While we theoretically live in an era of data – “big data” some call it – it's possible that the more data we get, the less real information we actually have. This isn't surprising: the “noise” from the never-ending streams of data customers and employees are subject to today have a way of drowning out the truly useful information. Called “contextually relevant” data, it's the needle under the haystack, and a new study shows that it's getting harder and harder to find in the age of information.

According to a recent survey of customer service executives conducted by data solutions company, Coveo (News - Alert), customers are reporting that it's increasingly hard to find the relevant information they need. The survey of more than 120 customer service and support executives, conducted April 17 at the 2012 Customer Care Leadership Forum in New York, found that only 15 percent reported that their customers, if asked, would say that they could get to information they need, when they need it. Of the respondents, 99 percent reported that access to contextually relevant information is at least “somewhat important” to their customers.

But employees need contextually relevant information to be able to serve customers well, and it turns out that companies aren't doing much better with providing their employees with the information they require. Just 22 percent of executives said employees can easily access the information they need to do their jobs. The remaining participants reported that their employees likely do not (29 percent) or “maybe” (41 percent) have access to the information they need. Eight percent of those surveyed reported that they did not believe employees could access the information they require.

So there it is. We're drowning in data, and most of it is useless. Customer-facing organizations continue to be challenged to access and share relevant information to make more informed business decisions. Moreover, they lack the ability to share that information with the customer, preventing them from making timely, informed decisions. So what to do about it?

It's clear that organizations need a better way to organize and share relevant information with both their employees and their customers. Some companies are finding success with internal search solutions that can instantly assemble information that is contextually relevant and personalized to the user, end-to-end

throughout the enterprise. These solutions can help better engage knowledge for customers, employees and management, facilitating decision making, improving day-to-day efficiencies and operations and cultivating one-to-one customer relationships.