Information has long been considered the lifeblood of any organization, and this has never been truer than today. Although the basic tenets of analysis, research and content management are still somewhat consistent with those that were prevalent in the past, the mass digitization of files has changed the ways in which businesses govern their information.
In the digital era, organizations that optimize their content management and information governance programs will be better positioned to get the most out of breakthrough analytics solutions. Big data is likely toward the top of the priority list for organizations in a majority of industries today, as the tools come with the ability to turn massive volumes of structured and unstructured information into actionable insights far more quickly than traditional solutions and techniques allow.
While modern analytics and data management strategies have been highly rewarding for many, businesses have struggled to protect the information from loss, theft and exposure. Data security has become a significantly complex and difficult matter that most companies have struggled to properly handle, leading to record-breaking rates of identity theft, fraud and information exposure throughout the past six years.
Rather than letting these matters get out of hand, decision-makers can begin to use advanced content management, data capture and automation software to reduce the threat of breach and get the most out of the information being generated internally or collected from external sources. Automation can reduce human error, which also happens to be one of the most common causes of information exposure today, and simultaneously improve the efficiency of general content management activities.
Setting up for success
Seven Days Technologies, a South African IT security firm, recently explained some of the ways in which data classification and other initial content management procedures can impact the security of information stored and used by a given business. The organization pointed out that the threat of breach is significant, and can quickly lead to the exposure of intellectual property, sensitive financial documents and a variety of other data sets that can be used to conduct fraudulent activities when falling into the wrong hands.
Companies must first begin to create intelligent, structured and comprehensive classification strategies that will designate and categorize data in accordance with its sensitivity, value and other attributes. Regardless of which technologies are in place to close the circle on content management, information governance success will be closely tied to planning and oversight in the initial stages of strategy deployments.
According to Seven Days Technologies, the process of data classification can be somewhat complex and difficult, especially when working with high volumes of information that are in a diversity of formats. Notably, the massive volumes of unstructured information that are being targeted and collected in big data efforts are especially difficult to manage, govern and classify for the average business.
"Data classification is the foundation of an effective information governance strategy," the firm's managing director, Sean Glansbeek, affirmed. "By giving users the ability to proactively identify the data that they are producing, organizations can manage and protect the vast amount of unstructured data that users produce each day."
This highlights the importance of customizing and targeting the various components of an information governance program proactively.
While this organization is a bit more interested in the security aspects of data classification and information governance, these same practices can be used to drive success in automated content management programs.
Automate to stimulate success
Once a company has developed a strong set of policies, procedures and oversight frameworks to manage information governance, automation software can be highly advantageous to take the programs to the next level. Human error is not only one of the most common causes of data breach and security incidents, it is also a fundamental and primary source of inaccurate reporting and information management processes.
People make mistakes, and no one is perfect. However, automation software can be used to eliminate data entry – which is at once a popular source of inefficiency and poor accuracy – while driving the intelligence of content management programs higher. One of the core benefits of this type of approach is that employees will often be more engaged, while information professionals will have far more time and freedom to focus on strategic matters and analysis, rather than the mundane and arduous actions associated with standard entry and collection.
Most businesses will have unique and customized objectives in their information governance strategies, but virtually all will keep security and analysis as the two fundamental priorities in these plans. Considering the fact that automation can not only cover these objectives, but also stimulate more robust efficiency and intelligence gains in the process, leveraging these tools can be a major step in the right direction for any company's content management strategy.
