The City of Bellevue, Wash., has been a Zasio customer for three decades. From the early days of Versatile for Windows (1994), and transitioning to Versatile Enterprise in 2001, the city needed a powerful tool for its records management program.

Today, the City manages 13,000 boxes in off-site storage.

“Before we had Versatile (Enterprise), we didn’t have an electronic system to manage our off-site records or retention – it was all paper-based,” Bellevue’s City Records and Information Manager, Danelle Court, said.

“Obviously, we are not as heavily paper-based as we used to be back in the late 1990s, or early 2000s,” Court said. “But (Versatile) still provides all that functionality for us and the reason we’ve kept going with it — it’s easy to use.”

Court added, “[We have to make] sure we have the right information, when we need it, where we should have it, and that we get rid of it when we no longer need it, and the software helps us perform those functions in a little bit more automated manner.”

Favorite Features

After more than thirteen years of working with Versatile, Court appreciates its consistency.

“It’s probably one of the most stable records management software solutions we’ve had – or that we’ve ever had – in terms of maintenance and just doing what it should do, and not having issues in terms of the technology,” Court said. “That’s why we got it. . . and why we keep using it and keep loving it.”

Sue Gunderson, the City’s Public Records Analyst, is a self-described Versatile power user. She uses the software to enter contract data, create new files, and ensure files are imported into the city’s SharePoint electronic records repository.

Gunderson’s favorite feature is Versatile’s search capabilities. It allows for simple and complex search requests.

“(We) get lots of research requests from the city attorney’s office that [can] involve really old records,” Gunderson said. “It’s a  very good tool, to be able to dig in, and try and find historical or old records for people that need to reference those.”

Employee Learning Curve

“The training is really pretty easy because it’s such a simple program to learn and use,” Gunderson said. “When I get a new user, I know it’s probably not going to be phone call after phone call saying, ‘I don’t understand,’ or ‘I don’t get it.’ Most people find they can navigate (Enterprise) with just one training.”

Practicality and Flexibility

Gunderson’s colleague, City Records Business Analyst, Suzanne LeDoux, boasts about Versatile’s functionality.

“I like how robust it is — you can customize and filter your search in a lot of different ways and still have the flexibility of using a keyword search,” LeDoux said. “You can do a very narrow scope search and then expand and broaden your search from there. It’s very versatile.”

World Class Technical Support

Reliable technical support is just as important to the City of Bellevue as Versatile’s features and functionality.

“The fact that we know people’s names and have a relationship with them,” Court said. “The support has always been great. Whenever we say ‘this is where we’d like to go’, there’s always been that partnership in helping us get there.”

Whenever there was a function the City of Bellevue needed, Zasio’s support team found a solution.

“…Zasio has been pretty responsive in getting (new functions) on the roadmap and making that happen,” Court said. “Just the fact that Zasio is in the industry and knows the challenges and the opportunities and where the industry is going, and actively participates and engages in that, makes a pretty strong partnership.”

Court cited Zasio’s webinars, attendance at conferences, and numerous staff with key professional certifications as evidence Zasio understands the IG industry.

Results

Versatile is a trustworthy and reliable physical records management tool for the City of Bellevue. It’s allowed the city to create a records management program the staff and the public can rely on.

“If we have trustworthy processes, and defensible processes, we can have trustworthy records and information for the public to trust their government,” Court said.

About Zasio

Zasio has over 35 years of service in information governance. We help businesses get started in records management and maintain top-of-the-line IG programs. To do this, we’ve recruited a team of expert software developers and technicians, legal experts, and highly-accomplished records analysts—all in-house!

Our highly trained team includes certified records managers, information governance professionals, and certified information privacy professionals who keep up with evolving IG trends and scale our Versatile solutions to meet our customers’ needs. It’s no wonder that thousands of organizations, including half of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, have trusted our software solutions and expert consulting services to create world-class information governance programs.

To learn more about Versatile Enterprise, call 800-513-1000 opt. 1 or contact us.

The post Versatile Enterprise™ Case Study: The City of Bellevue appeared first on Zasio.

The City of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada has been a Zasio customer for over 25 years, starting in 1997 with Versatile Windows™, one of Zasio’s earliest solutions. In 2006, the City transitioned to Zasio’s Versatile Enterprise™ solution.

The City needed a powerful tool, like Versatile Enterprise, to help manage 37,000+ boxes at an off-site operations center.

“There’s a space management component we rely on to be able to find our records,” said the City’s Manager of Enterprise Information Management Services (EIMS) and City Archivist. “It’s about having an effective tool in place to find what you’re looking for with the large volume of records that we have.”

He added, “Versatile’s space management is second to none when it comes to other physical lifecycle management software. That’s a huge win for Versatile.”

Favorite Features

Located north of Toronto, the City manages roughly 270,000 files that include land development applications, building permits, human resource files, bylaws, and drawings, along with legal and finance documentation. To meet the EIMS Teams’ operational needs, the City required a solid system to track its 196 active users.

“The check-in/check-out manager (in Versatile Enterprise) is a huge benefit,” said the EIMS Manager. The City has staff who facilitate file requests from multiple records centers, so tracking down who’s got the record and when it was requested, including getting a history is key.”

The City’s Supervisor of EIMS and Deputy City Archivist appreciates Versatile Enterprise’s space management and disposition functions. Prior to using VE’s space management and disposition functions, staff members did everything manually.

Hand-typing barcodes that were 10-12 digits long was time-consuming and led to mistakes. Human error would also cost staff hours retrieving incorrectly keyed boxes and files, as well as protracted searches for missing records.

“We would go in and individually delete files and boxes, which was a pain,” the Deputy City Archivist commented. “Being able to actually have a record of what was targeted for destruction, track physical destruction dates, and have the approval, was a welcomed change.”

The City’s Human Resources department trusts Versatile Enterprise’s security features to ensure sensitive records are only seen by appropriate users.

“In the past, we’ve had new staff in HR who have been very concerned about what information goes into Versatile and who has access,” said the City’s Supervisor of EIMS. “With (Versatile Enterprise) you can assure staff that the proper security steps and private user groups are in place to prevent unauthorized access. Staff can rest assured that only their users have the ability to locate and see these files – no one out of their department can.”

Support

The City is equally enthusiastic about Zasio’s customer support.

In 2022, the team found improperly labeled boxes while temporarily transferring 3,000 boxes off-site to an external vendor. To correct this issue, the City was provided with a spreadsheet from the vendor with 3,000 new RFID tags.

“We were trying to figure out how we could get one system to talk to the other because inputting new data for 3,000 boxes would have been a very time-consuming and manual process. We didn’t want to run the risk of keying the wrong barcode ID and having future issues,” the EIMS Team said.

It turns out, they didn’t have to worry.

Zasio’s technical support team helped successfully import the data.

“All the numbers were accurate and it was a huge time saver for us,” the Deputy City Archivist said.

Support recently helped the City implement Zasio’s Versatile Mobile Package, which allows staff to make quick work of many records management tasks. This includes scanning bar codes and performing records searches from mobile devices.

“You guys are second to none — you set the bar for the City when it comes to support standards,” the Manager of EIMS said. “It’s instant, it’s consistent, it’s efficient. I haven’t come across this type of support or service with any other service or product.”

The EIMS Team says the superior customer support extends to the Zasio customer portal, which she describes as simply “amazing.” “You’ve got so many resources on there – It’s been a lifesaver.”

Results

The City said it will continue partnering with Zasio indefinitely. Reliable records management software solutions, combined with a team of solid subject matter experts and trustworthy support made this an easy decision.

About Zasio

Zasio has over 35 years of service in information governance. We help businesses get started in records management and maintain top-of-the-line IG programs. To do this, we’ve recruited a team of expert software developers and technicians, attorneys, along with highly-accomplished records analysts—all in-house!

Our highly trained team includes certified records managers, information governance professionals, and certified information privacy professionals who keep up with evolving IG trends and scale our Versatile solutions to meet our customers’ needs.

It’s no wonder that thousands of organizations, including half of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, have trusted our software solutions and expert consulting services to create world-class information governance programs.

To learn more about Versatile Enterprise, call 800-513-1000 opt. 1 or contact us.

The post Versatile Enterprise™ Case Study: The City of Vaughan appeared first on Zasio.

The post Versatile Retention, Versatile Enterprise, and Consulting Services Case Study: Global Leader in Pharmaceutical Industry appeared first on Zasio.

When Pete Weichers joined the City of Encinitas as deputy city clerk nearly four years ago, he knew the beach-front community needed to drastically improve its records management strategy.

“We were kind of limping along when I first got here,” Weichers said. “We had a long way to go to get things modernized and into compliance.”

The city, located about 25 miles north of San Diego, had used Microsoft Access™ to manage files, microfilm, and boxes both on-site and as an off-site records storage vendor. After nearly 20 years, the deputy city clerk said it was time for a much-needed change.

“When I got here in 2019, the Access database was in shambles with data from multiple departments,” Weichers said.

A year later, the city says it lost about 3,000 files when employees moved the previous software onto a virtual machine.

Weichers wanted an efficient and scalable solution that could not only integrate with the city’s retention schedule but also easily apply its retention schedule rules to the city’s records. Being able to create labels was another big need and staff did not have any disposition reporting capabilities.

WHY VERSATILE PROFESSIONAL SaaS?

When it came time to find a new solution, Pete remembered using Versatile Professional during his time in the nearby City of Escondido. He was confident it would be a good option.  “I knew it would be a good solution so I kind of approached it from that standpoint, knowing what Zasio has to offer, the wealth of knowledge (the staff has), and just how simple the product is…it’s just ready to go. There’s not a real steep learning curve.”

Ultimately, the city moved forward with Pete’s recommendation and in April 2022, chose Zasio’s Versatile Professional SaaS application. Pete said Zasio’s support team made the implementation efficient and easy for him and his small team.

IMPLEMENTATION, CUSTOMER SUPPORT & FAVORITE FEATURES

Once the SaaS application was implemented, the city could start using it right away as there weren’t any major challenges in the set-up process. When some staff members reported having login problems, Zasio’s customer support team reached out to the city’s IT department and the issue was quickly resolved. “I’ve always found your support staff to be incredibly responsive and helpful,” Pete says.

Now that the city has been utilizing Versatile SaaS for nearly a year, Pete’s team has grown to appreciate its many features. “The simple, but incredibly powerful search bar” as well as the “label design to ensure continuity with processes and procedures” are some of the highlights, he says. And, in addition to being a major time saver, accessibility has proven to be a big plus.

“We were kind of hamstrung before where only one person from the whole city could get into the program (Access) at a time. With Versatile Professional, we have enough licenses that allow multiple people to work in that space,” Weichers said.

Being in city government, transparency is important in his line of work. And Versatile Professional definitely helps with that process.

“To me, transparency and records management will forever be intertwined especially at the local government level. Over the last couple of years, the City of Encinitas has had a significant number of new employees come aboard with little or no government experience, and it has been the city clerk’s mission to train them and emphasize the importance and legal ramifications of records management and being transparent with the public,” he said.

As part of the city’s records management strategy, Weichers says his team will be presenting the application to department leaders later this year, pointing out how it’s helping elevate their program and assist with long-term initiatives.

RESULTS

“Overall, it’s been a huge positive for us. I’ve had other experiences and have used other software where you’re promised this and that, but there’s a letdown in between. (With Zasio) every step of the way, from beginning to end, you guys have been comprehensive and always reaching out. What you promise and what you deliver match, and in this day in age that’s unique, to say the least,” Weichers said.

 ABOUT ZASIO

 Zasio has over 35 years of service in information governance. We focus on one thing, helping businesses get started in records management and maintain top-of-the-line IG programs. Since starting in the industry, we’ve recruited a team of experts, including software developers and technicians, attorneys, analysts, certified records managers, information governance professionals, and certified information privacy professionals —all in-house—who keep up with evolving IG trends and scale our Versatile solutions to meet demands of both customers new to records management and seasoned veterans.

It’s no wonder that thousands of companies, including half of the top 20 Fortune 500, have trusted our software solutions and expert consulting services to implement world-class information governance programs.

To learn more about Versatile Professional please call 1-800-513-1000 opt. 1 or email sales@zasio.com.

The post Versatile Professional™ SaaS Case Study: The City of Encinitas appeared first on Zasio.

Fast forward only a couple of years, and plaintiffs’ counsel in a large class action lawsuit made essentially that ask: They proposed that the defendant hand over all documents that hit on the numerous search terms plaintiffs had crafted, and that they would decide which documents were relevant (and not privileged).

The legal discovery landscape is changing. As ESI volumes continue to grow and discovery-related technology continues to evolve, the importance of a company’s information management processes—in particular, its ability and willingness to dispose of information in a timely and defensible manner—will only continue to increase as well.

TAR—Friend or Foe?

Legal discovery no longer is synonymous with combing through boxes of paper documents for relevant information. Attorneys now use key-word searches and databases. Just as new technologies have dramatically accelerated content creation, so are they transforming approaches to content review. Technology-Assisted Review, or “TAR,” is one such technology that is increasingly accepted as a useful tool in large, ESI-heavy reviews for civil litigation and government investigations.

The Sedona Conference defines TAR as a “process for prioritizing or coding a collection of electronically stored information using a computerized system that harnesses human judgments of subject-matter experts on a smaller set of documents and then extrapolates those judgments to the remaining documents in the collection.”[1] In legal document review, matter experts can code a seed set of documents as relevant or responsive, privileged or not privileged, and TAR can then extrapolate time-saving analysis to the full document set. TAR can help determine the degree to which documents in a full set are similar to those in the seed set, allowing parties to craft more strategic and efficient document review plans—for example, prioritizing review of documents with an 80 percent or higher likelihood of responsiveness that likely are not privileged.[2] Between the sheer volume of ESI now held by most companies and the often sweeping nature of discovery requests, especially in large, multi-jurisdictional litigation and investigations, companies can find themselves sorting through millions of potentially relevant or responsive documents. Tools like TAR are increasingly vital assets for companies seeking to reduce the costs of legal discovery.

But just as it helps companies receiving discovery requests, TAR could embolden those making them. A common argument regarding discovery requests is that working to satisfy them as-written would unduly burden the responding party. TAR could give requesting parties a basis for pushing back against a responding party’s undue burden argument. If TAR can streamline certain phases of discovery, burden arguments based on volume or time might begin to fall on increasingly deaf ears. And beyond merely pushing back, requesting parties could take the next step—seemingly already on the minds of some government and private actors—of flipping the tables and saying, fine, give us your documents, and we will use the resources at our disposal to review them for the all of us.

Legal discovery is multi-faceted and always will be. Even if we never reach the point of complete reliance on technology or all-inclusive document hand-overs, there is no doubt that the explosion of ESI and corresponding acceptance of TAR will continue to reshape the discovery playing field. Anyone who manages records at a company that may find itself embroiled in litigation or investigation is primed to feel the impacts.

Discovery: That’s Legal’s Purview, Right?

Sure. More broadly, though, legal discovery is a whole-company issue. Significant discovery can divert resources from business operations, increase risk, and cost an inordinate amount of time and money, and the outcome of litigation or an investigation—inevitably based in some part on discovery—can affect a company’s reputation, market position, and bottom line. Despite these threats, it is easy to backburner discovery considerations and only pay close attention once the house is on fire. Companies should fight this tendency and take proactive steps to help ensure that, when flames pop up, they can be controlled. Implementing a well-considered records retention schedule is one of the most impactful first steps in this direction.

A records retention schedule based on legal requirements and industry standards and tailored to a company’s business and risk profile is both a good offense in the war against accumulating redundant, obsolete, or trivial information (“ROT”), and a good defense if a company is unable to produce requested information, so long as the company can show the information was disposed of in accordance with the schedule in the ordinary course of business.

Some of the riskiest information for a company can lurk in the depths of ROT. A company often is aware of the general content and location of its more “official record”-type documents, like financial statements; far less often does it know what lies in unstructured ROT. Draft notes from a non-privileged meeting, colorful language or expressions, eyebrow-raising emails, communications suggesting that something be addressed offline—this type of content tends to live quietly in the dark until it is dragged into the limelight of a legal matter. And even if it doesn’t prove a legal point, it can damage a company’s credibility and reputation. By identifying what types of information must be retained and for how long, a retention schedule can empower a company to dispose of other content, reducing ROT and risk.

Because regulators and attorneys exist in the same ESI-driven world, in which information is more likely to have been over-retained than responsibly destroyed, they may regard with suspicion a company’s rejoinder that it does not possess certain documents or anticipated volumes of information. But if a company can point to a legally-supported records retention schedule and established, consistent records retention and disposition practices to explain how it has handled the requested information, more often than not it will be able to overcome (even if it cannot eradicate) any such suspicion.

Recent proceedings in the New York Supreme Court highlight the seriousness with which courts might address records retention issues. At the end of April, Judge Arthur Engoron held former President Donald Trump in contempt of court for failing to produce documents in response to a subpoena from the New York Attorney General and providing only “boilerplate” attorney affidavits to explain the lack of production, and he imposed a fine of $10,000 per day of continued noncompliance.[3] Trump paid $110,000 in fines for contempt.[4] Judge Engoron did not purge the charge until the end of June, after Trump Organization employees filed additional affidavits regarding the Organization’s records retention policies.[5]  This all serves to underscore the interplay of records and information management and the discovery process, and the importance of the former when it intersects the latter.

Don’t Discount Destruction.

Even with an operative, effective records retention schedule, it can be tempting to view prolonged retention as the safe approach to information management. Tools like TAR can feed this feeling, promising assistance in wading through the virtual mountains of ESI. But over-retention raises risk, especially for companies operating in highly-regulated or litigation-prone areas. Once legal retention periods have passed and information no longer has clear operational or organizational value, the lowest-risk next step typically is disposal. Explaining why a company’s retention and disposition practices are defensible just may be simpler and less costly than addressing the contents of documents that could have been disposed; and thoughtful and consistent deletion practices are all but certain to be more time- and cost-effective than identifying and locating potentially relevant or responsive documents from within an unmanaged, never-purged corpus of company information.

Litigation can move quickly from being a distant concern to reasonably anticipated or imminent. As soon as it does, a company must at once preserve and cease destruction of all relevant information. If other litigation or government investigations arise while information is being preserved for one matter, and that information is relevant to the new matter, it must be preserved for that new matter as well. Litigation and investigations can take years. Thus, failing to dispose of information when legally and operationally permissible can render it subject to discovery for many years and in many matters. In short, when the time is right and destruction is defensible, don’t shy away!

It Never Hurts to be Prepared.

It is hard to predict how information formats and discovery tools might continue to evolve, but one thing is clear—ESI, litigation, and government investigations are here to stay. And if federal regulatory agencies and attorneys are thinking about how they might take advantage of information availability and tools like TAR, companies should be thinking equally as hard about what they can do now to manage the attendant risks going forward. If you would like to discuss records management best practices and steps to help mitigate the risk of records-related issues, Zasio can help.

[1] The Sedona Conference Glossary: eDiscovery & Digital Information Management, Fifth Edition, 21 SEDONA CONF. J. 263, 379 (2020), https://thesedonaconference.org/sites/default/files/publications/Sedona%20Conference%20Glossary%2C%20Fifth%20Edition.pdf.

[2] See id.

[3] Jane Wester, Manhattan Judge Holds Donald Trump in Civil Contempt for Failure to Comply with New York AG’s Subpoenas, Law.com (April 25, 2022, 12:50 PM), https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2022/04/25/manhattan-judge-holds-donald-trump-in-civil-contempt-for-failure-to-comply-with-new-york-ags-subpoenas/.

[4] Laura Italiano, Donald Trump is no longer in contempt of court in New York — but AG Letitia James still holds his $110,000 fine, Business Insider (June 29, 2022, 5:45 PM), https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-not-contempt-court-new-york-ag-still-holds-fine-2022-6; Judge Lifts Trump’s Contempt Order After 2-Month Legal Fight, U.S. News (June 29, 2022, 6:14 PM), https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2022-06-29/judge-ends-trump-contempt-order-after-lengthy-legal-fight.

[5] Id.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to provide general education on Information Governance topics. The statements are informational only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have specific questions regarding the application of the law to your business activities, you should seek the advice of your legal counsel.

The post In Defense of Destruction appeared first on Zasio.

No doubt, becoming an IGP has considerably complemented what I’ve learned on the job about information governance. In studying for the exam, though, I was surprised by the extent to which the materials leapt past strict IG concepts—such as data mapping or developing backup and retention policies—into the realm of broader business leadership and management principles. High-level and strategic is right: building relationships across disciplines, managing both up and down, analyzing organizational risk, communicating effectively, understanding and employing financial terms and analysis, and driving change all are big themes in the subject matter. While I didn’t expect these principles would underlie so much of becoming an IGP, I’m glad they did. These aren’t niche topics limited to records departments; they are time-tested concepts that can help you achieve success at your organization well beyond creating an information governance program. And for that, I appreciate them.

So if you’re considering becoming an IGP, I’m sure you’ll learn many vital things about data repositories and classification schemes that you wouldn’t pick up as easily elsewhere. However, be prepared for—and prize—these larger lessons inherent in the IGP materials. Here are a few from my studies that stood out to me the most.

IG Means Understanding the Whole Organization

Like being an effective in-house attorney, being an IGP means getting to know your whole organization, not just your own tiny sliver. Distilled to its core, information governance is about how an organization manages and derives value from its ever-expanding stocks of information. The IGP exam focuses on the process of developing a comprehensive IG program, which sets the rules for how an organization handles the information it creates and consumes. As the IGP materials stress, developing an effective IG program requires working with many parts of your organization, such as privacy and security, risk and compliance, each business unit, and information technology.

To develop an IG program, you must understand the informational needs and goals of each part of the organization. This requires spending a great deal of time with each, which can be an eye-opening exercise. Something special happens to your thinking when you get to know how each component of your organization operates rather than staying siloed: You start to look at things from an organizational level, viewing your work as a part of a larger instrument. Such organizational thinking can be extraordinarily useful, and its use is not limited to IG. Training your attention on the organization rather than only your slice can lead you to think more creatively, innovate, and want to better cooperate with all of your organization’s different units.

IGP stresses getting to know your organization as a whole because an IG program, and the information it directs, touches every part of the business. Through studying to become an IGP, you’ll begin to gain a knack for this systems-level thinking. And once you can demonstrate your knowledge of the organization and systems-thinking, it may be only a matter of time before you’re asked to use them in organizational functions outside of IG.

IGPs are Generalists, and That’s Great

The IGP materials teach that, to prepare an effective IG program, you must first understand the areas involved in, and impacted by, the program—which, in most organizations, is practically every aspect of the organization. In other words, you must learn to start thinking like a generalist.

In the book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, author David Epstein explores how top performers, particularly in complex and unpredictable fields, more often are generalists rather than single-subject specialists. For example, the best cellular biologists typically don’t become the best by studying only cellular biology (or from starting their cellular biology studies in kindergarten). Instead, they become the best cellular biologists by including things other than cellular biology in their life. As Epstein explains, having knowledge from many different areas (be it from sports, hobbies, athletics, or different professional or academic fields) allows a person to constantly draw from a broad base of understanding, which, it turns out, can prove pretty valuable. Being a generalist allows you to make connections and develop ideas that a specialist likely could not.

According to Epstein, a specialist’s knowledge is like a deep trench. Too often, single-subject experts are too focused on deepening their own trenches to look over at the trenches that surround them. The generalist remembers to look out over those other trenches. Drawing on a wide range of experiences leads to increased inventiveness and creativity and better problem-solving. In other words, developing a generalist’s knowledge base not only is key to creating a successful IG program, but also is a beneficial and broadly-applicable result of studying for the IGP exam. Becoming an IGP teaches you the value of looking over at surrounding trenches.

Get to Know the Money Side of Things

The IGP materials stress financial literacy. Becoming an IGP involves getting familiar with terms like return on investment (“ROI”), variable costs, payback period, generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”), and cost-benefit analysis. A tenet of the IGP materials is securing an executive sponsor to help ensure your IG program’s success. To get your executive team on board with an IG program, you need to learn how to make a business case for the program. Executives, and business cases, rely heavily on thinking in financial terms. And learning how to convince decision makers that you bring something of value—or, conversely, to talk them out of something by showing its lack of value—is yet another IGP principle and skill that is not confined to IG.

Just As In IG, In Life, There are  No Off-The-Shelf Solutions

Preparing for the IGP, you learn that developing an IG strategy can be difficult because there isn’t one prescribed plan to follow. Instead, you must create a strategy tailored to your organization’s circumstances. The way in which you put your IG strategy in motion must be equally tailor-made, and it must account for things like organizational culture and history.

Becoming comfortable with developing a solution without a guide, and with knowing that your solution may have some flaws that will require correction over time, is a good skill to develop for use not just in information governance, but in any domain. Once you’ve custom-made an IG program from the ground up, why wouldn’t you be able to do the same in any other domain?

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Lastly, becoming an IGP is in large measures about managing change. Change is hard, and humans naturally resist it. But change is inevitable, and if the past two years have taught us anything, it is that disruption and uncertainty, and with them, rapid change, may be with us for the foreseeable future.

As an IGP, you’re tasked with convincing your colleagues to dispose of long-held information management practices (with flaws that maybe only you can appreciate). You must also convince them to adopt new practices that may have a significant impact on how they work, then likely to change these practices once again after your IG program enters its monitoring and improvement phase. Incorporating ever-increasing data privacy and security laws and regulations will only further the amount and frequency of change in your IG program.

The IGP [materials/exam] teach you to operate in an environment of regular, often disruptive, change. This may be, perhaps, the most valuable skill learned from becoming an IGP.

Conclusion

Reflecting on the path to becoming an IGP, perhaps the best part was discovering things I didn’t expect to discover. But I’m glad I did. It was a rewarding experience, and I look forward to putting my new knowledge and skills to use. For those considering studying for the IGP exam, know that what you’ll learn will reach far, and just may serve you well beyond information governance.

[1] www.arma.org/page/igp (accessed on April 13, 2022).

Disclaimer: The purpose of this post is to provide general education on Information Governance topics. The statements are informational only and do not constitute legal advice. If you have specific questions regarding the application of the law to your business activities, you should seek the advice of your legal counsel.

The post The IGP—A Master Class in a Lot More Than Information Governance (and Why You Should Become an IGP, Too) appeared first on Zasio.

Author: Brandon Tuley, JD, CIPP/E

Analyst / Licensed Attorney

The post Connecticut Becomes the Fifth State to Enact Comprehensive Consumer Data Privacy Legislation appeared first on Zasio.

Author: Jared Walker, JD

Senior Research Analyst, Team Lead / Licensed Attorney

The post Let’s Try This Again – Sending Personal Data Across the Pond under Privacy Shield 2.0 appeared first on Zasio.

Author: Jennifer Chadband, IGP, CRM, ECMp

Senior Analyst / Licensed Attorney

The post Part 3: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint – Successfully Implementing Your Simplified RRS appeared first on Zasio.

Author: Jennifer Chadband, IGP, CRM, ECMp

Senior Analyst / Licensed Attorney

The post Part 2: Keep it Simple, Duh. – Developing a Simplified RRS appeared first on Zasio.