It’s time to ramp up your RIM! April is Records and Information Management (RIM) Month, which is celebrated globally every year to emphasize the importance of organizing and maintaining records and data to manage information efficiently and effectively. No matter the industry, every organization manages information in both physical paper and electronic form. Since every individual who uses this information has a role to play, having a RIM strategy can help keep information organized, secure, and accessible. An effective RIM strategy has an integrated lifecycle approach to information management, including physical paper and electronic records, while prioritizing security and compliance.
If your organization has inadvertently neglected your RIM strategy, this month is a great time to refocus and ramp up your RIM practices and policies—taking your annual records cleanup activities to the next level. We’ve compiled four key areas to address when assessing your RIM strategy.
Data Loss Prevention
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) involves processes used to ensure that sensitive data is not lost, misused, or accessed by unauthorized users. DLP is all about preventing information leakage and protecting sensitive information from:
- Leaving the organization,
- Being accessed or copied by unauthorized individuals, and
- Being stored on unauthorized devices e.g., smartphones and USB sticks.
Some activities to consider for DLP include:
- Assessing your current information protection practices e.g., BYOD, work from home policies, external network access, etc.,
- Identifying sensitive information types and areas where information might need to be protected, and
- Identifying “data-at-rest” and “data-in-transit” risks.
Records Retention and Destruction
Let’s face it—cloud storage is expensive, so it’s time to clean up your cloud! Addressing your organization’s retention and destruction schedule is important so that a clear lifecycle is defined. The information lifecycle consists of the various states of information, from creation to destruction. As information matures, it goes through states that are defined by business processes, laws, and/or regulations.
The retention period is the length of time a file is retained, as governed by the information schedule. The file may be disposed of after the active and semi-active retention periods that apply to it have elapsed. Disposing files is an integral part of the information lifecycle, as it frees up storage space, makes room for future files, and saves storage costs.
Governance and Compliance
Information governance are policies that cover the management of information containers such as sites, libraries, Microsoft Teams channels, and metadata. These policies become especially important when compliance is concerned. Many organizations have a set of state/provincial and/or federal compliance requirements to which they must adhere. If you have not researched your industry’s compliance requirements, or if they may have changed since last reviewed, this month is a great time to identify them and to implement policies and procedures to keep you compliant.
Information governance is a key foundation for eDiscovery, which is the activity of identifying and collecting electronic information in response to a request for production in litigation or an investigation. Establishing governance will also help your organization prepare for unexpected audits or regulatory inquiries.
Security and Accessibility
Finally, security is perhaps the most important aspect of your organization’s RIM strategy. Protecting confidential and proprietary information is the foundation of sound information management and DLP practices. We recommend checking current user access and permission levels to evaluate who still needs access to the information. When access levels are up to date, your organization is taking a big step to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Information needs to be readily accessible—to those who need it—to maintain efficient operations. It takes an average of 18 minutes for a person to locate a document, which is time that could be saved by a records management system that is integrated consistently with well-adopted RIM policies and standards.
Your Next Steps
Establishing a RIM strategy can be a daunting task. Your organization needs to keep information organized, secure, and accessible throughout the information lifecycle; however, you may be wondering what to do next.
Elantis’ team of RIM experts can help. We offer information management assessments, which cover areas such as DLP, search and findability, document control, centralized metadata taxonomies, information governance, information architecture, document duplication/versioning, compliance with law and regulation, RIM strategy development, and more!
You don’t have to do this alone; we can be your trusted advisor along your organization’s RIM journey. Contact us today to learn more about information management assessments and how we can help.
