The “business case” for information governance often focuses solely on quantifying specific costs for data management and exposures for data security and ediscovery. Number crunching is of course important, but it misses something bigger, more strategic, and ultimately more crucial to the organization – its brand. Companies, regardless of industry, are fundamentally in the information business. It follows that how an organization manages its information assets reveals how the organization manages itself. And that matters, a lot, because companies that align themselves with their brand, achieving brand discipline, are more successful.
Continue Reading Why govern your information? Reason #8: It can build – or bust – your brand
Why govern your information? Reason #9: Unnecessary business data multiplies data security exposures
Having too much data causes problems beyond needless storage costs, workplace inefficiencies, and uncontrolled litigation expenses. Keeping data without a legal or business reason also exacerbates data security exposures. To put it bluntly, businesses that tolerate troves of unnecessary data are playing cybersecurity roulette … with even larger caliber ammunition.
Continue Reading Why govern your information? Reason #9: Unnecessary business data multiplies data security exposures
Why govern your information? Reason #10: It’s a when, not if, world for data breaches
Being a CISO is a tough gig. The perpetual deluge of news items on hack after hack, breach after breach, has finally conveyed that data security is an imperative for all companies, large and small. But the perception still lingers that the Chief Information Security Officer (or the InfoSec team) will single-handedly prevent breaches at “our” company – and if one should occur, will take care of the response. For some CISOs, it may feel like High Noon, all over again.
This is unfair to the CISO, and wrong on at least two counts. First, regardless of the CISO’s job description, the full range of cyber risk exceeds the scope of the CISO’s practical control. Second, effective breach response requires up to ten channels of coordinated activity, and nine of the ten fall outside of the CISO’s authority.Continue Reading Why govern your information? Reason #10: It’s a when, not if, world for data breaches
Why govern your information? Reason #11: Thousands of federal and state records retention laws apply to your company
Dr. Stephen Covey reminded us that “important” is not the same thing as “urgent.” Records retention reminds us that important is not the same thing as exciting. I get it – records retention schedules are boring. But the fact remains that literally thousands of records retention requirements apply to your organization’s information. I know, because my firm finds and tracks these laws as part of our many years of retention schedule work for clients across industries. And your regulators expect you to know them too.Continue Reading Why govern your information? Reason #11: Thousands of federal and state records retention laws apply to your company
Why govern your information? Reason #12: Unnecessary business data causes unnecessary litigation costs
“If your clients don’t have a records management system, they may as well take their money out into the parking lot and set it on fire.”
– U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John Facciola (now retired, and missed)
We all know that ediscovery is expensive, and various research reports have so confirmed. The 2012 Rand study, Where the Money Goes: Understanding Litigant Expenditures for Producing Electronic Discovery, found that median costs for collection, processing, and review are $17,507 per gigabyte (roughly 3,500 documents or 10,000 e-mails). The math is not pretty – a case involving 482 GBs of source data could exceed $8 million in ediscovery costs.
And on top of that are preservation costs. The 2014 Preservation Costs Survey demonstrated that large companies incur significant fixed costs for preservation (for in-house ediscovery personnel and also for procurement and maintenance of legal hold management and data preservation technology systems), averaging $2.5 million annually. More significant is the cost of employee time lost in complying with legal holds. While companies with up to 10,000 employees incur the average time cost of over $428,000 per year, costs for the largest companies exceed $38 million per year.
There is indeed great complexity in how to cost-effectively process huge amounts of data through the ediscovery funnel. Tighter management of ediscovery processes is important, and TAR continues to be a promising alternative to traditional review, with significant cost-savings potential.
But as we ponder how to cut costs, let’s not forget to use Occam’s razor:
Continue Reading Why govern your information? Reason #12: Unnecessary business data causes unnecessary litigation costs