Utilizing Information Governance Software for eDiscovery Workflows.

Many organizations are now utilizing information governance (IG/GRC)) tools to reduce the cost and complexity of eDiscovery. Through a comprehensive IG platform such as 4iG, organizations can gain real-time insights into their data and improve their ability to respond quickly and appropriately when faced with litigation or regulatory compliance requests.

What is Electronic Discovery?

Simply put, eDiscovery is the process of gathering electronically stored information (ESI), to comply with legal obligations or use it as evidence in a court case. It involves collecting, preserving, processing, reviewing, analyzing, and producing ESI for review by lawyers or other parties involved in a legal action. The purpose of eDiscovery is to enable parties to exchange relevant documents quickly and inexpensively. As such, it has become an essential part of most corporate legal departments. However, despite advances in eDiscovery technologies and the help of legal service providers, conducting discovery remains an expensive undertaking.

The Benefits of Utilizing an Information Governance Platform

An IG platform is designed to provide organizations with complete visibility into their data assets so that they can better assess risk and manage compliance requirements. By leveraging an IG platform for eDiscovery purposes, organizations can gain greater control over their ESI by automating processes such as collection, preservation, and production. This helps ensure that ESI is managed in accordance with applicable laws and regulations while also reducing costs associated with manual document review processes. Additionally, an IG platform can help organizations optimize workflow efficiency through its powerful analytics capabilities that enable them to quickly identify key documents that require review or further investigation. By implementing an innovative IG platform that indexes and acts on data where it’s stored, businesses can simplify their compliance processes while reaping cost-saving benefits. Additionally, no longer having to move information between systems helps reduce the compliance risks and human errors associated with this process.

The Role of Identifying PII, with IG Software, in eDiscovery Workflows

Protecting personal information is essential in an eDiscovery workflow. Information Governance software plays a vital role by helping to accurately identify and redact personal information, such as social security numbers, credit card details, or other Personally Identifiable Information (PII). It helps to protect this sensitive data while still allowing legal teams easy access to potential evidence they need. In addition, Information Governance software can help monitor compliance with guidelines and make sure that data remains secure. With Information Governance providing an extra layer of security on top of eDiscovery workflows, organizations can remain compliant while still successfully uncovering insights from their data.

Conclusion

In today’s digital environment, managing vast amounts of electronically stored information (ESI) has become an integral part of most corporate legal departments’ operations. To ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations while also reducing costs associated with manual document review processes, many organizations are turning to information governance (IG) platforms coupled with electronic discovery (eDiscovery) workflows and automated, intelligent, PII-identification. By using an Information Governance (GRC) software platform with the aforementioned features, companies can gain greater control over their data assets while optimizing workflow efficiencies, all while protecting personal information. When considering an IG software platform, such as 4iG, it is critical to look for these features.

About Infinnium 4iG

Infinnium is redefining Information Governance. Our GRC, Privacy & Legal Compliance solutions revolutionize the way organizations connect to and interact with data at rest to gain actionable intelligence. Built for corporations, law firms, and others our 4iG software solution uses AI, machine learning and analytics to improve business decision-making and information management including IG, compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, other privacy regulations and electronic discovery. Infinnium’s team of experts brings simplicity to the complex world of digital data, combining the strengths of people and modern technology to help organizations harness their data and empower them to make smarter business decisions and effectively address today’s complex information management needs. To learn more about Infinnium’s innovative suite of technology solutions, visit www.infinnium.com.

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Get rid of the ROT and reduce your DUMB

How much ROT is in your company? What is ROT? Well, to put it plainly, ROT (Redundant, Outdated, Trivial data) is just gross. Really, I do mean gross – the word or acronym as it is, not only sounds gross it refers to the gross amount of data of no business or legal value retained by organizations. Here’s another new acronym for you – DUMB. ROT and DUMB, not exactly the most pleasant-sounding way to start a blog, is it? But wait, if you find that unpleasant then *spoiler alert*, the following statement based off a recent AIIM report will really strike a nerve – Large companies could be spending an excess of $30 MILLION DOLLARS per year managing ROT! Here’s the point – Reduce the ROT and you’ll reduce the DUMB.

A few months back, we had the pleasure of presenting to an audience of DPO’s, Compliance and Data Protection officers in London. During our chat we introduced the DUMB acronym for the first time. And it clearly struck a chord. The reactions across the room were eye-opening. Heads nodded, faces smiled; we got some chuckles and even heard a few proclamations of YES!

What is the DUMB?

Think of the number of duplicate contracts & documents as well as outdated information that accumulates across an organization. All this information was created from current and former employees, M&A activities, HR policies, records and, well, you get the idea. And of course, this data is never centralized onto one, nicely organized location – no, it’s across network servers, SharePoint, emails, desktops, mobile devices, geographies and increasingly today, cloud platforms such as Slack, Salesforce, etc. All of this…makes up your Data Under Management Budget. Yes, the DUMB.

Our company has a lot of data we don’t need, so what?

Let’s be clear, there are numerous risks to a company holding on to ROT. Any one of them can be very costly. For one, add up the costs for all the excessive infrastructure – storage, maintenance, software licensing, applications and so on. While we are at it, let’s also consider those costly business analytics tools. The reliability (and ROI) of these tools depends on the quality of the data feeding into them – excessive outdated (bad) data will most certainly impact these tools. The impact on the analytics tools could be devastating to the value of the information derived and its negative outcomes across critical business systems. If these tools are being automated, that means even less oversight on the bad data driving business decisions.

Then there’s the heightened risk of breach (and data exfiltration) and the associated liability risk(s) associated with the loss of PII/PCI/PHI, as well as company trade secrets. These are just two quick examples – there are others – of the risks and costs raised within an organization that should be evaluated, and not ignored.

There is a deeper gaze being placed on compliance today, giving way to new emerging roles in data protection and information governance. It’s not surprising to us at Infinnium that more and more conversations are focused on this area. And this is why we built 4iG. In fact, recent surveys like the Global Information Governance Survey 2022-23 (Robert F. Smallwood and InfoGov World Media) uncovers the significant shifts over the past year among the top 10 IG project focus areas within organizations – with reactive strategies such as Legal and eDiscovery shifting downwards, whereas proactive strategies like data privacy, protection and governance are leaping towards the top.

Conclusion

The more ROT an organization houses unnecessarily, the more risks and costs you are exposed to daily.
The ability to have clearer insights into what you have, where it’s located, and manage that data in place is a gigantic first step towards reducing the DUMB. Infinnium’s 4iG software platform is purposed built to solve these challenges. 4iG can deal with your data where it exists versus putting some or all of it into yet another location. After all, when you’re trying to reduce ROT, the last thing you should want is to duplicate that data! 4iG is the smart solution for identifying and investigating ROT, reducing it intelligently and managing it based on the compliance rules you require going forward. The result will be far less DUMB than your current situation.

About Infinnium 4iG

Infinnium is redefining Information Governance. Our GRC, Privacy & Legal Compliance solutions revolutionize the way organizations connect to and interact with data at rest to gain actionable intelligence. Built for corporations, law firms, and others our 4iG software solution uses AI, machine learning and analytics to improve business decision-making and information management including IG, compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, other privacy regulations and electronic discovery. Infinnium’s team of experts brings simplicity to the complex world of digital data, combining the strengths of people and modern technology to help organizations harness their data and empower them to make smarter business decisions and effectively address today’s complex information management needs. To learn more about Infinnium’s innovative suite of technology solutions, visit www.infinnium.com.

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