Today’s digital world relies on data to drive innovation and decision making. At the same time, the sheer volume and complexity of data can overwhelm even the most robust systems, necessitating a disciplined approach to data governance. No longer simply a reactive tool for litigation, eDiscovery best practices for effective data governance help to unlock data value.
Traditionally, eDiscovery has been primarily associated with legal proceedings. However, as the role of data and the regulations surrounding data storage and use have evolved, the use of eDiscovery has also expanded. eDiscovery tools and processes can play a pivotal role in the data lifecycle by enabling organizations to locate and access quality data swiftly.
Consider the following eDiscovery practices that support powerful data governance.
Ensure Effective Data Identification and Classification
Data involved in eDiscovery must be searchable and accessible. Additionally, a clear chain of custody for all data ensures the preservation of data integrity, a fundamental goal in eDiscovery.
Achieving these goals requires proper indexing and classification of data through effective metadata management. This in turn makes it easier to manage the data lifecycle and retrieve relevant information when needed.
Today’s platforms offer many different locations and service providers to store information, including localized to computers, internal computer networks, and the cloud. Understanding and controlling the location of information by type is critical to avoid deduplication of effort and having conflicting or out of date documents and information. Data classification is nearly as important as where data is stored.
Prioritize Data Security and Confidentiality
To ensure regulatory compliance and prevent spoliation of data for litigation purposes, companies must focus on data security and privacy. Best practices include encrypting sensitive data and implementing access controls. Organizations should also regularly audit security protocols to prevent data breaches.
Data security and privacy also prove essential for effective data governance. Consequently, this focus on protecting sensitive data and controlling data access accomplishes two critical goals at once.
Automate Where Possible
As the data environment grows increasingly complex, legal teams can find themselves bogged down with identifying and collecting data. Automating many routine and time-consuming tasks frees up legal counsel to focus on doing what they do best. It also allows teams to establish case strategy more quickly while improving accuracy.
For example, automation streamlines tasks such as data identification and classification, deduplication, redaction, review, and analysis. This saves money in eDiscovery while simplifying data governance.
Understand the Benefits and Dangers Posed by AI
AI figures prominently in automating data tasks. It also improves speed and accuracy by quickly combing through huge datasets to identify certain types of information such as account numbers or protected health information. And by identifying trends and anomalies that human reviewers might miss, it helps to uncover hidden insights.
At the same time, however, AI introduces several significant risks. For instance, the accuracy of data used to train AI systems will affect the quality of the data classification the system produces. AI may also introduce unintended bias and privacy concerns. Consequently, while AI may prove essential, business leaders must understand the risks and use the technology wisely.
Leverage eDiscovery Technology
Utilizing eDiscovery tools not only streamlines the eDiscovery process but also reinforces data governance. For example, cloud-based and SaaS eDiscovery solutions provide increased accessibility, scalability, and flexibility. Also, by design, they handle vast amounts of data more efficiently and facilitate seamless collaboration across multiple teams and locations.
When choosing technology to support eDiscovery and data governance, organizations should look for solutions that provide robust security while scaling to handle large and complex data volumes. And to ensure these solutions deliver value, choose tools that are intuitive, easy to learn and use.
Choose Your eDiscovery Vendor Carefully
Finally, as both the data environment and the legal landscape continue to evolve, organizations will benefit from partnering with an experienced eDiscovery vendor. But take time to vet potential vendors carefully, as the decision can significantly impact both legal outcomes and data quality.
Ask detailed questions. For instance, you should prioritize vendors that can demonstrate specific experience in your industry. Also look for providers that have implemented stringent security measures to protect sensitive data and that can ensure compliance with applicable regulations.
Implement eDiscovery Best Practices for Effective Data Governance
eGovernance provides cloud-based solutions for preserving, discovering and accessing digital data within your email and document storage systems for compliance, audit, security, eDiscovery and warehousing of critical or older data. We provide fully managed solutions with access to subject matter experts in the fields of Information Governance, records retention policies and eDiscovery.
eGovernance eDiscovery Solutions
Providing a set of sophisticated and simple to use tools to search, refine and extract data in support of FOIA requests, litigation or internal audits; eGovernance provides organizations with rapid and efficient data discoveries to meet ever growing regulatory and financial deadlines.
