Information Governance and Management

What is an information governance program? It is a structured framework that defines how an organization manages, protects, retains, and disposes of its data across the entire lifecycle. It covers everything from email retention policies and records classification to eDiscovery readiness and regulatory compliance.  Done poorly, or not done at all, it leaves organizations exposed to breaches, penalties, and litigation they could have avoided. According to Gartner, poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million per year. Ungoverned data is a large part of that problem.  Here is where to start.  Step 1: Define the Scope and Stakeholders  Information

Information governance is the broader strategic framework that defines how an organization manages all of its data assets across their entire lifecycle. Records management is a subset of that framework, focused specifically on the identification, classification, retention, and disposal of official business records. One contains the other.  Getting that distinction wrong has consequences. Organizations that treat records management as a standalone compliance function, disconnected from a wider governance strategy, tend to find out the hard way that it is not enough.  How Do You Define Records Management?  Records management is one of the oldest disciplines in organizational administration. At its core, it answers a