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Master Data Management Critical to Effective Information Governance: Gartner | eWeek.com (Nathan Eddy)

January 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The MDM market continues to grow because it focuses on specific business drivers and business-led initiatives.

Master data management (MDM) is critical to achieving effective information governance, according to a report from IT research firm Gartner, which noted failure to manage information accurately has been the root cause of several incidents, including the leak of sensitive information to WikiLeaks, and can be fatal to the success of MDM programs. Gartner estimates worldwide MDM software revenue will reach $1.9 billion in 2012, a 21 percent increase from 2011.

MDM is a technology-enabled business discipline in which businesses and IT organizations work together to ensure the uniformity, accuracy, stewardship, semantic consistency and accountability of the organization’s official, shared master data assets. It is increasingly identified by organizations with the launch of a formal enterprise information management (EIM) strategy and the foundation of an information governance program that supports EIM.

“The recent global financial crisis has put information governance in the spotlight,” said Ted Friedman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “Information governance is a priority of IT and business leaders as a result of various pressures, including regulatory compliance mandates and the urgent need for improved decision-making.”

MDM is one of the most notable information governance programs, and the MDM market continues to grow because it focuses on specific business drivers and business-led initiatives. Gartner predicts by 2016, 20 percent of CIOs in regulated industries will lose their jobs for failing to implement the discipline of information governance successfully.

via Master Data Management Critical to Effective Information Governance: Gartner – IT Management – News & Reviews – eWeek.com.

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Right-Thinking E-Discovery Project Management | Law Technology News (Brett Burney)

January 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lawyers are not “project managers” — they’re lawyers.

That’s not to say that lawyers don’t juggle a thousand tasks every day, diligently supervise the folks that support their practice, or carefully manage a diverse portfolio of clients. Indeed, project management is part of doing business as a lawyer, but it is curiously not part of most law school curriculums.

E-discovery, however, throws a curveball at the intellectually routine practice of law. And evidence shows that lawyers are not prepared or not willing to manage the granular tasks necessary to supervise a successful e-discovery project.

Lawyers are trained to analyze and strategize — not to categorize, prioritize, and quantify. Categorizing and prioritizing tasks and goals and quantifying results are absolutely critical to the success of any e-discovery project, but are considered beneath the ken of practicing law by many lawyers. So how should e-discovery tasks be managed, and who should be responsible?

Lawyers should look to forms of management that have been tested and proved successful, such as project management.

via Right-Thinking E-Discovery Project Management.

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Obama Directive Alters Federal Record Management And E-Discovery Landscape | AOL Government (Rob Hellewell)

January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With the stroke of a pen, the Obama administration has ushered the federal government into the Digital Age. On November 28, the President issued a memorandum mandating new rules, procedures, and deadlines for overhauling the government’s record management system, kick-starting the federal government’s transition to a digitized recordkeeping environment.

In what the memorandum describes as “a 21st-century framework for the management of Government records,” 480 federal agencies will be required to begin the migration to electronic recordkeeping, creating better management systems for emails, social media, and cloud-based information.

President Obama expects the effort to start immediately. The memorandum gives agency heads 120 days to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) detailing their plan to improve records management. The OMB will then have 120 days to review the plans and issue specific steps that each agency must take to reform recordkeeping.

via Obama Directive Alters Federal Record Management And E-Discovery Landscape.

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Getting Rid of Data: Why it s So Hard | Information Management

November 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Many organizations think they are taking the right approach to information overload: buy ever-cheaper storage solutions, lower compliance risk by saving all data and focus more resources on solutions for turning all this data into actionable intelligence. Unfortunately, storing and managing data stores that only get bigger with time is very expensive, and instead of reducing risk, it dramatically increases costs and risks associated with e-discovery.

According to Gartner, IT shops already spend between 2 and 3 percent of revenues on data management, which can add up to hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars each year. And according to IDC, corporate data volumes grew by about 50 percent last year. The fact is, no matter how inexpensive storage devices become, the total cost of managing data will continue to grow. And while some data must be retained for its business, legal or compliance value, retaining data that has no such value increases the complexity and cost of every hold issued by the legal department in response to an e-discovery request.

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How can IT organizations defensibly dispose of data to control IT costs while satisfying the requirement for legal holds? The answer is a robust, cross-functional information governance program.

via Getting Rid of Data: Why it s So Hard.

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HP + Autonomy – What It Means For Archiving, Records Management, and eDiscovery | Forrester Blogs

August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

While this purchase holds promise, I’m skeptical about how it will translate to near- and mid-term advantage for enterprise customers focused on information risk management. Here’s why:

HP and Autonomy information risk management portfolios have significant overlap. With its TRIM and IAP product lines, HP today offers records management and archiving products. Leveraging a long string of acquisitions, including Meridio, Zantaz, Interwoven, CA Technologies, and most recently Iron Mountain Digital, Autonomy also sells records management and archiving. Prior to today’s announcement, Autonomy faced some portfolio rationalization challenges. With a broader set of records management and archiving assets after the deal finalizes, HP will face some tough choices in determining which of its product lines will receive corporate investment over the long term. While Autonomy will bring significant new eDiscovery functionality and a rich pool of information risk management specialists with legal expertise, HP and Autonomy records management and archiving customers should be cautious until product direction is clarified.

The two corporate cultures are fundamentally different. While Autonomy has long pushed the edge of the marketing envelope, HP traditionally has taken a very different approach with much tighter linkages between its marketing claims and proven functionality, backed by customer examples. Autonomy’s information risk management vision is compelling, but its “end-to-end” claims lack a solid set of customer success stories using Autonomy’s portfolio in a comprehensive way. In my opinion, a key lesson from this deal is that good marketing pays off. Over the long term, I expect that the two vendors’ profoundly different approaches will cause big bumps in product development and in sales and marketing strategies.

via HP + Autonomy – What It Means For Archiving, Records Management, and eDiscovery | Forrester Blogs.

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HP + Autonomy – What It Means For Archiving, Records Management, and eDiscovery | Forrester Blogs

August 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

While this purchase holds promise, I’m skeptical about how it will translate to near- and mid-term advantage for enterprise customers focused on information risk management. Here’s why:

HP and Autonomy information risk management portfolios have significant overlap. With its TRIM and IAP product lines, HP today offers records management and archiving products. Leveraging a long string of acquisitions, including Meridio, Zantaz, Interwoven, CA Technologies, and most recently Iron Mountain Digital, Autonomy also sells records management and archiving. Prior to today’s announcement, Autonomy faced some portfolio rationalization challenges. With a broader set of records management and archiving assets after the deal finalizes, HP will face some tough choices in determining which of its product lines will receive corporate investment over the long term. While Autonomy will bring significant new eDiscovery functionality and a rich pool of information risk management specialists with legal expertise, HP and Autonomy records management and archiving customers should be cautious until product direction is clarified.

The two corporate cultures are fundamentally different. While Autonomy has long pushed the edge of the marketing envelope, HP traditionally has taken a very different approach with much tighter linkages between its marketing claims and proven functionality, backed by customer examples. Autonomy’s information risk management vision is compelling, but its “end-to-end” claims lack a solid set of customer success stories using Autonomy’s portfolio in a comprehensive way. In my opinion, a key lesson from this deal is that good marketing pays off. Over the long term, I expect that the two vendors’ profoundly different approaches will cause big bumps in product development and in sales and marketing strategies.

via HP + Autonomy – What It Means For Archiving, Records Management, and eDiscovery | Forrester Blogs.

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6 Project Management Practices to Apply to E-Discovery Cases | Law.com

August 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most lawyers and paralegals would agree that cases are projects that require effective planning. Cases that involve e-discovery carry inherent challenges related to technology, budgets, workflow, communication, deadlines, and the need for early collaboration with all stakeholders. Many of the informal project management steps that attorneys take during the life cycle of a case can be applied more deliberately to better plan, execute, and monitor the e-discovery process — which can result in cost savings and other benefits.

Similar to cases, projects, by definition, are temporary and have a beginning and an end. Regardless of length, projects have stakeholders who are interested in the results as well as constraints that need to be managed. More than ever, legal is being scrutinized to better manage costs and create efficiencies within discovery processes.

Regardless of whether e-discovery is handled internally or externally, there are significant costs associated with the collection, processing, reviewing, storage, and management of data, so employing project management strategies in e-discovery can have a huge impact on both the short- and long-term interests of firms and their clients.

Although not every case requires the same level of adherence to all project management processes, there are a minimum of six that should be routinely implemented during the life cycle of cases that involve e-discovery. Cases must be closely managed to ensure that the scope is well defined, risk mitigation strategies are selected, a cost management plan is implemented, and all stakeholders (counsel and clients) are made aware that e-discovery can be an expensive proposition if not tightly managed. It’s in the best interest of all involved parties that the following project management concepts and practices are incorporated.

continued @  6 Project Management Practices to Apply to E-Discovery Cases.

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Case Study: SharePoint as an Email Management Solution

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When I discuss this solution at conferences or with peers, invariably the initial reaction is something like this: “Are you crazy? Why would you use SharePoint when you could use a commercially available product for archiving?” I must admit there were times over the two years we took to develop this solution, in partnership with Handshake Software, that I did feel a little crazy; however, we never lost sight of our goal. As you are about to see, this effort was about much more than merely archiving email.

The Email Conundrum

What are a typical law firm’s business practices and the challenges they face? Law firms do not sell widgets; we aid our clients in the form of legally sufficient document content and trial services. Clients have complicated issues that rarely translate easily from one case (aka matter) to another. The need to evaluate the circumstances and risks weighted against the desired outcomes varies for every client’s needs. Depending on the type of case, the jurisdiction(s) involved and other attorneys (opposing and co-counsel) the outcome(s) can vary dramatically from case to case and often represents a compromise between the parties based on the facts and circumstances as they unfold. The primary means of client communications and delivery method for intermediary and final document products is email.

Case materials are generated with different applications, from a variety of data sources (both internal and external) which produce different file types by a variety of firm personnel on tight timelines. It is not unusual for law firms to support 50 to 100+ different data and risk management applications and dozens of enterprise and workgroup (practice) databases. This is what drives content diversity, increases storage/retention challenges and fractures training/support issues in law firms. In summary, it is challenging to systemically provide user context to content when it is spread out across so many systems for tens of thousands of clients and hundreds of thousands of cases. Hopefully this short summary lends some understanding to the issues we faced.

The firm organizes new business in a structure that tags all business entities with a unique client number and the transactions for each client with a unique matter number for that client. For example, 12345.67890 would indicate client number 12345 is Johnson Hospital and 67890 would be property acquisition matter for them. Just about everything we do for a client is tagged with this unique identifier, including accounting transactions, documents, physical records, critical dates, etc. This allows us to reach in to various systems and discretely withdraw content and data the user requests. Such client/matter tagging is typical of most firms in the legal industry. Extending this method of tagging client and matter metadata to email would quadruple the amount of content within our inventory.

continued @ Case Study: SharePoint as an Email Management Solution.

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RIM Launches Free Cloud-Based BlackBerry Management Suite for Small Businesses

August 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Businesses are increasingly warming up to the use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets for productivity and improved collaboration. But while there is the need to ensure their data is secure when accessed on mobile devices, not everyone can afford big IT departments and dedicated hardware to manage their tech-related assets. With this in mind, Research In Motion (news, site) has launched a cloud-based management service for BlackBerry devices.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Miniaturized

The BlackBerry Management Center is a free online service that small and medium enterprises can use to centrally manage BlackBerry devices. Considered an SME alternative to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), the service is designed for organizations with up to 100 BlackBerry smartphones that gain access to email from an ISP or a web-based service. The service can be set up to handle both company- and employee-owned devices, and will support an array of BlackBerry device models.

via RIM Launches Free Cloud-Based BlackBerry Management Suite for Small Businesses.

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Automated Management of Legal Holds – Ben Kerschberg – Law & Technology – Forbes

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Recent federal court cases have reinforced that legal holds are an indispensable element of electronic discovery. A legal hold is a corporation’s legal duty to preserve electronically stored information (“ESI”). A hold issued internally within a corporation places potentially key custodians on notice to retain materials that may be relevant to legal claims of a pending or anticipated matter. Although these cases are highly fact-specific, federal courts have noted that the duty to preserve is invoked “when the party has notice that the evidence is relevant to the litigation or when a party should have known that the evidence may be relevant to future litigation.” Instituting and managing a legal hold must thus take place from inception through release.

The recent trend toward harsh discovery sanctions, including contempt of court, for violations of legal holds, include Judge Paul Grimm’s famous holding in Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe, Inc. (D. Md. 2008), and the recent decision in Green v. Blitz (E.D. Tex. Mar. 1, 2011). These decisions may well be a natural reaction to corporate legal executives’ attempts to avoid liability in this regard. According to Joshua Rosenberg, the Senior Director of Strategy and Operations at LexisNexis:

Many corporate legal executives [had] their law firms take on the role of managing legal holds for their organization because they saw it as a risk management technique. In other words, if anything goes wrong, the responsibility falls on the law firm, which should then shield the corporate executives from sanctions. However, a discernible pattern of corporate decisions over the past five years has revealed there is no available safety net to corporate counsel. If essence, the courts have said that corporate executives cannot hide from the responsibility of legal holds. If something goes wrong, the blame will fall squarely on their shoulders.

via Automated Management of Legal Holds – Ben Kerschberg – Law & Technology – Forbes.

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