Opinion - Unshackle the information slaves in your organisation. Information managers can add a real business edge, argues David Tebbutt, but only if companies relax their grip on information systems and let them think for themselves.

I read somewhere that only about 10% of the useful information in an organisation is stored within its content management systems. So why are companies so triumphal about managing it? More to the point, how can software sellers get away with flogging expensive systems with such a puny impact on the business?

Part of the answer lies with what Ian Angell, professor of information systems at LSE, calls "methodolics". These are managers who dare not think for themselves. They are slaves to the outpourings of whatever business intelligence and decision support systems they can lay their hands on.

The other part of the answer lies in their mistrust of people lower down the corporate hierarchy. Staff need to be controlled, their thoughts need to be captured and made searchable and explicit. Through Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems, Groupware, Knowledge Management, Content Management and Portals, people have become mere extensions of the computer system.

They've become little more than slaves tethered by digital chains and driven by workflow software and an unappreciative management.

They've had their moments, of course. Remember when the PC arrived on the scene? Suddenly people could do their own thing, free of the company shackles. They learned to type, to use spreadsheets, word processors and even desktop publishing. But how many employees are allowed to use freestanding PCs now? Not many. Synchronisation with the office system is part of the daily ritual, the shackles have been reattached.

The next attempt at freedom, of sorts, was the internet or, more accurately, the world wide web. Suddenly, anyone could create a website, and email allowed people to write to anyone, ...