Implementing an Information Governance Program
Continuing on from one of our previous posts about implementing an Information Governance Program, Rick Wilson from Sherpa Software has written another interesting blog article revolving around the implementation phase of an Information Governance project. In this blog article, he says that by developing an all-encompassing information governance plan can pay handsomely, by helping to reduce an organization storage costs, lowering eDiscovery incident costs and improve information privacy practices and policies, which will ultimately help reduce an organization risk.
Like any IT project, implementing an information Governance program can be quite challenging and it requires a lot of research, detailed planning and a thorough execution plan for it to be successful. But this blog article concentrates on the completion phase and more specifically, enforcement and enforcement of these policies.
Today, it is common practice for organizations to develop a written policy and procedures manual for all employees to follow. This manual defines the processes and procedures on how to deal with many things, for example, files, internal and external correspondence and other communications. Because of the ever changing business environment, the need to adhere to compliance regulations and the possible threat of litigation, this is becoming a very challenging, if not an impossible task to keep current. This results in a time lag and is a recipe for disaster if not addressed quickly and the information isn’t current.
Over the last ten year Sherpa software has gained a lot of expertise in developing tools which automate and enforce business policies and practices. With this experience, they can offer a lot of practical advice and below are some pointers which should be considered when you are looking for “search automation solutions”
- Flexibility in a policy enforcement engine matters. Many clients focus on their ‘current’ requirement when evaluating solutions, but that approach can be short-sighted. Perhaps you only need to perform enforcement using age-based criteria today, but a year or two from now the ability to supplement that age-checking with additional options like keywords or regular expressions may be required as your policies evolve – therefore, look for more capability than you need today.
- The more content sources that a solution supports, the better. Investing in a policy tool for email may suit your current requirement, but what happens when legal extends the policy to include SharePoint, Yammer or some other content repository? Ask your vendors how flexible their offerings are, with regard to supporting multiple content sources.
Please share this information with your colleagues or send us your questions, comments and feedback to: waynes@flexnet.com Additionally, if you would like to download a full copy of their Information Governance white paper, please click here or you can find more information governance resources on our web site www.flexnetsoftware.com and we look forward to answering any Information Governance questions you may have; please contact us at 1 (800) 263-8733