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Contoural - Information Governance Services

Information Governance Process and Procedure Development

STRATEGIC FOUNDATIONAL EXECUTION MANAGEMENT
Maturity
Assessment &
Strategic
Roadmap 		Records/Data Retention
Policy & Schedule Data Security
Classification Policy 		AI
Governance Privacy
Program 		Discovery
Response &
Legal
Hold 		Governance
Processes
and
Procedures 		Data
Placement &
Automation 		Behavior
Change
Management
& Training 		Legacy
Document &
Data Disposition 		Ongoing
Management &
Monitoring
Information Governance Organizational Development
Determines Records Management and Information Governance Processes and Procedures to be Developed

Reviews current processes and procedures dealing with records management and information governance, and compares against set of “best practice” foundational Information Governance Program processes and procedures. Following this gap analysis, develops a list of recommended processes and procedures necessary to support Information Governance Program. 

Develops Information Governance Processes, Procedures, Guidelines and Reference Materials
Creates or updates information governance processes or procedures that will provide Program Managers, Record Coordinators and employees sufficient direction to comply with the Records Retention Policy and Schedule, or to assist Information Governance Organization staff in managing the Information Governance Program.

Top Three Information Governance Process and Procedure Development Resources

IG Advanced Class 1: Introduction to Information Governance
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Essential Discovery Response And Legal Hold Questions

  • What’s our procedure for requesting changes to our records retention schedule or document retention program?
  • How do we handle departing employees’ information?
  • What’s our process for integrating information during an acquisition? How do we evaluate the information governance capabilities and risks of a potential acquisition target?
  • How do we divide and share information during a divestiture?
  • What are the procedures for an employee information cleanup day?
  • How do we conduct an annual program assessment?
  • How do we inventory paper records? What are our paper record management and disposition procedures? How do we ensure our offsite records storage vendors are properly disposing expired information?
  • How do we ensure expired records under legal hold are not destroyed?
  • What is our process for deleting expired electronic information? How do we ensure that our document retention practices are following our policies?
  • What are the guidelines for managing email? How do we ensure employees are following email record retention and destruction rules?
  • How do we audit against “underground archiving” of electronic information? How do we ensure our process is defensible if undergoing scrutiny during litigation?
  • How do we develop standard processes for the creation, document retention, management and expiration of SharePoint sites?
  • What are our guidelines for managing and disposing of voicemail messages? Social media?
  • What are our process for managing electronic information for employees who work from home? How do we manage hardcopy information created by work-from-home employees?
  • What are out mobile/Bring-your-own-device policies? How do we manage company information stored on employees’ personal devices? How do we audit our mobile device policy to ensure compliance?

Contoural's Governance Processes And Procedures Approach

Although most records should be classified and managed through a routine automated process, companies will still need to set up a series of additional processes and procedures to capture, classify, manage, and dispose of records and information that may be created or received outside of these everyday processes.
Departing Employee Records Management Procedures
When employees leave some of their information may have value to the organization that is needed by their successors. Processes should be set up for classifying, managing and storing any of their information not already stored in appropriate repositories. Organizations should develop processes for for dealing with the work-related records of departing or transferred employees, to ensure that the department/function does not lose any knowledge of the departing individual, or that potentially important documents are not abandoned, deleted, or otherwise lost as a result of the departure.
Email/Voicemail Management Guidelines
Both, email and voicemail can be discoverable documents in litigation or regulatory matters, creating a potential eDiscovery liability if this information accumulates on personal devices and other places. Organizations should develop specific guidelines on how these messages should be saved or deleted. Additionally the guidelines should inform users on best practices for drafting, securing, and disposing of these messages.
Procedures for Managing Records during a Merger, Acquisition or Divestiture

When a company merges with or acquires another company, or divests itself of a business unit, there are always records of that organization that must be considered and organized. Companies that foresee either acquisitions or divestitures in the future should develop procedures for integrating information between the merged entities, or sharing and/or migrating information for divestitures. Furthermore, as part of the due diligence process organizations should develop information governance assessment processes for identifying any compliance risks in acquisition targets.

Paper Records Management Procedures
Despite the prevalence of electronic communications, many organizations still create and store paper records. Companies need to develop procedures on proper onsite management and storage of paper records, as well as procedures on how to organize, box, and send paper records to offsite storage, as well as retrieve those records when they are needed onsite. Equally important, companies need to develop robust process to deleting expired records, especially at offsite storage vendors.
Records And Information Management Program Change Request
A records retention schedule should not be a static policy. Every month organizations create or receive new types of records. Furthermore, business needs change. There need to be procedures for requesting revisions to, and then revising the Records Retention Policy, Records Retention Schedule, or other records processes and procedures.
Records Clean-Up Day
Procedures and communication plans for conducting periodic “Records Clean-Up Days” within the company or individual departments/business units, particularly around paper records.
Contoural

Contoural is the largest independent provider of strategic Information Governance, Privacy, and AI Governance consulting services, including records and information management, litigation readiness and control of privacy and sensitive information.

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