Continuously Improving Your Information Governance Program

A recent Law Technology News article poses an important question. "How do notions of continuous improvement amidst constant change play out when it comes to information governance?" The author points out that under ARMA's recordkeeping principles, it is the rare organization at level four or five of the information governance maturity model that "has established a proactive information governance program throughout its operations and has established continuous improvement for it." The author goes on to ask two more key questions. “But what does it mean to continuously improve amidst technological change? And exactly how is it to be carried out as a matter of IG?

One answer to these questions is to adopt "kaizen" methodology. One definition of kaizen, a Japanese term, is "continuous improvement." The approach, used many times by our Best Practices team to help clients improve processes, entails making changes and monitoring results, then adjusting. The article spotlights in more detail how using the kaizen approach can be applied to information governance and how at least one segment of the IG universe, eDiscovery practice, is beginning to pay more attention to kaizen methods.

If you're interested in learning more about the challenges and opportunities of information governance, you may want to view our recent webcast, "Go from Records Management to Information Governance: How to Implement an Effective Strategy". The presentation discusses ways to improve your records and information management today with an effective strategy and implementation framework.

Feel free to visit the Legal Services page of our website to learn more about how tapping the right managed services provider—one with the right expertise, technology and capabilities—can help corporate legal departments and law firms effectively manage paper and electronic discovery. Additionally, our website offers more on industry best practices, case histories and whitepapers.