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You’ve heard about information governance, but you’re not quite sure what it is yet. Join Pam Doyle as she presents a one-day AIIM14 pre-conference session covering the ins and outs of information governance. You can join her on March 31 and kick off your #AIIM14 experience by deepening your understanding of governance.

Pamela Doyle, Director, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, is responsible for forming and driving key imaging industry relationships as the worldwide spokesperson for Fujitsu. In her capacity as Fujitsu’s industry luminary, she frequently shares her imaging experience at numerous events, including global conferences such as AIIM, JIIMA, and ARMA. AIIM has awarded Doyle with its “Education” and “Distinguished Service” awards and she was recently inducted into the AIIM Company of Fellows. These awards recognize Doyle’s vision and commitment to the advancement of the ECM industry. Follow Pam on Twitter: @PamKDoyle.

We live in an era that is experiencing exponential growth of information. According to EMC’s most recent Digital Universe Study, they estimate that during the next six years the amount of digital data produced will exceed 40 zettabytes (the equivalent of 5,200 gigabytes for every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth). Another study by IDC predicts by 2020 the amount of digital information will grow by a factor of 20, the number of files by a factor of 60 and the number of IT professionals only by a factor of 1.4.

Digital content is being generated in office application suites, in email, and in critical line-of-business applications. There are new sources of digital content including social and instant messages. Some organizations have large volumes of audio and video and a significant percentage of organizations report they are still dealing with large volumes of paper. Both the analysts firms IDC and InfoTrends estimate that about 50% of business documents remain on paper.

The net result is information chaos. I would define information chaos as the contradiction between the volume, variety, and velocity of information and the need today for corporate agility and corporate profitability.

A new term has emerged called “information governance”. There are many definitions but the one I think best describes it is from IBM: “a holistic approach to managing and leveraging information for business benefits and encompasses information quality, information protection and information lifecycle management.”

First and foremost every organization today must change their perspective from simply how do we manage all this information to how do we leverage it. Managing information helps organizations address legal and compliance concerns and significant cost savings can be achieved by reducing storage and infrastructure requirements, reducing the risks of fines and penalties and can eliminate reliance on expensive third parties to assist with eDiscovery requests. Organizations’ who broaden their perspective to include leveraging information will recognize the value of taking control of all of their unstructured content so that it can be mined and analyzed in support of predictive insights and better business intelligence.

Most industry analysts includingAIIM, Forrester and Gartner agree that information governance is about three things – reducing costs, managing risks and optimizing the value of information.

Developing an information governance program involves carefully assessing your organization’s information asset, identifying policies and procedures, creating roles and responsibilities and deploying the right technology to execute.

The newly launched AIIM Information Governance training program provides practical guidance from industry experts and is based on best practices that will provide you with a systematic approach to developing an information governance program to manage and leverage your information asset. The information provided is applicable across all industries and is independent of any technology or vendor solution. The course is ideal for IT, compliance officers, records management personnel, legal, consultants, or other information professionals that are looking to establish or to enhance their information governance program.

Join Pam for a day devoted to information governance on March 31.