As reliance on the Internet and related technology increases more and more, agencies face a high risk of litigation and accompanying heavy costs. Traditional ways of data storage and management are no longer sufficient in the agency, as they are too limiting for the data explosion that is part of modern-day agencies and organizations.
With electronic data discovery laws in place, an agency can no longer dispose of data that may incriminate them in a lawsuit as it can be recovered anyway. The only way to reduce your agency risk is by adopting a holistic approach to data management that is duplicated across all departments.
eDiscovery requests are expensive and can cost the agency quite a lot. One of the best ways to reduce costs and litigation risk is by adopting a proactive stance on eDiscovery. This is where you take strategies in advance and put processes in place to manage data such that should you receive an electronic data recovery request, the process takes a short time. This includes organization systems, as well as preservation and disposal of obsolete data.
The top priority in ensuring efficient data management is in choosing the right systems and data management tools for your agency. Next, classify your information as needed and identify the information that needs to be preserved and store it as appropriate. If your agency produces a high volume of data ever day, week or month, embark on regular deletion of data that is no longer needed. Have a policy on how long data should be stored and/or disposed of or archived. This is the most efficient way of dealing with explosion of data.
Have a comprehensive data map indicating how information flows from one portal in the agency to another. Ideally, it should show data flow across the agency, covering all existing electronically stored information, from the PCs, email servers, network servers, storage systems and management systems. When the electronic data recovery team looks at the information, they should clearly identify where each data originated and how it moved across the agency. They should also be able to see where data is stored both physically and virtually.
Another very important habit you should adopt is a consistent policy on data destruction, followed by every employee. This eliminates an eventuality where eDiscovery is the only solution. Putting these measures in place reduces the amount of time it takes to conduct an electronic data discovery.
