Information Management Deficiency Syndrome

There's a fantastic article out of Australia today on how many businesses are lagging dangerously behind in their information and document management programs. As the author notes, IMDS (a syndrome he made up, obviously) "affects the "health" of the organisation, and it has symptoms which managers - or even a "company doctor" - could spot."

He then goes on to list a number of the "symptoms," which include inconsistent document management policies, accidentally lost documents and lost work time due to insufficient document management. According to the article:

"IMDS easily creeps up on many email-reliant companies. Suddenly a member of staff is away- documents are not found where they are expected and projects become avoidably delayed.
IMDS, then, can be recognised across many organisations, and in many ways both large and small it adversely affects business performance by slowing processes and costing money in inefficient activity. The problems it represents will undoubtedly increase as information levels increase and the demands companies make on that information expand and become more complex."