How does your IG program measure up?

• Position: INFO GOVERNANCE - Information governance

Implementing a legally defensible retention schedule is a key component of an organization's data management program. It can speed up the e-discovery process and reduce costs associated with document preservation and reproduction. U.S. companies understand this. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for most companies in other countries, according to a recent Mondaq article.

If your CEO asked you to assess the condition of your information governance (IG) program, how would you respond? You might begin at the core of any comprehensive IG program: your records and information management (RIM) practices. If your organization is among the 13% who recently reported they don't have a RIM program, you're already in trouble.

Most (87%) of the organizations that participated in the 2013/2014 Information Governance Benchmarking Survey conducted by Cohasset Associates, ARMA International, and AIIM International confirmed they have a RIM program. That's the good news. The fact that few organizations (12%) fully integrate RIM and the other key IG disciplines--compliance, security, IT, risk management, audit--is the not-so-good news.

Some of the other findings of note are listed here:

* At 78%, the greatest challenge RIM...