laws regarding privacy and breach notification. In addition,
the ability to conduct quick and comprehensive eDiscovery
in the event of litigation can determine whether an enterprise emerges from a case relatively unscathed or faces fines,
civil judgments or prison sentences. There’s also the issue
of bad press and damage to reputation to deal with.
The 2010 Iron Mountain Compliance Benchmark Report
provides a snapshot for the state of records management,
and provides a clear view of where organizations are positioned and where they need to be headed. Remarkably, 66
percent of nearly 3,500 publicly traded, government and
non-profit organizations surveyed have no formal methods in place for accessing and managing data for discovery.
Moreover, only 13 percent of organizations manage electronic records in accordance with a retention schedule.
It’s a serious matter and one that’s creating enormous
challenges for business and IT leaders. What’s more, an
effective records retention strategy is made all the more difficult by the need to address all types of records regardless
of form, format or location — paper, microfilm, microfiche,
image files, emails, instant messages, online transactions,
and database records — that an enterprise must juggle.
As Brennan puts it: “Organizations with enterprise-wide
programs benefit by having quick access to information,
manageable storage costs, and peace of mind that they’ve
made good-faith efforts to comply with regulatory and
legal requirements.”
Policy matters
Navigating today’s business environment and managing
records effectively requires a clear understanding of the
issues that organizations face and what constitutes best
practices. Records management encompasses an array of
tools, systems and technologies, including physical warehouses, libraries, storage arrays, servers, and desktop as
well as mobile systems. In order to manage all this infor-
