Digital Transformation Series Part 3: Applying Automation to Information Governance

This post continues our series on streamlining information governance and compliance. In this and my next article I will briefly spotlight three strategies and an industry trend to consider when applying automation to your information governance practices.

One strategy is to enhance electronic discovery processes. Automating records management and disposition for eDiscovery is a policy that many legal organizations have adopted, and the trend is toward further automation. Within firms and in-house legal departments that initiate automated eDiscovery, data is automatically copied, processed, filtered and loaded into review systems with limited human interaction. The scope of data collection is quantified, and systems automatically build and track a full chain of custody. Default templates help to reduce inconsistencies that can present a risk in court.

A second method to consider is to automate data monitoring for security and privacy. Advanced network security monitoring tools offer new hope for catching data security threats that fly under the radar. This is important to reduce financial risk to the organization. For example, the eDJ Group estimates the cost to search through files using a basic search engine runs about $30 per gigabyte.¹ If your business has 1TB of information to sort through, the estimated costs could start at $30,000 just for search. Taking that one step further, a report by the Rand Institute for Justice on eDiscovery found that 73% of the cost associated with eDiscovery is for document review and analysis.²

In my next post I’ll focus on a third strategy and a survey finding to consider when applying automation to your information governance and compliance activities.

References:

1. Dysart, Joe (2015) “Low-cost e-discovery services target small firms, simpler cases.” ABA Journal, June 2015

2. Pace, Nicholas and Zakaras, Laura (2012) “Where the Money Goes: Understanding Litigant Expenditures for Producing Electronic Discovery.” The RAND Corporation.