Information Governance (IG), which is an instance of best practice, covers records management, archiving of data/records, file intelligence, and e-discovery matters, among other areas of related concern.   And, regarding the work of IT, in particular, as to the improved production, handling, and storage of e-records, IG will rely, e. g., on smarter metadata models for more secured data privacy and security, besides the necessary building of intelligence into the structure of future data records. 

IG, furthermore, covers: data governance, information technology governance, information security governance, and responsible information management.   Increasing numbers of both private and public entities/organizations are, therefore, intelligently instituting the useful  existence of IG Boards to encourage heightened awareness of risk analysis, risk management, and risk mitigation needs.

Such standards help achieve records and information management (RIM) operational excellence to:
*             Provide guidelines for the implementation of policies, systems, and procedures for the management of recorded information
*             Ensure consistency in the management of records and information 
*             Make sure that valuable information assets are protected and remain accessible and retrievable 
*             Establish uniform and readily understandable terminology               
*             Advance the professionalization of the RIM practices and procedures
*             Enhance interoperability between systems to promote efficiency and cost savings 
*             Reduce risk exposure


Yours sincerely,
Joe


-----Original Message-----
From: Julie J. Colgan [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 07, 2011 10:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ARMA International and EDRM Join Forces to Focus on Information Governance | PRLog

Gary Link said:  "One thing this press release does not do is define information governance. From an RM perspective, would it be accurate to say that information governance is the policy-level portion of an RM program?"
Hi Gary,

I'll offer my personal opinion of what Information Governance is, and how RM fits into it.

Information Governance relates to a much broader set of goals than traditional RM/RIM.  RM is a *part* of IG, but certainly does not represent or address all of the concerns an organization must deal with in order to truly manage its information as business assets and/or liabilities.

Information Governance relates to the idea that to truly manage information across an enterprise it requires a much more strategic view of information use, information risk and outside forces that have a stake in the organization's information (regulators, shareholders, customers, archivists, etc.).

Yes, IG relates to the policy layer of RM, but only to the point of figuring out how RM fits in with the rest of IG such as information privacy and security, corporate transparancy and accountability, information availability and access, etc.  Sure, the RM program can contribue to information integrity, compliance success, and contribute to an organization's ability to reduce its information-related cost and risk through proper and defensible retention and disposition, but RM is only part of the answer.  Just thinking about information from the perspective of retention and disposition of official records and identification of non-records isn't nearly enough in today's business environment.

In my opinion, RM's (as a profession, not necessarily any specific
professional)  inability to fully address all of the good/bad that information can represent to an organization is why we have struggled to get that elusive seat at the table; and for those that got to the table but weren't asked back ... I think it's likely because the people at the table were left hungry.

ARMA's Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP) and associated Maturity Model for Information Governance are the RM's (the professional and the profession) best path to competing and achieving at the IG level.  If you aren't familiar with GARP yet, I highly recommend you get reading ( www.arma.org/garp).  There is a good amount of material there including general information, webinars, articles, online courses, a "GARP health check" self-assessment tool, etc.  Plus, there will be at least seven sessions at conference directly related to GARP if you will be in DC next month, two of which I will be leading (the GARP roundtable and a panel with EMC Corp and Autonomy on exactly the topic of this thread).

I'd love to hear others' opinions about the relationship between RM/RIM, IM, IG, KM, GARP ... thoughts?

Julie

(Full disclosure - I am on the Board of Directors for ARMA Int'l and the Chair of the GARP Steering Task Force.  However, as offered at the beginning of my message, all of the above comments are my personal opinion and may not necessarily reflect those of ARMA or the GSTF.)

--
Julie J. Colgan, CRM

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