The data can exist and still be unavailable
An organization may have GIS layers, shared drives, inspection reports, spreadsheets, and project folders. A field worker may still need to call someone, open several systems, or return to the office to answer a simple asset question.
Availability is not the same as retrieval. Retrieval includes finding the record, recognizing whether it applies, understanding its confidence, and using it at the point of work.
Design for the moment of need
The most useful test is practical: could a person unfamiliar with this asset retrieve enough trusted information to make the next safe decision?
That test favors clear asset connections, current context, field-accessible records, and a visible history of what the organization has learned.
The measure is friction removed
Every unnecessary search, call, repeat visit, and reconstruction is a signal that information is not yet moving with the work.
Improving retrieval does not mean publishing every record everywhere. It means making the right information available to the right authorized people in a form they can use.