How Technology Can Assist or Hinder Information Management Practices in Organisations

1 INTRODUCTION

Technology has come a long way in the past 10 to 15 years and we now have access to information at virtually any time, or place we wish. Organisations today rely heavily on technology and without it, would likely struggle to survive. Technology has enabled us to better service the needs of consumers in the ever-changing market.

2 ADVANTAGES

The obvious today is that it allows instant access to information and is a great time saving mechanism. USB devices and cloud software make it easier than ever before to access your files anywhere in the world.

There is also almost no waiting time whatsoever when you need to find access to a document or the like. It has replaced the need to manually file documents which is a major advantage not only because it saves labour, the document is now much easier to find – you only need to type the file name into the computer and it can bring what you are looking for up.

Going digital has also had a large impact on our environment, in a good way. Since the need to file documents manually has significantly reduced, we have in turn saved billions of tonnes in paper as well as reducing greenhouse gasses from producing paper related equipment in factories. Technology has also allowed us to take advantage of more storage than ever before as the need for physical filing equipment has gone. For example, a server can store an earth-shattering amount more information than a filing cabinet or cupboard.

3 HINDRANCES

Data integrity can be a major downfall when using information systems in the workplace as it relies on the user to put the data in correctly in the first place. Until we advance so far in technology that human input is no longer needed to collect data, then this will remain as a hindrance that we can’t avoid. Whilst technology is very advanced in society today, it also still has the ability to malfunction and crash, it is by no means flawless. Downtime is infrequent but it still means that we need to be keeping information backed up onto multiple resources and sometimes there is a need for a hard copy to be kept which can be time consuming to maintain.

4 CONCLUSION

Whilst technology is by no means flawless, it has greatly enhanced our way of life and how we keep record of information and events. If technology was just as advanced 100 years ago, we might have seen a very different recollection of historic events.

In terms of technology impacting our workplace information systems, it has definitely had an effect for the better. It has allowed us to record mass amounts of information, saved us numerous hours of time and made it extremely easy to access data whenever, wherever – which I feel outweighs the hindrances by far.

We can’t control human error but through frequent and improved training for employees, we can reduce it so that the information system being utilised becomes more reliable.