Keeping Tabs On Your Data With Information Governance

Company data is created, exchanged, and saved across different office networks, workstations, hardware devices, emails, and cloud storage accounts. There are countless methods and applications for sharing content with coworkers and clients that needs to be monitored. The information flow is convoluted, and the ramifications for governance are significant.

The organization’s approach to information governance must include every facet of content flow and cooperation. Today’s challenge for information management professionals is determining whether or not they have proper governance controls and processes in place. What is the current state of your Information Governance strategy and why is this so significant?

Singapore’s Personal Data Protection (PDPA) is ensuring that personal data is protected and that organisations collect, use and disclose this data legitimately and reasonably.

By regulating the flow of personal data among organisations, the PDPA also aims to strengthen Singapore’s position as a trusted hub for businesses.

However, many organizations’ information governance plans and procedures have disregarded the information that is being created, shared, and preserved within the business environment. This exposes you to the risk of unmanaged data and the opportunity cost of losing out on a critical component of your data ecosystem.

Information Governance Checklist

Checklists are a great baseline to help with evaluating current processes and planning for improved governance implementation:

☐ Do we know the data volume and where it comes from?

☐ What data is digital and what is physical (paper)?

☐ Define the current management of all active data records (workflow, storage, access).

☐ Define the current strategy for archived data and disposal of data.

☐ What is our data backup and redundancy approach (is data loss prevented)?

☐ Can historic data be recalled?

☐ Who is currently involved in the data management process?

☐ Identify who must be involved in the data management process (nominate key personnel).

☐ Who accesses our data and who needs our data?

☐ Who controls and tracks hardware devices, networks, and access?

☐ What policies do we have for personal and mobile devices and where data is stored?

☐ Is data accessed remotely and securely; how is transient data managed?

☐ What data management tools are in place and what tools are missing?

Step-by-Step Governance Plan

☐ Audit current systems, and policies and procedure to establish where the company’s data is stored, where and how it moves between users and departments.

☐ Setup a team that has a representative from each department and office and a manager to lead the Information Governance team that minimizes the company’s risk.

☐ Entrench governance into everyday tasks using workflows and automation.

☐ Apply intelligent features as metadata and document tagging to automatically organize, categorize, archive, and discard data according to structured, compliant, and priority policies.

☐ Set regular reviews of systems and policies to ensure the company consistently adheres to regulatory requirements.

Document Management System (DMS)

In conclusion, good information governance isn’t just about following rules like Singapore’s PDPA. It’s about turning data risks into business strengths that boost efficiency, reduce dangers, and make the most of your data.

Follow the checklist and step-by-step plan above: Start by checking where your data is and how it moves, then build a team, automate daily tasks, use smart tags to sort and delete data automatically, and review everything regularly to stay compliant.

At the heart of this is a strong document management system (DMS). It acts as the main tool to organize, protect, and control all your files—digital or paper. This way, every bit of info is easy to find, secure, and handled properly.

Using a DMS protects against losing data or breaking laws. It also helps teams work better together, sparks new ideas, and makes your company a reliable player in a world full of data.