Information Governance and a Broader Look at Records Management

In almost any circumstance, managing records across an enterprise is a daunting business challenge. Knowledge workers and fee-earners are generating content at a faster rate than we’ve ever known and have an increasingly addictive reliance on email—the most-used and risk-laden communication tool. Internal and external business obligations put even more strain on the process of managing information. Corporate governance, best practices and compliance regulations demand that companies manage information in specific ways or face the consequences. In the US, for instance, the newly updated Federal Rules of Civil Procedure not only introduce new requirements that change the way companies deal with e-discovery, but how they approach overall information governance (IG) and management strategies.

Another common challenge is managing content that is scattered enterprisewide in disparate repositories. The combination of ever-growing volumes of decentralized information and the necessity to adhere to complex regulations and potential litigation poses a unique dilemma. These scenarios motivate today’s businesses to maintain and carefully manage the retention and disposition of their corporate information. Fortunately, organizations can remedy this issue with a solid compliance architecture that puts federated records management (RM) at its foundation, providing the ability to effectively apply controls and policies to content stored in native repositories. Solutions that offer Federated RM provide companies with the flexibility to keep records where they were created or bring them into a separate repository based on organizational needs.

Federated RM ensures a proactive approach to compliance that provides companies with a distinct advantage when responding to e-discovery. To be truly prepared for e-discovery during a lawsuit, freedom of information inquiry or compliance audit, a company must be able to respond quickly and thoroughly to the information request. It becomes paramount to be able to search records located in content silos across the organization as well as work-in-process documents, file shares and file systems. Companies that manage information on behalf of their clients have even higher stakes. If they cannot respond to discovery requests, their woes can multiply by three: they can be found at fault for illegal information management and governance practices and have to pay fines and/or penalties; they may lose the client, which means lost revenues; and in most cases they will suffer damage to their reputation.

While it is unfortunate that legal compliance violations have become so commonplace, it does put organizations on notice that implementing records and retention policies can help them reduce risk. With solid IG practices, companies can perform proactive compliance through the protection of information assets and be prepared for the reactive processes of audit and discovery. A good governance strategy not only mitigates risk but increases efficiencies to reduce overall storage, e-discovery and IT costs. The benefits of employing records best practices are numerous, and they provide the lynchpin to a solid IG strategy.

RM and IG—Across the Enterprise

In basic terms, RM brings together people, processes and technology to improve the management of and access to information in all its forms, physical or electronic, regardless of where it resides or how it was created. RM enables retention and document preservation—two processes critical to remaining compliant and responding to litigation. Many of the notorious compliance violation rulings involved inconsistencies in retention policies which ultimately brought an unfavorable end to the company. It is one thing to have a formal policy, and quite another to ensure enforcement. Once litigation has been brought forward, it is too late to begin cleaning house, and these eleventh-hour actions can increase liability and ultimately worsen the blow to a company’s reputation.

To provide the foundation for an effective compliance architecture, RM must incorporate all content under its control and policy, including non-records. These undeclared documents, work-in-progress documents and transitory "let’s go to lunch" emails present their own challenges when considering enterprise compliance and e-discovery. How does an organization conduct a thorough, efficient discovery or apply a comprehensive legal hold to these short-term, non-records that are undeniably within the system? Ultimately, organizations are realizing that RM is part of an overall philosophy called information governance (IG)—an approach that comprehensively governs, manages and secures enterprise information to ensure organizational content is protected, accessible and retained according to business objectives.

With RM as part of a solid IG strategy, companies are in a better position to handle daily challenges and remain sufficiently agile to quickly adapt to changes in laws, client requirements, user needs and growth—either in the size