Organization, ease of search and the establishment of hierarchical relationship between entries are all compelling reasons to add rich metadata to archive and library entries.
How hierarchical relationships in file organization can benefit your business depends largely on what matters to your business. Maybe dates are particularly important for your business, or specific keywords or client types.
All types of tags can be attached to metadata to enhance file structure and search results. Soutron’s platform makes it exceptionally easy to modify and customize metadata on new entries and existing documents.
Flexibility Matters When It Comes to Organization
There’s no set rubric that Soutron users must follow when deciding on what metadata to use or which variables are most important. The platform is completely customizable in this regard to ensure the maximum number of organizations can make full use of these database features.
Why Is Organizing Content with Metadata Better Than Using Folders?
Storing and organizing files in folders only allows for organization based on a single need. For example, if all your organization’s files are in folders corresponding to months of a year, it may be difficult to find specific documents associated with a service or product type. When all documents are stored in a database with relevant metadata, users can search for a specific keyword, range of dates, author or any other criteria relevant to your business.
Adding detailed metadata to individual documents, images, video or audio files allows users to find the data based on a host of differentiators instead of one single identifying characteristic like date.
Accelerate Search
No two organizations are exactly the same, so the way users search and what criteria they use to narrow down their inquiry will naturally be unique. A sales manager may want to quickly review all open proposals, or a sales rep could need to find materials for a specific product line or service. In either scenario, it may be necessary to find the relevant information while on a sales call or meeting with other team members. When speed is of the essence, the quality and specificity of metadata matters.
The ability to flesh out metadata, coupled with Soutron’s extremely fast search results, makes it easy for users to identify and pull up relevant documents.
Avoid Unnecessary Effort or Duplicate Work
Duplicate work can be a problem in a variety of industries or businesses. Someone may have already produced a particular report, marketing asset or sales spreadsheet. Organizations can reduce the risk of wasted labor from duplicate work with metadata. Metadata makes it easier to find any records in your database, so it’s easy to see what has and hasn’t been completed or recorded.
Better Quality Work
Context and clarity are important in every business. An easily navigable database with excellent search functionality ensures relevant information is quickly accessible. Even the best, most searchable database is only as useful as the quality of metadata assigned to entries. This is why the thoroughness of metadata is so important.
Previous contracts, recorded phone conversations and slide deck presentations can be hugely valuable when developing proposals for a client, but only if the person developing the proposal can easily find all that information in your database.
This is another way in which creating hierarchical relationships between database entries can be incredibly valuable. All the files associated with a particular client can be linked and pulled up in an instant.
Manage Access and Reduce the Risk for Data Leaks
Maintaining data security is of utmost importance to many businesses. Even within your organization, there are likely some types of information that are siloed. Having a database that enforces varying levels of access control based on things like metadata can help ensure only approved people have access to sensitive information.
Is Your Business Leveraging Metadata for Organizational and Search Optimization?
When people list monumental technological advancements that have changed the way business is done in the 21st century, they usually don’t name metadata, but maybe they should. Metadata can save your business time, reduce labor requirements and lead to better outcomes for clients.
You can learn more about how metadata can improve your database organization and searchability by requesting a demo of Soutron’s integrated library system and archive solutions.
