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Recently we had a chance to talk with John Mancini, President and CEO of AIIM, and hear his candid thoughts on some of the business world's most pressing issues today.

Mancini is very direct about the scale and impact of the challenges organizations are facing right now with what he calls "information chaos".

"I think there is going to be an awful lot of organizations and companies that are disrupted. They are all of a sudden going to find that they have competitors that they never had before and they are going to find people that are more skilled, and leapfrog them. There will be an awful lot of companies that are going to be very, very surprised at how quickly the world is about to change," Mancini told The ReadSoft Blog team.

Mancini says information chaos comes as a result of the combined impact of the consumerization of technology, cloud & mobile technologies, and the internet of things.

"Those things ... are creating a great deal of chaos for organizations right now. It is also creating a lot of opportunity – but I think it is navigating that dichotomy between information opportunity and information chaos that is the central challenge that our members face right now.

"We hear the warning signs every day – when I talk to knowledge workers they say ‘I can’t find anything and the volume of stuff I am managing is rapidly getting out of control’; when I talk to security officers they say things like ‘Information is leaking outside of the organization on devices that weren’t even invented when the legacy systems were put in place’; when I talk to records managers and lawyers they say that the volume of information that is beyond our ability to control is increasing our business risk and exposure; the IT people say ‘oh gosh the business has gone ahead and implemented a new application I didn’t even know about’; and then the C-Suite constantly comes back to how do I stay competitive, how do I stay relevant, and how do I get more value out of my IT spend. So, that’s the impact of these changes on people and I think it is a pretty challenging era," Mancini said.

The problem has emerged, Mancini argues, largely as a result of the lack of focus on people and processes in the last two decades.

"The central thing that is going on is that we have spent 20-30 years now focusing on the ‘T’ part of the IT equation. We are moving into an era in which we really need skills to help manage the ‘I’ part – the information that actually flows through those pipes that we have created."

And the AIIM chief says this all means that organizations need to take action. "I think it calls for some new skills and it calls for some investment in our people – both the people that architect these systems as well as the people that use these systems, to figure out a way through the chaos."

Hear more from John Mancini as he talks information chaos in our October 16 webinar: Demystifying Smart Process Apps. More information & register here.

The key to solving the problem lies in creating the bridges to connect systems of engagement with systems of record. Systems of record - the legacy systems that first digitized business - are still crucial, but they need to be effectively connected with today's systems of engagement - the technologies that allow people and businesses to connect with each other in new ways. As Mancini explains:

"You can have all the elegant systems of engagement you want in the world, but if your systems of record aren’t keeping pace in the backend, then you have a recipe for frustration."

His message to those looking for a quick fix is this: "We are in an era right now where there is still an awful lot of organizations that put up a nice veneer – on the surface – but the problem is that, unless you really look at the backend processes and how those front end veneers actually connect back to the transactional systems that you actually use to run the business, people are going to wind up being very frustrated. Because you can’t hide those systems from your customers anymore."

Mancini believes there is opportunity to help solve this issue with the use of smart process applications. You have an opportunity to hear more from John about information chaos and smart process apps when he is the feature guest in our October 16 webinar titled 'Demystifying Smart Process Applications'. You can find out more information and register for the webinar here.

We've more information about the areas of business where smart process applications can have a positive impact on your business here on our website.