Managing streams of various unstructured data/documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and image files—is a problem that won't disappear soon.It takes its own time.but solutions evolve and we see a future which would be paper-less, Now thats technology. Organizations generate and receive a relentless influx of information from online and offline systems, but companies that can't manage unstructured content effectively not only suffer productivity losses, they risk being out of compliance with government and industry regulations.The issue gets serious now.

How widespread is this problem?

Like what John K. Waters said that more than 80 percent of the information that companies generate is unstructured and that managing it has become critical. "Just about every company is coping with an explosion of [data]," he writes, and finding ways to use that unstructured data has become "a competitive differentiator."

Now the world knows that there is a huge team of people working on a better way to support how information is generated,
maintained and delivered to clients and finally the destruction of these information at the end of thier lifecycle.

ISNT THAT JUST AMAZING .Yes we have a solution now ORACLE CONTENT MANAGEMENT - THE ENTERPRISE 2.0 TECHNOLOGY

What does it do? whats its purpose?
Oracle's content management solution is centered around two new database options. Oracle Content Database (Oracle Content DB) enables customers to manage large volumes of unstructured content in a single Oracle database. Oracle Records Database (Oracle Records DB) provides for the lifecycle management of electronic records, so organizations can fulfill regulatory compliance mandates in an accurate, repeatable way.

Both of these options use Oracle Database 10g as the repository for storing and managing unstructured content. "Customers can now use Oracle Database 10g to store everything: data; files; metadata; text indexes; relationships between objects, security, and access control,"."Everything you need to know about your content is in there, and it's all managed in a consistent, auditable, highly controlled way. Unlike the proprietary content management systems of the past, Oracle has created easy-to-use Windows and Web interfaces to help organizations more easily control, secure, and manage large volumes of structured and unstructured content."

Oracle Content Management offers the most unified, usable enterprise content management (ECM) platform in today’s market. With centralized control across single or multiple repositories, common core functionality, and easily scalable content management capabilities, Oracle provides content management solutions for all content types and all users—wherever they work in the enterprise. And because it’s built on Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Content Management integrates seamlessly with Oracle’s other solutions—including business intelligence, business integration, and process management—making content management an important part of your overall business strategy.

BUT then again the competition on this space is still strong :)with DOCUMENTUM sometimes trying to take the lead.