Forging a partnership with IT to build a solid IG program.

• Author: Richardson, Blake E.
• Position: RIM FUNDAMENTALS - Information technology - Information governance

Corporate information vacuums and silos continue to be a point of employee frustration, the cause of ineffective business decisions, and, ultimately, an inhibitor to revenue growth. This issue is not exclusively related to technology; it also involves having a "turf' ownership mentality and not understanding the benefits of collaboration. Finally, after years of departments working in parallel, infrequently reaching out to others for advice or assistance, this is beginning to change.

Companies are surveying the in formation landscape and realizing that today's complex records and information management (RIM) issues, such as e-discovery, e-mail management, storage, backups, structured data retention, and migration, are growing. They are beginning to understand that to meet these challenges, they not only must control the information explosion, they must manage information properly as an asset to generate value, reduce expenses, and increase corporate compliance. The reality is that no single department is equipped to address these challenges; it takes a group effort.

IT and RIM Must Partner

The needed collaboration between RIM and IT, in particular, is in stark contrast to the traditional stereotypes for their roles, where RIM was tucked away in a centralized file room concentrating on managing physical information, while IT focused its efforts on electronic application and network availability and backups. In those old roles, there was no logical need for interaction.

Today, IT and RIM must rely on each other to ensure the proper management of all information. They can no longer base the success of their respective operations on network availability and the management of paper records--their paths have crossed and are now intertwined.

Forging an Effective Partnership

If you have not forged an effective partnership with IT, you must be the initiator to open the lines of communication. Once the dialog begins, it should not take long for IT to understand the benefits of partnering on RIM-related issues. IT should be hungry for RIM guidance, and you, as a RIM professional, need IT insight to ensure a compliant RIM program.

Once you understand how the department is structured and what its various responsibilities are, you will see there are several opportunities for approaching IT. Typically, the IT department will be configured in the following sub-departments or sections with a few typical responsibilities:

* Hardware--Configures and installs hardware products and supports network printers

* Software: Conducts planning and feasibility studies pertaining to the development and implementation of organizational software solutions

* Database Administration: Ensures the proper performance of the organization's databases and conducting prescribed maintenance

* Infrastructure: Designs, implements, and monitors the performance of information solutions, including...