Assess to be 'the best' in 2015.

• Author: Wiler, Vicki
• Position: IN FOCUS: A Message from the Editor - Editorial

There's nothing like the start of a new year to turn your thoughts toward assessing the status quo and making plans for improvement. For information professionals, that should include evaluating their careers and at least some facets of their organizations' information governance (IG) programs. This year's first issue of Information Management provides resources that should help you do both.

Assessing an IG program requires thoughtful planning and a team effort, Julie Gable, CRM, CDIA, FAI, writes in this issue's cover article. That team should represent the broad scope of IG, so it should include legal, IT, compliance, risk, and audit personnel. Gable focuses on the advantages of using an assessment tool like ARMA International's cloud-based software called Next Level, which evaluates the current condition of the program and provides recommendations for taking it to a higher level of IG maturity.

If your program assessment suggests your organization might do well to outsource one or more of its IG functions, you'll want to review the guidance provided in the article by Dave Bergeson, Ph.D., CAE. As the executive director of PRISM, the trade association for information services providers, he was able to incorporate some key advice from several PRISM members about crafting a request for proposal that will ensure that you get the specific services and service levels your organization needs.

One of the recommendations that is especially timely in the wake of so many recent data breaches is to look for service providers that have earned the Privacy+ Certification. This is awarded only to organizations that have undergone an outside audit that proves they have established internal controls that meet PRISM's control objectives that promote information privacy.

The recent massive Sony Pictures data breach, which slowed the organization to a crawl for a time, underscores the imperative of assessing...