The Information Governance is a serious business and probably too serious to be left solely in the hands of .......
1) IT
Since the early 2000, IT people and teams have lost their supremacy and the exclusivity on information processing and business solutions.
IT people are responsible for the proper operation of systems and solutions agreed upon in the companies.
Their role is essential and goes beyond the strictly technical concerns to ensure the highest level of services.
The main challenges for IT managers, architects and developers are to constantly bring the most appropriate technology and the safest but also the most agile organization, the best ROI, an acceptable TCO, etc.,
And you want more than they deal with information governance!
No, IT teams have first to support the business growth and more globally the company in its transformation.
Their daily duties are made of testing, parameterization, development, integration, put into production, monitoring, etc., all that helps to establish an efficient technical infrastructure.
Actually, most CIOs do not care about the value of information, but much more of its cost (production, storage, preservation, reproduction,duplication, circulation, operation, security, etc.).
2) records managers
So, may be Information Governance is a matter to leave in the hands of records managers and archiving experts.
The question is to decide, among heritage value, legal value and business value, which is the most appropriate to set the information assets of an organization?
The records management (or archiving) essentially considers the heritage value and "legal" to identify information assets and supporting a policy of information governance, but it is not sufficient in my opinion:
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records management is static while the information governance is dynamic,
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records management is reactive, whereas the information governance is meant to be pro-active,
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records management is primarily focused on retention, while the information governance is enforced to benefit to the daily business.
Records management is a response to regulation before being a support for business
As IT services are more concerned about cost than the value of information, records managers are very often more interested in the heritage value (legacy) and / or "legal" information to its utilization by business apps.
3) legal counsels, risk managers and lawyers
If it is not appropriate to leave the Information Governance in the hands neither of IT teams nor records managers, should it return for Legal Affairs?
Indeed, in the management of information assets there is a legal dimension: compliance, respect of regulations, which only the legal departments are able to oversee the implementation.
Yet neither the legal officers or risk managers can not handle on their own responsibility.
Legal counsels do not care about the value of information, they seek to protect the organization against risks existing because of the information!
For IT managers, the cost is often more important than the value, for records managers, conservation is predominant.
For most lawyers the only thing that counts is the reality of the risk inherent in the information and therefore they tend to preserve everything, "just in case"!
4) C-level
Obviously, this role falls to the executive and officers.
Not so!
It is clear that C levels need to address these issues as they are passionate when it comes to financial or other assets.
It is not obvious that they have more relevancy than other to prepare a set of policies for information governance but, on the other hand, they are the ones allowed to decide of it.
At the executive level and depending on influences, information can be analyzed and understood as crucial or relevant, as a cost, a duty, a support, etc., and it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage alone, this issue
A new role
What skills ?
First, It is a manager who knows how to deal with a multidisciplinary team (steering committee) comprising lawyers, business specialists, marketing managers, architects / planners, IT specialists and computer users.
Which mission ?
This team has a mission to prepare the information governance case for decision by the C level as well as various business executives.
Which role ?
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complete synthesis of all requirements,
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validate the assessment of information (in response of specific business needs)
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prepare the Information Governance case for decision
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monitor the enforcement and measure new services effectiveness.
The Information Governance issue is too important to not be left in the hands of a talented team of experts focused on efficiency and pragmatism.
#benefits #InformationGovernance #ElectronicRecordsLong-TermPreservation #systems