Truly efficient eDiscovery in a corporate environment relies on good information governance. Without this in place, there are simply too many nooks and crannies in which data can hide, making it easy to miss relevant documents, or over-collect and pay the processing price.
As such a critical and cost-saving component of eDiscovery – with benefits spanning multiple departments – you’d expect information governance improvements to feature high on priority lists. In reality, the opposite is far more commonly true.
This is largely due to the challenge of securing buy-in and budget for a project with no clear “owner” – not exactly IT, not exactly legal, not exactly any other single department, either.
So, what’s the solution? How do we prevent information governance from falling through the gaps and making eDiscovery an uphill (and expensive) battle? Believe it or not, the key lies in eDiscovery itself. Each eDiscovery project offers a wealth of insights into the data estate that can be used to identify areas for improvement within information governance. For example:
| Insight | Action |
| Data is not being deleted as it can/should be | Improve retention policies |
| Significant pockets of ROT are present | Improve ROT removal |
| Highly sensitive data found in insufficiently controlled locations | Improve data labelling and classification |
| Greater understanding of where data is stored, what is in legacy archives, where there are duplicates | Create/update data map |
Specific insights can also serve as valuable focal points, motivating stakeholder departments to come together to discuss the potential cost and benefit of implementing the proposed actions. This makes it much easier to overcome the challenge of project “ownership”, bridging the responsibility gaps through which information governance improvements tend to disappear.
The best part, however, is the more you use this eDiscovery-driven feedback loop, the more self-sustaining it gets. eDiscovery insights drive information governance improvements that drive better (and more cost-effective) eDiscovery that drives better information governance… You get the picture.
And that’s not all.
This “virtuous circle” has some pretty sizable business benefits outside of eDiscovery and information governance. Think:
- Reduced risk, due to more effective data retention and disposition processes
- Lower storage costs, due to a leaner, cleaner data estate
- Higher productivity, due to improved access to information for employees
Clearly, the question is no longer whether you can afford to implement information governance improvements, but rather whether you can afford not to.
Have you established an eDiscovery feedback loop in your organisation? Or are you missing out on this opportunity by outsourcing eDiscovery in its entirety to a law firm?
To find out more about eDiscovery’s far-reaching potential as an internal business tool get in touch.
