Information governance is a holistic approach to managing corporate information by implementing processes, roles, controls and metrics that treat information as a valuable business asset.
Organizations with good information governance know the who, what, when, where, why and how of their information:
- Who has access to this information?
- What is this information?
- When was this information created or processed?
- Where is the information stored?
- Why is this information being retained?
- How is this information being stored/protected?
The goal of a holistic approach to information governance is to make information assets available to those who need it, while streamlining management, reducing storage costs and ensuring compliance. This, in turn, allows the company to reduce the legal risks associated with unmanaged or inconsistently managed information and be more agile in response to a changing marketplace.
See also: Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP), e-discovery, enterprise content management, enterprise search, enterprise document management, enterprise data management