Ineffective information governance threatens compliance

Organizations are faced with rising challenges due to an accelerating influx of information and increasingly tight data retention requirements. Some enterprises may not be effectively organizing records, while others often keep files that are no longer necessary. In order to maintain eDiscovery compliance, firms will need to leverage the most advanced document management solutions to ensure that data is readily accessible.

Network Computing contributor David Hill explained that holding onto information that serves no purpose can drive up IT and storage costs for an organization. Thus, he emphasized that firms need to focus on data governance, risk management and compliance (GRC). Particularly, Hill stressed the concept of data retention management, including both preservation and disposal.

Eliminating waste
According to Hill, 1 percent of data in an enterprise needs to be preserved for litigation hold and 5 percent has to be maintained for compliance. Another 25 percent of information has business value, which means that an overwhelming 69 percent of all data has no value to the organization at all. Hill asserted that eliminating that useless information is critical for maintaining both efficiency and compliance while minimizing spending. Hill reported that assuming 20 percent of an IT budget is allocated to storage, if two-thirds of data is of no value, 14 percent of those funds are wasted. By disposing of useless records and freeing up disk space, companies can redirect investments to more productive purposes, such as innovation. Still, Hill revealed that firms need to develop a methodology for filtering out important data, which requires new software tools for automating the separation process.

Utilizing best-in-class conversion services can enable enterprises to make a seamless digital transition, tackle these retention challenges and moreover, prevent any potential issues with information management going forward.

Continuity Central reported that these considerations will be especially critical considering the fact that document retention requirements are constantly evolving and becoming more complex. The source noted that documents destroyed too soon could lead to a breach of e-disclosure law, while keeping files for too long poses a risk to data privacy and protection regulations. As a result of being overwhelmed, many companies resort to data hoarding. The news source explained that in a rapidly evolving compliance landscape, firms need to deploy the right solutions and expertise to re-gain control over information.

By adopting advanced electronic document management software, companies can overhaul these processes and ensure effective retention and organization of all data.

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