Report highlights two major challenges facing organizations: finding information from workplace applications, and turning that information into useful knowledge

October 18, 2022 — Onna, the knowledge discovery leader, today released a new report, “The 2022 State of Organizational Knowledge,” which examines the top information and knowledge issues facing today’s U.S. enterprises. Conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Onna, the report is based on independent research with 500 business and IT decision makers from U.S. organizations with at least 500 employees. 

The findings reveal a troubling knowledge gap in many organizations, where 87% of IT and business decision makers are using “best guesses” and “hunches” to make decisions. Worse still, 51% of IT decision makers and 32% of business decision makers are using best guesses and hunches for the majority of decision making. 

With many businesses shifting to remote and digital working, the rapid adoption of collaboration, communication, and content applications (apps) has become a key culprit behind organizations’ information and knowledge challenges. Nearly all (98%) of respondents say their organization is experiencing challenges with finding information from their workplace apps, and roughly half (46%) lack certainty that they have all the information they need from their workplace apps to make the best decision. As a result, the majority of organizations are operating on incomplete information, which is hurting their ability to derive accurate knowledge and creating an over-reliance on guesswork in their decision making. 

Additional findings include:

• From pre-pandemic to present day, both the amount of information generated from workplace apps (87%) and the number of apps in use at their organization (86%) has increased, according to respondents. 
• 58% admit they are not always able to quickly find specific information that they need to carry out their role.
• 87% of IT and business decision makers are using “best guesses” and “hunches” to make decisions. Worse still, 51% of IT decision makers and 32% of business decision makers are using best guesses and hunches for the majority of decision making. 
• On a typical day, respondents spend 28 minutes trying to locate relevant information from workplace apps in order to carry out their role. That’s equivalent to nearly 2.5 hours per week, or more than an entire day per month for each employee simply trying to locate relevant information. 
• 95% experience some degree of difficulty when it comes to acquiring knowledge (i.e. finding the right information from workplace applications to know how to execute a task with certainty).
• Significant or much improvement is needed across all the tools used for accessing, managing, and storing information, including eDiscovery software (84%), cloud storage services (81%), and content or document management systems (80%).

“Knowledge is a precious asset for businesses, and it all comes down to information and data. It’s the various facts, figures, and context about something, which come together to inform how we make decisions, solve problems, and take action,” said Jose Lazares, Chief Product Officer at Onna. “But this is exactly the problem. Businesses today are completely overwhelmed by their data, and it’s hurting their capacity for knowledge.”

“Closing the knowledge gap needs to start with better data management – knowing where your data is, being able to get to it quickly, and having tighter control over it,” Lazares continued. “Structured data is just the tip of the iceberg; it’s the exponential growth of unstructured data – everything in our cloud apps, from text files and slide presentations, to video recordings, chat messages, support tickets, and more – that’s building up information overload. Enterprises that factor this type of data into their data governance strategies will be in the best position to begin transforming their valuable corporate knowledge into insights that drive competitive advantage and innovation.”

Download the full report findings here. 

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About Onna

For organizations, knowledge is power. Onna accelerates the discovery of knowledge, enabling businesses to gain valuable insights from the ever-growing amount of fragmented information that exists across the vast number of collaboration, communication and content applications. By connecting information silos, organizations can unify, protect, search, and build on top of their proprietary knowledge. With Onna, organizations save time and money, reduce risk, and use knowledge to be more competitive.

Onna’s Knowledge Integration Platform connects to Slack, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Confluence, Dropbox, Zoom and many others, to enhance activities like eDiscovery, information governance, knowledge management, and identifying private and sensitive data sharing.

With teams across North America and Europe, Onna supports some of the world’s leading companies, including Dropbox, Electronic Arts, Lyft, Better, Carvana, and NewsCorp. Onna has raised more than $50M from investors, including Atomico, Dawn Capital, Dropbox, and Slack Fund. To learn more, visit www.onna.com.

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