Folders have existed for as long as operating systems for computers. And strangely, they continue to work the same way that they did right from the start. Why is that?
In 1985, Windows 1.0 was released. Just like that, the world changed. Since the mid-nineties, organisations have been creating and consuming vast amounts of electronic records and capturing paper-based information using scanners that cost more than the average family car.
Where did they store all these digital records? In bloody folders. This was the beginning of the end for information management.
We missed a golden opportunity to use a database of sorts to standardize the profiling of documents so they could be found and properly managed. The world simply moved from physical filing cabinets to electronic filing cabinets thanks to DOS and its hierarchal folder structure that lay beneath the blue screen of death.
But things got worse. Filing clerks disappeared and every keyboard junkie took over, storing information anywhere, everywhere, and any way they liked. Nobody was in charge anymore. Chaos followed. And it continues to this day.
We're told we are right in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We're told technology has never advanced so rapidly as it is right now. But for all the talk of change, technology has advanced FAR less in the last 10 years, than the previous 6 years. Take the evolution of apps as an example. With the birth of the App Store (2008) , and the magical combinations of existing tech in the smartphone (2006) led to an explosion of new companies. Look at the top 15 downloaded apps for 2022:
(Source: Software Testing Help)
Clearly, the early 2000's was the boom for apps that continue to perform well today. While the rise of apps has made business easier in some ways (Zoom, we're looking at you), not much has changed for information management. Information is even harder to find and manage thanks to the proliferation of trendy and shallow "productivity" apps where information is too easily attached, shared and lost.
It's clear that the failings of these apps and SaaS platforms stem from the fact that we are building the future on the foundations of the past. Tech changes fast. Fashion and popular culture changes fast. However, governance, regulation, infrastructure, hardware, and human nature change slowly. Innovation happens but remains superficial. Challenges arise to which the systems based on the ways of the past cannot adapt. We need deeper tech, not more tech. It could take a while to get there, but it would be far more valuable to far more businesses.
Here we are in 2022, still using folders. The endless hunt for documents and information continues! The tech geniuses at PIQNIC looked at it, and decided there is a better way.
And we built it.
Called document subscriptions, any user can simply set information parameters and get notified in app or via email as soon as the information hits your organization. You can be as specific as you like, such as any invoice over $5000 even from a particular vendor, but let your imagination run wild.
Of course, a requirement is you have the right information permissions to view.
We’ve got more genius ways of working with information and processes coming.
PIQNIC – Voted the world’s best work management platform – by our mothers.
In stock now.