Lack of information access control affects search activity

Professionals in healthcare and public sector organisations are unable to quickly, easily and accurately locate the data they need because of IT directors’ fears over data security when providing staff access to necessary information, a survey reveals.

Their security concerns emerged as a result of the difficulty they face in controlling who is able to access information and restricting such access.

Information risk management software provider Recommind’s research shows that 94% of healthcare IT directors and a further 73% of public sector institutions cite data security fears as key concern when providing employees with the information required for their day to day jobs.

These concerns have led organisations to rely on inadequate legacy search systems which significantly fail to meet the sophisticated data requirements of the modern worker. This significantly hinders productivity and efficiency and can have serious implications for the service they provide to citizens, according to Recommind. Search solutions currently used by health and public sector organisations are outdated and ineffective.

The survey found that using legacy tools, professionals could search basic data such as documents, emails and intranets. But only 27% of public sector and 39% of healthcare respondents were able to search individual expertise and experience. These results are particularly surprising for the healthcare sector where knowledge and expertise amongst colleagues is arguably the most important asset, according to Recommind.

The survey also found that about 70% of respondents from both these sectors wanted the ability to locate expertise in order to help employees perform their daily jobs. In addition, about 80% of respondents wanted to be able to search external information sources such as reference websites. However, less than half could successfully achieve this with current search systems.

“Healthcare and public sector organisations are always under close scrutiny with pressure to provide the best service possible to citizens – quick access to the right information and expertise is central to being able to do exactly this,” said Simon Price, European director, Recommind. “In healthcare, the ability to locate internal knowledge or other peoples’ experiences on a prior case can be crucial to patient diagnosis.

These alarmingly low figures suggest that inadequate legacy search systems can make day-to-day researching a very time-consuming task for employees. Nearly 40 percent of healthcare respondents stated that their employees spend half a day or more each week fruitlessly looking for information they need without finding it – revealing the inadequacy of existing search solutions.

“These findings clearly show that legacy, ‘one-size-fits-all’ enterprise search systems have proven to be woefully inadequate,” said Price.