I have been in the document management business for over 20 years now, and though on the one hand ECM and Document Management technology has moved into the mainstream, in other regards it remains in the dark ages. 

When I advise our clients one to one, or simply chat with people for research purposes there is almost always a common thread.  People tell me that they use SharePoint, or Documentum or Open Text or whatever, for managing their corporate documents, but when I push a little further almost without exception, a much larger number of documents within the organization sit in folders on a Network Drive. The actual document management systems account for only a small fraction of the documents within any organization.

Network drives have never been good places to manage documents, nor will they ever be -- yet that is where most of them sit.  It's depressing really, but nevertheless it is reality. Network drives (or shared drives as they are often referred to) give the illusion that you are doing something constructive to store and manage documents, but really they are just dumping grounds, expensive trash cans.  The only difference in practical terms is that trash cans actually get emptied at some point. Shared drive trash just grows until they become overwhelming mountains. 

But what to do?  A starting point is for organizations big and small to recognize they have a problem, that things are unmanageable and boldly declare "We are document hoarders!" You may even want to do a fearless inventory of your content, and humbly address your shortcomings.  Implement a retention and disposition policy, and learn to let go of documents that no longer have value.

Shared drives are addictive and a hard habit to kick; get some outside help from others that have experience in kicking the same habit.  And if you ever do sort out your shared drives, consider yourself a success, and then turn your attention to the documents sitting in e-mail folders....