Web Content Management - High-Performance Web Databases: Design, Development, and Deployment - page 96

Exhibit 7-3. Where data lies.

The single dimensional approach to IT has prevailed for over half a cen-
tury, despite disturbing statistics such as the one compiled by the Harvard

Business Review , which seemed to indicate that office productivity had

increased by only 1 percent since the application of modern information
technology to business problems. Another statistic with similar disturbing
implications was from a recent study done by PricewaterhouseCoopers,
indicating that most information in an enterprise, upward of 80 to 90 per-
cent, is stored as unstructured data. The study also confirmed that the
large majority of this data was not automated (see Exhibit 7-3).

One of the unforeseen consequences of the internal business focus has
been the formation of large conglomerates. These conglomerates have
formed through numerous upstream and downstream integration along
the value chain. One of the perceived advantages seen in these integrations
has been the synergies or efficiency gained through internalizing and pos-
sibly sharing common business processes, especially administrative pro-
cesses and those dealing with documents and content.

The lack of automated document and content management, however, has
produced the opposite effects. Those entities within an enterprise dealing
with documents and content have become dependent on intimate familiar-
ity with the document-based processes and the physical knowledge reposi-
tories, and close geographic proximity. This has made it difficult for large
conglomerates to outsource many of the internal business processes.
Within the conglomerates, it has become exceedingly difficult to determine
where value is added and where it is not. Many business processes have
become inefficient because the internalization has protected them from
external market forces, which could mandate efficiencies on them.