Additionally, 69 per cent of the respondents believed that less than half of their company's information was searchable online, and 38 per cent estimated that less than a quarter of the information they needed could be found by way of a search query.
The result, say researchers, is a frustrated and disappointed work force.
"Despite the advances made in search on the internet, enterprise search leaves most users frustrated,” said AIIM Vice President Carl Frappaolo.
"As information has become more and more digital, from it’s creation through to management, the pain of finding enterprise information has moved from the piles of paper on the desktop and in storage cabinets, to the digital landfill of file servers, e-mail inboxes, digital desktops, and content management systems."
The researchers placed blame for the problem not on the indexing and search systems, but on the corporate direction of the companies. Of the 500 businesses queried in the survey, only ten per cent considered the ability to find documents 'imperative.'
The researchers noted that many businesses have yet set specific plans and formal goals for collecting and properly indexing their company information.