Compounding the situation today is the widespread expectation that people will be able to find and share information rapidly, given the rise of digital files and explosion of mobile as well as on-site communication and collaboration options.

In a paper world, hours or even days might have been the accepted standard. Now, it’s often minutes—or even seconds.

A clear message emerges from all this: Information that’s well-organized and easily accessible by all authorized users will drive up employee productivity and customer satisfaction ratings.

Conversely, employees underperforming for any reason, including frustration over lack of organization, are costing companies a lot of time, which translates into money.

World-famous Gallup, the polling company, notes that in an average organization, 40% of employees aren’t performing optimally (based on a ratio of 1.5 engaged for every 1 disengaged employee). In contrast, world-class organizations have an 8:1 ratio, according to Gallup findings.

Other findings show that when someone is interrupted by a distraction, such as trying to find information in a disorganized venue, it takes roughly a half-hour to get back on track.

Conversely, according to a survey from the Global intelligence Alliance (GIA), a global market intelligence firm, “Systematically organized market intelligence operations report time savings of at least 1.5 hours per week per end-user…about 9.5 days a year per end-user.”

That’s a lot of money annually PER employee. This addresses the importance of having an organized, digital way to access and use information. In content aggregation, monitoring and sharing, this leads to several conclusions:

1. Having a single-source provider of all business intelligence—news, social media, and even non-feed articles—helps companies organize and keep track better than when multiple suppliers are involved;

2. Digital trumps paper in so many ways—speed of getting information in and sending it out, mobile access, ability to filter and refine relevant business intelligence from huge numbers of sources, articles and posts…the list goes on and on;

3. User-friendly digital distribution tools play a major role in the well-organized workplace. Ability to capture and re-distribute business intelligence rapidly and reliably saves time, money…and sanity.