New research shows that protecting long-term digital information is key to driving business value

More than 80% of companies aim to realize direct business value from their long-term digital information, according to the IGI 2017 Benchmark Research

Oxford, UK and Boston, MA [9th May, 2017] New research from the Information Governance Initiative (IGI) reveals that 83% of organizations aim to realize direct business value from their long-term digital information, across such areas as market analysis, product innovation, and customer service, but only a minority (16%) have a viable approach for proper governance and preservation.

The research, supported by digital preservation specialist Preservica, also highlighted that 95% of organizations surveyed have critical records which need to be preserved for ten years or more. Business functions that respondents identified as most requiring long-term digital information were Legal Operations, Financial Management and Human Resource Management.

Nine in ten companies confirmed that “legal, statutory and regulatory compliance requirements” drive the need to retain digital records and information long-term, however, the challenge of deriving value from long term digital information is also now rising in importantance. The CEO was the role perceived by IG professionals to be most at risk from failures to successfully preserve digital records, followed by the General Counsel, Head of Records Management, CIO, and Board of Directors.

Mike Quinn, CEO of Preservica, said: “Dropping the ball on governing and preserving long-term digital information not only creates multiple sources of legal, security, and compliance risks, but it also starves the organization of the information raw materials it needs to understand what happened, so it can intelligently predict what will happen. As analysis tools and techniques continue to radically improve our ability to harness our digital information, this failure will only grow as a threat to competitiveness and innovation.”

Barclay T. Blair, Executive Director and Founder at IGI, commented: “This report underlines how long-term digital information is not only proliferating across the enterprise, but the consequences of failing to properly govern and manage it only grow graver, with the impact felt all the way up to the CEO and Board of Directors.

“While legal and regulatory requirements have always driven preservation and governance of long-term digital information, the quest for business value is rising as a major driver too; yet the implementation of technology needed to protect and ensure long-term access to digital information still lags,” Blair added.

Last year, the IGI 2016 Benchmark Report on The Governance of Long-Term Digital Information exposed the troubling dynamic that while virtually every organization (98%) needed to keep digital information for longer than ten years, few (16%) had a viable approach for proper governance and preservation. Since then, some organizations have taken steps to integrate proper systems into the lifecycle of governing their digital information. However, many continue to lag behind - putting their long-term information, business performance and C-Suite at risk.

Other statistics to emerge from the annual survey included 90% of respondents believing that “ensuring readability and usability of information” was a key requirement for governing and preserving long-term digital information. Meanwhile 79% of respondents said that “proving authenticity and trustworthiness” was also important.

The survey was conducted among information governance practioners from the US and UK across multiple sectors. The IGI 2017 Benchmark Highlights can be downloaded here.

Ends

About IGI

The Information Governance Initiative (IGI) is a think tank and community dedicated to advancing the adoption of Information Governance (IG) practices and technologies through research, events, advocacy and peer-to-peer networking. We are dedicated to the professionalization of IG and have called for the creation of a new kind of information leader called the Chief Information Governance Officer. The IGI Community is where thousands of practitioners from cybersecurity, IT, analytics, privacy, legal, records management, and the other facets of IG come together and learn from each other. The IGI was founded by recognized leaders in the field of IG, and is supported by leading leading providers of IG products and services.

About Preservica

Preservica is a world leader in digital preservation technology and research. Our active preservation solution is trusted by leading businesses, archives, libraries, museums and government organizations globally, to safeguard and share valuable digital content, collections and records for decades to come. These include many European national archives, 18 US State Archives, Yale University as well as major commercial enterprises such as HSBC, Unilever, BT and Associated Press.

Available on premise or in the cloud, Preservica’s award-winning digital preservation and access software is a complete, standards-based (OAIS ISO 14721) trusted repository that includes connectors to leading Enterprise Content and Records Management systems to ensure long-term usability, trustworthiness and preservation of vital digital records, emails and content.

Visit: www.preservica.com

For further information, please contact: Ilona Hitel, ihitel@thecommsco.com, or mobile: 07734 355205.