Corporate governance, information governance and 'cost governance', what are they?

First, a real Enterprise Information Management (EIM) policy helps solve a crucial business equation: how to balance costs, risks and the value of information throughout the organization. With the expected increase in financial regulations in the world but particularly in North America and Europe, it has become urgent to ensure that issues of risk management, compliance and regulatory governance are handled in a well coordinated fashion.

Indeed, the amount of electronic business information is growing from year to year -- and its management becomes increasingly complex. According to IDC, the volume of data now growing at an annual rate of almost 60% over the last five years, the volume managed has increased tenfold!

The implementation of an information governance (IG) program is obviously a response to growing compliance pressure.  But IG also allows better control of costs and operations, and provides visibility into the flow of information circulating throughout the business.

And that is why this program should be considered a priority. Governance is also a source of opportunity for businesses. Implementation should be gradual -- like for ILM, e-discovery or litigation readiness, or meta data management.

A program of governance is an orchestration of several logical disciplines:

• data classification
• definition of policies and criteria for retention
• mapping of meta data (compliance and business)
• application of rules and policies

When coordinated, these initiatives reduce the costs associated with any litigation, reduce storage costs and ensure proper retention of sensitive business information.

Indeed, at many levels within the organization, the risks and impacts of inadequate information governance are not well understood.

Therefore it is top management's responsibility to decide what level of confidence and control is required over the company's information assets.

Information governance impact all departments and business leaders must organize the internal stakeholders of the company around a comprehensive, compliant approach.