Metadata: the key to overcoming information chaos

We are living in an exponential era of data growth: the forecast that by the end of this year the volume of digital data in the world will reach 175 zettabytes. This dizzying increase in the volume of information has generated a real informational chaos in companies, where critical data is dispersed in diverse systems and disconnected silos. In Brazil, the situation is worrying: employees can spend up to 50% of working time looking for information, losing up to two hours a day in the search for documents that often will never be found.

It is estimated that every 12 seconds at least one document is lost in Brazilian companies, totaling more than 7 thousand documents lost daily. Consequently, professionals waste precious time trying to locate documents in the midst of this disorder. Each document misplaced is not only one less data; it is also a potential financial and legal liability.

A company buried in disorganized digital papers or files risks failing to locate an important voucher or vital contract, and the loss of those records can result in hefty inspection fines or labor indemnities.The data tsunami, if not properly governed, imposes a double cost: it reduces daily efficiency and increases exposure to compliance risks.

Classification by metadata: how to put order in chaos

To overcome the informational chaos, it is not enough to store data in the cloud or buy more physical storage & IT is necessary to organize information intelligently. This is where metadata comes in. Metadata is often defined as “data on the” data, that is, descriptive information we assign to a document or record to identify and categorize it.

Metadata works like the” label of a file, describing its content without the need to read it completely. Common examples include: title, author, date of creation, keywords, document category (contract, invoice, email, etc.), level of confidentiality, among other attributes.

Implementing a classification plan and cataloging documents based on metadata is critical to restore order amid the explosion of information. Instead of relying only on chaotic shared folders or the memory of each employee about “where he saved that” file, the metadata-driven organization creates a structured catalog of the company's informational collection. Each document happens to have a kind of digital” identity sheet. This brings visibility and context: the team knows exactly what type of information each file is and where it is, dramatically reducing the time spent on manual searches.

In addition to speed, accuracy in information retrieval increases. Metadata eliminates the ambiguity of systems based only on file or folder names. Even if a document has been saved in the wrong place or with an unintuitive name, its metadata allows information to be found by the registered characteristics. This breaks data silos within the company: content previously isolated in distinct departments or applications can be unified virtually via common metadata.

Productivity and compliance: benefits of metadata policies

The adoption of robust metadata policies brings concrete gains in both operational efficiency and compliance. From the point of view of internal productivity, the improvement is tangible: with properly classified and indexed documents, employees stop looking for needles in the straw” and start accessing what they need almost immediately.

With good metadata management, this time is saved, allowing teams to focus on analysis and decision making, rather than mining lost data. Not by chance, companies that invest in information management report significant gains: there are cases of reduction of 95% in the time spent to answer questions of internal or external audits after implementing intelligent search systems and document organization.

Regarding audits and legal requirements, the difference between having or not having well-structured metadata is huge. Companies that do not know exactly where their critical data are stored are at a disadvantage & unfortunately many are in this situation. Another survey by Gartner, in 2023 “Metadata Management in the Digital Age” 60% of the organizations that participated in the survey admitted not knowing where essential information for the business is.

This poses a serious risk when it comes to audits, inspections or lawsuits. Imagine a company in front of an auditor requesting all emails and reports related to a particular contract or transaction from the last five years. Without a metadata taxonomy, this search can be a logistical nightmare, taking weeks and mobilizing entire departments to scour files.

With well-applied metadata, on the other hand, the company can respond quickly (in a matter of hours ¡ ̄ COMPiling all relevant documents. The traceability offered by metadata allows to quickly locate any record necessary for compliance. This not only avoids fines for non-delivery of information on time, but also reduces bottlenecks during audits, since auditors can verify compliance much more fluidly.

Another important benefit of metadata policies is in information security and data privacy.In an era of frequent leaks and strict regulations, knowing what and where sensitive company data is halfway walked to protect them. Metadata can indicate the level of confidentiality of a document, classifying it, for example, as “Public”, “Internal” or “Restrict/Confidential”.

They can also identify if a file contains sensitive personal data (LGPD). The LGPD requires control over all personal data processed by the organization, including the ability to locate, classify and, if necessary, delete this data upon request. Without this, complying with obligations of the LGPD becomes impractical. For example, if a customer asks to be forgotten (right of deletion), the company needs to identify all systems and documents where data is contained in it. With appropriate metadata, this scan is efficient; without them, the request may go unnoticed in some file, generating legal risks.

Metadata management technologies: ECM, automation and AI

To reap all these benefits, it is necessary to have the right technologies that enable effective metadata management. One of the pillars of this infrastructure is ECM (Enterprise Content Management), or Enterprise Content Management. ECM solutions offer centralized repositories in which documents are stored together with their metadata. Unlike a simple file folder, an ECM allows you to define metadata models, categorization policies and retention rules, integrating all this into company workflows.

Thus, when a document is inserted into the system, the ECM already requests the classification information DO or even fills them out automatically, ensuring that nothing goes without a label. This continuous integration prevents the taxonomy from becoming obsolete or inconsistent as the data evolves.

Another way to apply metadata is with the use of RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and artificial intelligence. Repetitive classification and indexing processes that previously fell on users can be automated. For example, RPA robots can capture received documents and, following predefined rules, assign basic metadata such as document type, date, sender, etc. Even more advanced, AI systems with Machine Learning and NLP algorithms (Natural Language Processing) can automatically classify documents by content. Self-classification solutions scan texts and identify patterns (appropriate a document containing a fiscal or RG file that is a certain, a medical grade or a report.

Optical character recognition (OCR) tools combined with AI extract key information from scanned documents and fill in metadata fields without human intervention. The result is an automatic enrichment of the data, making the document collection intelligent from the source. Case studies show that this type of automation in classification accelerates by up to 70% the availability of new data for use by business teams, as well as improving the quality and consistency of information.

Given the current scenario, it is clear that metadata is no longer a technical detail to become a strategic enabler in business information management. If the volume of data is inevitable and tends to grow more than 20% per year globally, the difference between surfing this wave or being submerged by it will be in the ability to organize this data in an agile, reliable and safe way. In a world where data is compared to the new oil, knowing how to classify and find this “ informational oil inside the home is a competitive differential and so much. Thus, investing in robust metadata and overcoming the informational chaos is not only a matter of technical success, but of compliance was to ensure the business that sustains the efficiency and that it was a business.