See Clearly: A 3-Part Process for Bringing Your Information Management Program into Focus

Data is the foundation for a host of efficiency-driving applications. But to reap their benefits—and to keep your organization safe and secure—you must manage your information effectively.

With more and more data pouring in across functions, that can be tough to do. Sixty-four percent of organizations now manage at least one petabyte of data, and 41% have 500 petabytes or more. Trying to organize and make sense of it all can feel like staring into a deep, dark well. Where do you even begin?

This article will show you how to see your information clearly and get it under control for good by following a clearly laid-out, three-part process.

The Role Metadata Plays in the Information Lifecycle

Created in Collaboration with KMWorld  If you’ve ever spent too much time searching shared drives, sifting through folders, or chasing down a critical document only to come up empty-handed, you’re not alone.  Every organization generates massive volumes of data across…

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Part 1 – Clearing the Path: Gaining Visibility and Control

To manage your information properly, you must first understand what you have, where it resides, and how it flows through its lifecycle. Let’s break that down into steps:

1. First, identify your existing information. Conduct a thorough inventory of your records, documents, and categorize them based on type, sensitivity, and business value.
2. Map out where your information resides. Identify all your physical and digital storage locations, including those on-premises, in the cloud, and held by third-party services.
3. Address information silos that could hinder accessibility and governance. Make note of isolated information—for example, customer data held by marketing and sales teams that isn’t accessible to other departments, or accounting data stored in proprietary finance-department applications.
4. Track how your information flows. Analyze how data moves from creation to storage, use, and disposal. See if you can eliminate any bottlenecks you spot or risks that may occur as data is transferred among departments or systems.
5. Establish ownership and accountability. It’s critical to define roles and responsibilities for managing information. You also need to make sure all stakeholders understand their responsibilities for maintaining compliance and security.
6. Pave the way for improving governance. As you sort through various types of information, begin to develop policies for retention, access, and security, aligning them with your organization’s goals.

Part 2 – Bringing Organization into Focus

If you’ve followed the procedures in Part 1, you’ve already won half the battle. By making all your information clearly visible, you have created a pathway that will allow you to improve accessibility, reduce redundancies, and improve compliance throughout the organization. Here’s how to get it done:

1. Implement a standardized classification system. Develop conventions for naming your data and tagging its metadata. Then organize records based on categories, retention schedules, and access levels.
2. Decide which data to digitize. Not all information can be digitized. Certain legal documents requiring signatures and some financial and medical records are required to be held in physical form. Create a plan for conserving them and develop a strategy for digitizing the rest, in order of their importance to the organization.
3. Streamline access and retrieval. Select indexing and document management systems that are search- and user-friendly. Examine and evaluate their capabilities for document indexing, metadata management, collaboration tools, and security.
4. Reduce redundancies and improve data quality. If you haven’t done so already, eliminate all the duplicate records you found in Part I to prevent clutter and enhance visibility. Then create a schedule and set reminders for regularly auditing your systems and clearing out outdated or unnecessary information.
5. Strengthen compliance and governance. Having well-organized information is a boon for compliance. It will now be much easier to see if your recordkeeping practices are in line with legal requirements and industry regulations. When you’ve made sure they are, you can save time by automating your retention and disposal processes.

Part 3 – Seeing Future Success

By making all your records clearly visible, logically organized, and well-governed, you have set your organization up for future success. You can now adopt technology that revolutionizes productivity and establish a culture of continuous improvement. Here are some of the things you can do:

1. Leverage technology for long-term efficiency. Use AI and automation for document classification, retrieval, and compliance tracking, It will save time, lower costs, and liberate employees from burdensome, repetitive tasks. Automated systems also reduce errors and improve security. Over time, you will obtain insights about data use throughout the organization, helping managers further improve processes and make better decisions.
2. Develop a strategic, scalable framework. Design policies to adapt to evolving business and regulatory requirements. Implement flexible retention schedules to accommodate your future needs.
3. Strengthen security and compliance measures. Keep up with trends in data privacy laws and industry regulations to prepare your organization before they come into effect. And regularly audit your systems to ensure that records remain secure and accessible.
4. Encourage a Culture of Continuous Improvement. Provide regular training to keep teams informed about best practices for their work, and review your information governance strategies regularly.
5. Partner with experts and industry leaders. Working with expert technology and compliance partners will keep you informed of emerging trends in information management, helping you continually optimize efficiency and maintain a competitive edge in an era of rapid change.

When you can see your records clearly, there are no limits for finding ways to make your organization work better. Learn additional strategies from the experts in information lifecycle management in our three part webinar series!

See Clearly: Bringing your Information Management Program into Focus.