Driving Sales with Functional File Sharing

Better operations are the key to unlocking business growth.

[Unobstructed Issue No. 019]

You’re understandably frustrated.

After all, you ordered 45 minutes ago. People at the surrounding tables got there after you and are now eating the very thing you ordered. What gives? 

Now 55 minutes since taking your order, your server comes by to inform you that the kitchen is out of the entrée you’d been expecting to have arrived by now. This is the same server who talked up the tasty dish and strongly suggested you get it — yes, the add-ons are a must ...“thank me later”, they’d said.

You can’t help but note your annoyance with a sideways glance to the remnants of what could have been your dinner.

Turns out, your server’s been blindly selling incorrect items all night. Something about “the new POS” and “if it’s eighty-sixed, take it out of the f****** computer”. If that were you, you’d probably leave, right? Sure you would.

While pulling on your coat, you’d be thinking you could do their job better than them. And maybe you could.

But not so fast…

Didn’t that “sure thing” go cold last week after your Round 2 meeting at the new office? You know, when you sent them 3 versions of outdated solution flyers? Your contact posted on LinkedIn that they went with another vendor, right?

I know, I know, I know…it’s not your fault, you tried searching your company’s repository and it’s all you could find.

“No one can find anything”, after-all.

The search-based system of finding files within an organization has a wrinkle that most don’t realize — user permissions restrict the search results.

The search bar of a company’s intranet will only surface information that an employee is allowed to see, edit, or download based on their department, role, or job function. 

That’s typically a good thing; except, it means the search results are only as good as the metadata, labels, and tagging of the files available to search.

And permissions are different depending who owns the library. More fun, still, if the file you’re looking for lives in someone’s personal drive.

Yep, you bet they’re on vacation.

Whether you use AI or not, there’s a growing reliance on the infrastructure that supports search-based navigation.

The problem is that most businesses are built on a method of categorizing folders and subfolders to make information accessible through a series of menus and drop-downs.

For decades, employees have relied on point-and-click navigation to find information within their company's intranet and file systems.

The divide between users and systems is growing. Its impact is felt most by teams in b2b organizations tasked with creating and sharing resources.

Whose job is it to audit the content repositories of each department?

Who decides what system of organization and tagging labels will be used for files across the business?