The Impact of Social/Mobile/Cloud on Information Governance

Recommendations

Information governance programs are constantly evolving to meet new demands. It is clear that the trends outlined above are here to stay; they must be addressed when forming an enterprise information governance program. In the unfortunate case of litigation, judges will want to see that you have at least made an attempt to address these areas with active policy enforcement. Ignoring the problems that social/mobile/cloud create will not help anyone, but addressing them early will help companies to stay ahead and be more competitive.

Establish policies. What “corporate information” can reside on premise, in the cloud, or on a personal device? How long should this information reside? What kind of encryption should be used? What happens if there is a litigation hold? What rules should be in effect for social media? Publish these policies to the organization so that employees know how corporate information is managed on their devices and in the cloud. Outlining the rationale and potential risks of noncompliance, especially with respect to social media practices, may help motivate employees to be invested in the process as well.

Ensure enforcement. Policy without an enforcement mechanism holds little value for a company. An information governance program must actively enforce policies on all content in an organization, wherever it resides—including on premise, in the cloud or on employee devices. The same policies that are enforced across corporate content must be applied uniformly to the information contained on smartphones and tablets.

Audit progress. Keep an eye out for new wrinkles—new types of devices that should be allowed, new security threats. It’s important to be aware of how new offerings—not just devices, but things like new file sync and share technologies—might affect your policy enforcement. Continually publish company policies to inform employees of how they can and cannot use social media as well as their personal tablets and smartphones.

Conclusion

Who knows what the next big thing will be? Organizations must be ready for any new trends that begin to emerge. By having a comprehensive information governance platform in place, companies are able to easily adapt to a new trend, maintaining compliance with laws and regulations and growing business requirements.