The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/116777
Your decisions should be driven by legal, business and risk considerations, and tempered by any technical limitations known to the organization. Accountability should also be defined, documented and well-known. Information stakeholders should be aware of the cost, risk and value inherent in creating and storing data, because that information belongs to the organization, and whether it is an asset or turns into a potential liability should be everyone's responsibility. DATA MANAGEMENT ROI There are two types of return on investment that organizations can expect from a data management program. Direct: A well-crafted data management program has the potential to reduce the cost of information storage, back-up windows and disaster recovery point-and-time objectives by reducing intentionally the amount of data that needs to be stored. Further, right-sizing an organization's information repositories can reduce the cost to comply with regulatory or legal requests for similar reasons; wellorganized and appropriately sized data are easier to navigate and cheaper to collect, process and review. Indirect: A successfully implemented data management plan indirectly reduces risk by reducing exposure. For example, by disposing of information defensibly that is not subject to a retention period or legal hold rather than storing it indefinitely, organizations may be reducing their exposure to future litigation or costly discovery requests. A well-run data management program also can increase business agility by making it easier to locate critical business information, improving reaction time and enabling the reuse of data as necessary. For example, how many "final," "really final" and "really, really final" revised documents do you need to sift through before you find the one you need? WORTH THE EFFORT In today's information landscape, organizations cannot afford to not know what data they have, where the data reside or whether the information is accessible. Creating written policies and well-understood workflows around data management is a must. Well-crafted and diligently implemented data management will help your firm avoid potential sanctions and administrative headaches, while reducing costs along the way. Taking proactive steps with data management is definitely worth the time up front as it will pay increasing returns for organizations' IT infrastructures and future workloads. 54 Peer to Peer Am Law 200 Data Management Case Study Challenge: A large global law firm faced close to 40 terabytes of unidentified, unmanaged litigation support data during a data center move and consolidation project. While sifting through what data they wished to migrate, they uncovered an opportunity to mitigate their risk through a defensible removal initiative. Solution: The law firm went through five essential steps. Results: The firm has been able to begin reducing the overall volume of legacy data. The process is continuing on a rolling basis but, based on current projections, will result in a paring of the data by more than 40 percent. As a result, the direct and indirect costs will be reduced commensurately.