Why You Need a Document and Information Asset Management Strategy

As companies struggle to continue operations while adapting to the uncertainty of what’s to come post-pandemic, data and document management is critical to maintaining success.

In 2019, the global digital asset management market reached a value of $3.4 billion—with the market anticipated to reach $8.5 billion by 2025[1]. This growth is caused by two major factors: the emerging trend of digitization and the increasing adoption of cloud-based services. Considering COVID-19’s transformation of seemingly every aspect of life, having an established document and information asset management strategy is imperative for businesses in maintaining operations for both the now and the future.

“In the last 25 years, information and document management solutions have vastly improved to where we are today,” says Jessica Bianchessi, Vice President of Customer Success of engineering and information management firm Kinsmen Group, a company that stresses the importance of businesses assessing their current document and asset information management systems and realigning such strategies to best navigate the new normal. “A robust, auditable and fully connected set of solutions is essential to maximize reliability, maintain safety, and be ready to adapt to change.”

According to Bianchessi, companies turn to what she notes as the “Best Documented Asset” strategy to solve many problems, such as failed compliance audits, increased safety risks and inefficiencies due to missing or inaccurate drawings and procedures, a specific event that drives the desire for change—the latter of which has been particularly pertinent amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic.

With millions of Americans currently working from home, some estimates show that over 75% of human resources executives expect this to continue beyond COVID-19.[2] On top of changes reflected in the workforce, nearly 1.2 billion children have been affected worldwide by school closures caused by the pandemic—with UNICEF pointing out that a lack of access to such tools and technology risks further damaging the global learning crisis.[3]  “COVID-19 has changed many things for all of us, especially when it comes to making remote access to shared information much more critical,” Bianchessi says. The world’s newfound heightened reliance on technology and thus critical document and information management amidst the ongoing pandemic directly correlate to a “compound effect on the supply chain and the economy,” and one where “improperly managing documents in the manufacturing industry can have severe consequences—from a halt in production to a safety incident or the death of an employee,” according to a recent article featuring Kinsmen Group’s CEO, Brian Sallade—with Sallade highlighting specifically the near closing of the meat industry.[4]

Document and asset information management solutions prove to be critical for organizing and maintaining company information and resources—especially with 46% of employees noting that finding the documents they need is “challenging and time-consuming.”[5] Bianchessi says that document and asset information management systems tend to fail for an array of reasons, including:

• The systems are poorly implemented, connected and maintained
• Multiple, disconnected systems are departmentally installed across the organization
• End-users don’t properly adapt to using the system
• Not all critical engineering drawings are available in digital format
• Not all systems support concurrent engineering, which makes it even harder to find the latest revision
• Asset tags, drawings, and documents are not linked properly
• The organization is not ready for change
• Technology evolves

“There are so many different challenges from many different perspectives,” Bianchessi says. “For a given type, category, or piece of equipment, a specific set of documentation must be available to meet the needs of stakeholders.”

When it comes to tackling issues associated with document management systems and providing improved solutions, Kinsmen Group suggests taking the “Best Documented Asset” (BDA) approach. As a complete strategy geared towards asset-intensive industries, BDA targets the specific use cases for owner-operators of large assets by bringing together leading technologies, applications, processes, people, and tools to deliver a more integrated but tailored set of solutions. BDA also aims to assist companies by filling in any “gaps” between existing systems and presenting a simplified solution for a process that can typically be overly complex.

“BDA doesn’t try to be what it is not, but rather remains focused on the specific requirements, needs, and results that an operating facility achieves when it has every asset within the facility 100% documented to company standards,” Bianchessi says. “This is the future.

[1] “Digital Asset Management (DAM) Market Report, 2020-2025 – Analysis by Type, Component, Application, Deployment, Organization Size, End-Use Sector and Region – ResearchAndMarkets.com.” Business Wire, 9 Apr. 2020, businesswire.com/news/home/20200409005305/en/Digital-Asset-Management-DAM-Market-Report-2020-2025.

[2] Staff, BF. “Even After COVID-19, Execs Expect Remote Work Trend To Continue.” Business Facilities – Area Economic Development, Site Selection & Workforce Solutions, 3 June 2020, businessfacilities.com/2020/06/even-after-covid-19-execs-expect-remote-work-trend-to-continue/.

[3] Unequal Access to Remote Schooling amid COVID-19 Threatens to Deepen Global Learning Crisis.” UNICEF, 5 June, 2020, unicef.org/press-releases/unequal-access-remote-schooling-amid-covid-19-threatens-deepen-global-learning.

[4] Begg, Rehana. “Improve Information Exchange to Cope with Crises.” StackPath, 1 June, 2020, machinedesign.com/automation-iiot/article/21132800/improve-information-exchange-to-cope-with-crises.

[5] Hollander, Garrett. “[INFOGRAPHIC] 7 Disturbing Document Management Challenges.” M, 20 Mar. 2019, m-files.com/blog/infographic-7-disturbing-document-management-challenges/.