Information is vital. No business should expect to prosper without keeping on top of all of their data and accumulated knowledge. Whether prosaic details, such as invoices and past accounts, or something more complex and detailed, reports or studies, or communications, it's critical that all information remains easily accessible for whenever it may be needed. Those who keep control of their information keep control of their business.

Andrew, Charlotte and Fran all work for the fictional company Graham Finn & Bell, a growing and increasingly nationally prominent corporate accountancy firm. Their line of business demands a great deal of thoroughness in the keeping of records, whilst the growth that the enterprise is enjoying puts a new onus onto the company to ensure that they remain in control of all of their information. Losing touch could easily lead to growth being stifled, as it would lead the expanding organisation to know less about their circumstances and those of the wider economy at just the time when it would be essential to know more.

Information on paper

Andrew works in the company's records department, a department that accumulates tremendous quantities of paperwork each year. It's particularly important to maintain control over these documents, not only to ensure that they're easily accessible, but also to fulfil legal requirements. In addition, the department are in the process of transferring a number of existing paper records onto computer databases, and the ease of finding documents is paramount to keeping the operation running smoothly.

It's vital that the documents are organised and ordered. But there are potentially many different systems by which to arrange them. Whether they're arranged by alphabetical order, date, category or any other logical division, the most important consideration is the searcher.

Who will be looking for documents, and where would they expect to find them? Simplicity is the priority, the ease of understanding the order and finding an individual record within it. And to gain this simplicity, it's essential to plan carefully just how files are to be organised (or develop a plan for reorganising them, if they're already in place in a less than ideal order), and ensure that everyone understands and adheres to the system. A small effort to begin with can save a great deal of time later.

Electronic data

Charlotte is head of the IT department at Graham Finn & Bell. The company's databases have a large number of digital records that is being added to constantly, both by the transfer of existing records from Andrew's department and by new additions from current clients. Her department also maintains a database of staff details.

Organising electronic documents is quite different to arranging their paper equivalents, as digital records have no physical location, no shelves, stacks or drawers to rummage through. Yet location is still an important issue, for although digital files can be searched in order to find the correct item, it is still quicker and easier if records are stored where they are expected to be. However, there's an extra concern for electronic documents - they all need to be named, and should be saved with names that fit the same format (such as client name and date, perhaps).

Any member of staff searching for a particular file ought to be able to predict the name and location of the file from what they know about its contents; failure to put this into place will inevitably waste time and frustrate staff.

Organised communication

Fran's role is in the public relations department. She communicates regularly with marketing organisations, who produce promotional material for the company, and with the media. These communications will affect how potential clients view the company, so it's critical that the information she puts across is both accurate and designed to show the business in the best possible light. She needs to be sure that the most important or attractive information about the organisation is neatly and systematically organised, so that it is at her fingertips whenever she needs to discuss or promote the company.

Fran, Charlotte and Andrew all need their respective areas of work to be thoroughly and comprehensibly organised in order most effectively to do their job, and to bring the most benefit to their organisation. The same is true of anyone, in any line of work; where there is order instead of chaos, less time is wasted and a better result is easier to achieve. This doesn't have to relate solely to organising information - such matters as the layout of items (and people) in an office or the order of different staff members' shift patterns can be arranged to make tasks less frustrating and easier to complete. A short training course can help develop this all-important managerial skill, and help you to organise your company's future.