Spend your time using files, not searching for them.
How many of these have you experienced?
- You started doing something, then spent time looking for some required file
- You found more than one file that was almost the same and not known which one to use
- You downloaded or created a new file, only to find one already existed
- You’ve been interrupted by someone looking for a file or been asked to create a file you’d already created
You’re not alone. Reports from IDC, McKinsey, and Atlassian put the time lost searching for information at roughly 5 to 10 hours a week. This doesn’t even include lost time due to errors and duplicated work.
You might be so used to this that you think it is just work life. But it doesn’t have to be this way. All of these things happen because of the way files are managed. And managing files well does not need to be more work. It can happen automatically in well designed systems. Let’s understand the problem so we can see the solution.
Why files have these problems
Files all have a name, a type, and a location where they’re stored. But they’re often missing a lot of other information such as what they’re for. And having just one location can make them hard to find. Does a signed contract go in one folder for all contracts, or in some folder structure for each client?
And the nature of files often requires them to be stored in a variety of systems. Spreadsheets could be in the business’ shared drive, or in a Google drive, or in Airtable, etc. A slide deck or presentation could now be in a wide variety of places depending on how it was created.
It is this lack of structure and meta-data that causes the many problems with files. Once they have context, this problem disappears.
Enterprise search tools are not the solution
You’ll never search for something if you don’t think it exists. That’s the difference between starting a task by wondering what might be available or opening a task page and seeing everything you need listed right there. And enterprise search won’t find files created in software that it’s not connected to.
Keeping files connected to their purpose
The solution is simple. You need a rich layer that connects all of your files to everything they’re about. This makes it possible to create or add files where they’re needed and the information about them can be generated automatically by their context.
It doesn’t matter how your file was created, it will have a unique file path or URL. When this is added to your Files database, it connects that file to what it is for. Such as the task, the project that contains that task, or whatever context is meaningful. It might connect to a person, a business, a meeting, etc.
Then because it is in this database, all of the other information that makes the file useful can be attached to it. You can select its purpose, when it expires, or anything else that matters.
Files at your fingertips
Imagine clicking on a task, and seeing all of the files needed to complete that task listed right there. Or you open a business page and see all of the files related to that business, not just direct relationships like contracts, but also things like files created in projects for that business.
From your dashboard, search by more than just a file name. Or see at a glance all of the expired contracts, or qualifications that still need to be provided.
By connecting all of your files through a File database that is rich with information, you can spend your time getting things done instead of searching. Do you want this power that makes your work life easier?
Click a task, a business, or a person and watch the right files appear, already in context. To see this in action, explore this live dashboard:
https://qualitysystemdesign.notion.site/Demo-person-s-Dashboard-70207c7a45a54ac18ce76e4234fa2c99