transformation
Consider the airline industry’s transformation. Traditional ticketing involved printing multiple copies for customers and required interactions with various employees throughout the journey. Every change necessitated reprinting tickets, creating a serialized analog process. Today, using booking codes and e-ticket IDs for records allows for tickets and boarding passes to be presented in various formats, whether printed or through a mobile app. This enables self-check-in, auto-rebooking in case of flight delays, and automated, human-trigger-independent actions to meet the demands of the modern world.
This transformation is not an isolated case. The digitization of incoming documents, such as invoices, is another example. A significant portion of invoices (35%) is still sent in paper or PDF form via email. With the right content and data processing systems, machine learning can extract vendor and line-item information, enabling rule-based validation and machine learning for exceptions, all managed by shared services, making the process location-independent. An example of solutions to address this problem is OpenText Vendor Invoice Management.
Similar principles and tools apply to other incoming content processes, like supply chain documents. Early digitization and data extraction enable easier analytical reporting and digital transactions while providing human-readable content for decision-making. This can be seamlessly integrated into various systems and applications.
The Unstructured Data Explosion
Unstructured data, such as photos and videos, plays a crucial role in retail, marketing, and maintenance processes. Capturing and associating this data with assets or products is essential. Advanced digital analysis, including object identification and problem identification, is becoming more relevant for predictive analytics.
Moreover, full-text search and semantic analytics are becoming standard features. Machine learning technology is being applied to evaluate contracts for ambiguous clauses and product analysis for potential lawsuits.
However, it’s not enough to store unstructured data; it must be associated with business data and context. Tools should connect information with people and processes across the enterprise, putting data into context and making it available where relevant.
The Role of Content in Digital Transformation
Content is equally critical in your digital transformation strategy. Just as business objects are hierarchically structured in ERP, CRM, and other systems, content must follow a similar approach to create related workspaces and associate content correctly.
For a seamless adoption, systems should offer pre-built integrations into leading ERP, CRM, and other business systems, with synchronization of classifications and metadata. Modern APIs and adaptable user interfaces should also be available to integrate with other systems or customer applications.
In the age of IoT and abundant unstructured data, achieving a future-proof digital platform capable of handling these diverse data types at scale and in an open manner is key to success. The future belongs to those who can master the art of data and content integration in the journey towards becoming truly intelligent enterprises.
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