Obstacles
What are some of the issues that the information governance industry is facing?
From Robin Woolen: One of the biggest issues that records managers have, and the tendency that organizations have, is to keep records managers typically relegated to the role of custodian or librarian of a company’s information, where they are located in the basement and no one sees or speaks to them. Records managers are already introverted and rarely speak to others so, in my opinion, this results in a big [cultural] disconnect in an organization and leads to losing the underlying value of the information that they are keeping. The whole value of this information has been lost from the C-suite and down. Luckily, technology is now to the point where this can be reversed. The Big Data craze is another helping factor though you can’t utilize Big Data unless your organization has control of its data in the first place. Now organizations are seeing the value in their information and keeping it organized. From here, the records management personnel must step up to organize information and dispose of unnecessary materials putting the value back into their organization’s information.
Defining Information Governance: An Exploration with Industry Experts
Defining Information Governance: An Exploration with Industry Experts
As digital information grows, so do the challenges and burdens of managing this mountain of data. Until recently, much of the industry has been focused on applying principles used to manage physical records, but they are now realizing that records management is no longer a sufficient solution. Companies are only now beginning to understand the importance of having an information governance program to manage electronically stored information across their organization as they drive new standards, controls, processes, disciplines and corporate objectives. This natural evolution to encompass a wide array of features and capabilities will continue to change the way that companies maintain their documents and ensure compliance across the organization and within their vertical industries.
RSD recently developed a monthly blog segment titled Influencer’s Corner where the team sits down with the industry’s top influencers to discuss all that is happening in the world of information governance. To kick this off, the RSD team recently spoke with the following industry influencers to discuss their thoughts on the current state of the information governance market, misconceptions, advice for companies looking to embark on information governance projects and industry predictions for 2015.
Influencers include:
- Chris Walker, father of the Principals of Holistic Information Governance, an independent consultant and an analyst with Digital Clarity Group
- Bassam Zarkout, CTO of RSD, is a thought leader in the information governance space (conception, design, development and implementation), a frequent speaker at key industry events and a 20 year Information Governance veteran
- James Lappin, an independent records management consultant and trainer
- Robin Woolen, founder and principal consultant at The Records Guru®, IG industry veteran circa 1994
Continue reading for the influencers’ insight.
