Information Governance Becoming a High Priority for Organizations

As organizations become more data-driven, the ability to know all about their information and how it can be leveraged to improve the business becomes crucial. However, according to the recent EMC’s Outlook Report (https://www.emc.com/information-generation/resources/IFTF_Outlook_Report.pdf ), only a small percentage of business leaders around the world say that their organization is effectively using data to inform their decisions. At the same time, an overwhelming majority states that the ability to predictively spot new opportunities in markets, create and demonstrate transparency and trust, and innovate in agile ways is a business priority.

Recognizing that an organization’s success depends on its ability to handle information, companies are starting to make information governance a priority. According to the soon-to-be-published 2015 survey of SharePoint and Office 365 metadata by Concept Searching, information governance has become a second priority for organizations, following only security. Included in the concept of information governance is the management of both structured and unstructured data (see http://www.conceptsearching.com/wp/press-releases/concept-searching-2015-survey-shows-information-governance-rising-to-top-of-corporate-priorities/).

​This year shows significant turnaround in the priority of information governance compared to last year’s survey, where the majority of recipients indicated that they did not understand the concept of information governance and did not implement it. 20% of surveyed respondents now indicate that information governance is a high priority for them, with 25% actively improving information governance, and 26% planning to focus on it within the next twelve months. Martin Garland, the President of Concept Searching, attributes this turnaround to the realization by organizations that “information governance as it applies to unstructured content is now a high priority, because it is closely tied to achieving business objectives”.