Most copies of printed documentation distributed across the average organisation end up being thrown unread into the dustbin, partly at least because most employees simply do not have the time to read documents that aren't relevant to their immediate needs.

With electronic distribution however, the majority of employees that do not immediately recognise the relevance of the distributed document can still access that document when they need to reference it in the future, long after they would otherwise have discarded it. And in addition to delivering a document that is always up to date, significant savings in printing and distribution costs can also be realised, even if the individual employees prefer to print out the document themselves when they reference it, rather than just reading it on their computer screen.

Finding documents, however, can be challenging if electronic distribution is poorly planned and designed or if search tools aren't efficient. In the worst cases, companies don't have a coordinated strategy for the electronic distribution of documents, but instead end up with small departmental fiefdoms each with their own search tools and navigation. According to recent research, poorly planned and fragmented internal distribution can actually cost companies up to 8.5% of employee time in lost productivity as people struggle to find what they're looking for.

However, unified electronic distribution under one design and one search engine is an efficient and effective way to offer employees easy access to material such as company records or corporate policies, as well as any other documents (such as research papers, white papers and marketing documents) that constitute corporate knowledge.