At the same time, healthcare organizations face considerable obstacles as they strive to govern the massive amounts of data under their control. In the first place, the World Economic Forum estimates that the average hospital generates over 50 petabytes of data every year, most of it unstructured.

Secondly, because of its sensitive nature, healthcare data is heavily regulated. Laws such as HIPAA impose strict requirements on how organizations store, use, and share data. And with protected health information (PHI) living in many different formats, departments, and platforms, compliance proves complicated. Frequent security threats add further complexity.

To address these challenges, healthcare organizations must adopt a proactive and strategic approach to data governance. This process will involve numerous moving parts and does not happen overnight. However, the following tips will help set things off on the right track.

Start with Initial Data Assessment and Cleanup

You cannot govern data unless you know what data you have and where it lives. Therefore, start with a thorough inventory to discover what PHI the organization collects and stores, where it lives, who owns it, and how it is used. Also determine who has access to the data. This information will aid in building a risk profile and determining next steps.

Once you have a view of the organization’s data, classify the data based on sensitivity and prioritize it for protection. This initial data assessment period also presents a good time to perform some data cleanup. This will include resolving duplicate records and archiving or removing data no longer needed. Always refer to regulatory requirements.

Review and Update Access Privileges

Because the patient record plays a pivotal role in care delivery, healthcare organizations need to carefully control access to this information. Access management involves defining who has access to what data and under what circumstances. Work toward a state of least privileged access, in which users have just the authorization they need to do their job and no more.

Controlling access to PHI may also include updating authentication processes to definitively verify the identity of anyone attempting to access sensitive information. Multi-factor authentication (MFI) and other modern authentication methods will prove essential.

Leverage Technology Wisely

Technology can streamline the process of healthcare data governance and reduce errors. For example, biometric scanners reduce the chance of misidentification, and software using AI-powered referential matching can prove effective in reducing duplicate records. Likewise, digital compliance solutions provide critical compliance monitoring and simplify data classification.

When choosing and implementing technology, look for solutions made to scale easily as data sets continue to grow. Also prioritize tools that integrate with existing clinical systems. And utilize robust security systems that use encryption and other protective measures to secure data during transmission and storage.

Build a Culture of Data Governance

No amount of technology, however, will take the place of building a corporate culture of data governance. Engage with stakeholders such as providers and patients as you develop a data governance framework. An essential part of that framework will include defining data governance roles and responsibilities.

Then promote data literacy by providing training for all employees on data governance policies and best practices. For instance, standardized procedures around collecting and updating patient data will assist in preventing errors and duplicates. Formal training and just-in-time reminders will help.

Take Data Governance to the Next Level

Effective data governance takes time and requires careful planning. The eMazzanti team of data experts brings decades of experience in effective data governance and data security consulting and solutions. We can help you design and implement a comprehensives strategy designed to protect data assets and drive both efficiency and innovation.

The post Data Governance in the Healthcare Sector Critical to Improve Health Outcomes and Compliance appeared first on eGovernance.

Data governance truly involves a cyclical process, and organizations must revisit the stages periodically as data sources and business processes change. While various regulatory environments and business needs involve unique approaches, this post outlines the stages of a standard data governance lifecycle.

1. Define the Purpose and Goals

Any successful data governance program starts with an assessment of the current data and regulatory landscape. While technologies and trends support data governance, strategic planning should focus on identifying existing risks and business priorities.

For instance, for many organizations regulatory compliance needs provide the initial motivation for gaining control of data assets. Another key driver might include improving data quality to support AI initiatives or other innovations.

Whatever the motivation, an initial step will involve identifying risks and practices that present obstacles to attaining business goals. For example, insufficient data security will compromise regulatory compliance. And poor data quality will reduce the effectiveness of decision making and AI initiatives.

2. Build a Roadmap

With an understanding of the reasons and goals for data governance in the organization, it is time to put together a detailed plan. Begin by identifying the data elements throughout the organization. Look at the types of data collected, the data sources and data owners, and how the organization uses the data.

Next, assess the quality of the organization’s data. Several factors affect data quality. For example, outdated or redundant data will reduce the accuracy of data-driven decision making. Likewise, incomplete data will diminish the reliability of data analytics. And inconsistencies across systems and processes can lead to confusion and errors.

Once you have a detailed picture of the data landscape and the challenges involved, you can construct a data governance plan. This strategic plan will include identifying the steps needed to implement data governance, the key stakeholders, necessary resources, and priorities.

3. Design the Data Governance Strategy

Primary goals of the data governance framework involve establishing standards for data management. They also involve ensuring data security and empowering employees throughout the organization to find and use data effectively.

First, the data governance framework will include determining data governance roles and responsibilities. Properly managing data involves input from stakeholders throughout the organization. Some common roles include data governance sponsors and council, data owners, data custodians, data stewards, and data users.

Next, comprehensive policies and procedures around data access, usage, management, and security form the backbone of a data governance framework. For instance, regulations like PCI DSS and HIPAA impose strict rules around data retention. And numerous privacy laws necessitate security policies to protect sensitive data.

4. Implement the Data Governance Program

With policies and procedures outlined and strategies documented, the real work begins. Technology can play a crucial role in this process. For example, automation can significantly reduce the time involved in labeling and tracking sensitive data. Likewise, automating data retention and destruction policies improves accuracy and defensibility.

Technology solutions can both reduce risk and save time. These solutions will include proactive data security, data compliance monitoring, and comprehensive records management, along with eDiscovery solutions that provide essential visibility into unstructured data.

Additionally, the data governance program must address the human factor, building a culture of data governance from top to bottom. Thus, the program necessarily includes educating and training stakeholders about data governance policies and procedures and their role in maintaining data integrity.

5. Continuously Monitor

Data governance requires continuous monitoring to ensure enforcement of data governance policies and proactively identify risks. This includes both regular audits and automated data compliance monitoring.

6. Review and Adapt

The final stage involves evaluating the effectiveness of data governance initiatives and refining processes and policies accordingly. As new data sets and security risks emerge, and as processes within the organization change, the data governance framework will need to change, as well.

Conduct regular reviews with senior executives and key stakeholders. Track progress against key objectives, measure results, and make any needed adjustments.

Leverage Expert Resources Throughout the Stages of a Data Governance Lifecycle

Many organizations effectively utilize information governance solutions to streamline the data governance process. Working with organizations like eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects provides access to both extensive expertise and cutting-edge technologies.

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In essence, the data steward acts as the guardian of data assets, ensuring their accuracy, consistency, accessibility, and usability. Data stewards generally work in IT but collaborate closely with departments across the organization. Thus, they act as a bridge between the technical and business sides, requiring a unique skillset.

Data Stewardship Puts Data Governance into Practice

Data stewardship plays a pivotal role in effective data governance, translating policies into practice. A data governance framework includes the policies and guidelines for data handling, quality, and security. Data stewards have responsibility for ensuring the implementation and enforcement of these policies.

For example, to enforce data quality standards and ensure trustworthy data for decision making, a data steward might conduct regular data audits to identify inaccuracies or inconsistencies. They could then implement data cleansing processes to eliminate duplicate entries, correct errors, and update outdated information.

Or, to ensure that data access falls within regulatory compliance restrictions, the data steward might design and oversee role-based user access controls. This helps the company achieve a fine balance between data democratization and critical data security.

In implementing data governance policies, the data steward collaborates closely with other data governance roles. For instance, data stewards work closely with data custodians, who provide technical support and maintenance related to data. They also work in tandem with data owners in various departments, as well as the data scientists who retrieve and analyze data.

Responsibilities of a Data Steward

Data stewards oversee all activities related to data management. This multi-faceted role includes several main categories of responsibility:

• Data quality assurance – This involves monitoring data for errors or inconsistencies, as well as implementing processes to maintain data accuracy.
• Data security and compliance – Data stewards ensure the protection of data from unauthorized access. They implement security measures, make sure data usage complies with legal and regulatory requirements, and raise awareness about data security best practices.
• Data accessibility and usability – Stewards balance strict data security standards with making sure that authorized users can find and use data. This involves building a data inventory, maintaining data lineage, managing metadata, and so forth.
• Data advocacy – Data stewards promote data value by educating stakeholders on data quality principles, encouraging responsible data usage, and promoting strategic uses of data, such as data-driven decision making.

Businesses May Have Multiple Data Stewards

This responsibility list looks daunting and often proves more than one data steward can reasonably accomplish. Consequently, a company may assign multiple stewards to handle various aspects of data stewardship.

For example, the organization may assign separate data stewards to work with specific types of data, such as customer data. They may also assign stewards according to business function, such as sales or R&D. Alternatively, a data steward may have responsibility for one or more IT systems, such as email.

Skills to Look for in a Data Steward

Because data stewards cover both technical and culture-focused activities, they need a balance of various types of skills. Without a doubt, the job requires technical skills, including data modeling, databases, and database management systems. And in fact, data stewards often report up through IT.

But data stewards also need interpersonal skills and business acumen. Because they act as a liaison between IT and business functions, in addition to promoting good data practices throughout the company, they must be able to communicate and collaborate effectively. Additionally, they often act as subject matter experts in their area of responsibility.

Who are Data Stewards and Why are They Important for Your Business? Explore Key Benefits

Data stewards play a central role in implementing data governance and ensuring a healthy data ecosystem. They not only protect and manage data, but they also help the company navigate a complex data landscape and leverage data for strategic advantage. And as data plays an increasingly vital part in decision making and innovation, this role has become mission critical.

To set the stage for success, hire the right people and give them the tools they need to thrive. eGovernance solutions for information governance offer powerful, cloud-based solutions to help organizations use their information effectively and drive data value.

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Data quality plays an essential role in strategic analytics. And AI requires a large amount of high-quality data to train the large language models (LLM) that are essential to AI systems. When determining data quality, organizations need to address several factors, including:

• Completeness – Identify any gaps or missing elements. For instance, this could include verifying that all vendor records include critical information such as valid phone numbers.
• Uniqueness – On the flip side, duplicate data will also result in skewed results. Data teams must identify and resolve duplicates regularly.
• Validity – Ensure that data conforms to predefined standards such as rules around expected format or data type. For example, check to make certain that email addresses use a valid format.
• Timeliness – Outdated information will result in faulty strategies. For instance, using old sensor data can lead technicians to create ineffectual equipment maintenance strategies.
• Accuracy – Does data reflect real world values? For example, do location-based services use accurate GPS coordinates?
• Consistency – Data teams need to compare and verify data from various sources and systems to ensure coherence. For instance, check for consistent use of product names.

Several key strategies will help streamline data quality checks and ensure that you have the data you need to guide business direction.

Implement Strategic Data Governance

Data quality does not happen by chance. It requires a robust data governance framework that includes clearly defined policies, procedures, and responsibilities. These policies outline data lifecycle management, provide for data security, and ensure regulatory compliance.

With effective data governance, companies gain visibility into all their data, no matter where it lives. They classify data, tying retention and destruction policies, as well as sharing restrictions and encryption rules, to data type. They also enhance data security by strengthening identity and access management, balancing access with security.

An essential element of data governance involves data lineage, a type of metadata that traces the movement of data throughout the organization. This “data about data” tells where the data originated, how it has been used, and how it has transformed throughout its lifecycle.

By illuminating milestones along the data journey, data lineage helps the data team determine data consistency and accuracy. And in the event of an error, it helps investigators trace issues back to the root cause.

Monitor Data Continuously

By constantly monitoring data, organizations can track sensitive data to ensure regulatory compliance. Continuous monitoring also allows the organization to perform data quality checks in real time. This allows for immediate identification and correction of data issues, ensuring that data-driven decisions are based on the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Data monitoring systems should use clearly defined metrics, tracking error rates, identifying missing values, and following data trends.

Embrace Automation

Automation smooths the way for both data governance and data monitoring. Add AI-powered tools to the mix, and managing data at scale becomes much easier and more accurate. For instance, tools such as Microsoft Purview use pattern matching and machine learning to label data much more rapidly and accurately than humans can alone.

AI-powered automation also aids policy enforcement. And it helps the organization discover and interpret new regulations and updates, even suggesting necessary changes to policies and workflows.

Fine-tune the Human Touch

To achieve success, data quality must become integrated into corporate culture at all levels and in all departments. Train both data teams and end users to identify and address data quality issues. End user knowledge of business context will prove invaluable in interpreting data anomalies and ensuring that data reflects the real world.

Best Practices for Data Quality Checks Save Future Headaches

By implementing robust data governance, monitoring data 24×7, leveraging automation, and engaging end users, companies will be able to ensure effective data quality checks. And by improving data quality, they will build a solid foundation for data-driven decision making.

eGovernance solutions for information governance and compliance monitoring arm your organization with state-of-the-art technologies and decades of experience. We will help you harness your data to inform strategy and drive innovation.

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Typical roles and responsibilities include data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers, guided by a data governance committee. Individual organizations will, of course, adapt these roles according to their needs and organizational maturity.

Data Owner

The data owner refers to the person or group with authority and accountability for a specific dataset. Usually a senior manager or business leader, data owners define business requirements and rules for the data. They also establish quality standards and metrics and approve data policies and procedures.

For example, a marketing director owns customer data, overseeing customer segmentation, targeting, and personalization strategies. Likewise, a product manager owns the product data, driving the product development, launch, and feedback processes.

Data Steward

Data stewards include those responsible for implementing data policies and procedures. For instance, a data steward will help monitor data compliance with established regulations and internal standards. They may also educate the workforce on how to access, use, and share data to ensure compliance with privacy and security best practices.

Data Custodian

Data custodians oversee the technical aspects of data management. This includes the processes surrounding data storage, and well as backup and recovery, data access, and quality control.

For example, database administrators manage the databases that store the data, ensuring optimization and security. Data analysts, on the other hand, perform queries and reports on data using tools such as SQL or Python. Their insights and recommendations support decision making.

Data Consumer

Data consumers, as the name suggests, use data for a variety of purposes, from decision making to innovation. They play a key stakeholder role in data governance, as they have specific needs and expectations regarding the quality and availability of the data.

For example, marketing managers leverage data to personalize marketing campaigns. Or product managers developing new products collect data regarding user behavior to inform decisions about features to include.

Within the data governance framework, data consumers have responsibility for providing feedback and identifying issues. These may include issues such as errors or inconsistencies within the data set. They may also include problems with accessibility or data silos that diminish data value.

Data consumers also play a critical role in data security and compliance. By complying with security best practices and policies for data use, they help reduce risk.

Coordinate Data Governance Roles and Responsibilities to Drive Business Goals

The data governance committee includes stakeholders from across the organization. This committee oversees the implementation and maintenance of the data governance program. They begin by defining the vision and goals relating to the organization’s data, as well as the responsibilities of data owners, stewards, custodians, and consumers.

The committee will develop and approve data policies and procedures, ensuring they align with the company’s business goals and compliance requirements. They monitor and measure the performance of data governance activities. And they identify both risks and opportunities for improvement. Importantly, they serve as data champions.

For example, a healthcare organization’s data governance committee oversees the quality, privacy, and security of patient data across different departments. Likewise, a retail company’s data governance committee coordinates the collection and integration of customer data from various sources.

Jumpstart Data Governance Strategy with Expert Guidance

Effective data governance requires building data strategies one piece at a time. The data experts at eMazzanti Technologies and Messaging Architects will help your organization implement a structured and comprehensive program to reduce risk and increase data value.

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Plan for Governance Success

The Goldilocks zone of good governance looks different for each organization. Ideally, Microsoft 365 assists companies with solving business problems and meeting organizational objectives. To that end, administrators need to take a proactive approach to designing and implementing an information governance strategy.

First and foremost, this will involve clarifying business needs and goals and then building a governance plan around those goals. Additionally, organizations need to understand applicable regulations and gain an understanding of existing security and compliance risks.

Organizations should also understand that eGovernance in Microsoft Cloud is dependent on licensing levels. For example, the features set available vary between the different licensing packages.

Define Retention, Email, and Data Security Policies

A key tool for governing information to reach business goals and achieve compliance involves policies. In the case of data retention, for instance, Microsoft 365 Records Management allows organizations to define data retention at both the folder level and the file level.

For example, administrators can create a retention policy to apply to all items in a SharePoint site or all messages on a channel. On a more granular level, they can apply retention labels to specific items, such as single documents or emails. Likewise, email policies discourage data pack rats and streamline eDiscovery.

Policies also provide protections for sensitive data. For instance, the organization can create policies to ensure that users do not accidentally share financial data or personally identifiable information.

Balance Productivity with Control and Security

In addition to increasingly complex tools, administrators must balance the need for productivity with a constantly evolving threat landscape and regulatory pressures. Microsoft 365 governance allows administrators to strictly control user access and automate policies for data sharing and retention.

These controls aid security and compliance. However, too much structure can lead to reduced productivity when users must deal with multiple logins and strict controls over sharing. This frustration may spark a rise in shadow IT as employees find ways to collaborate outside the approved applications.

Likewise, retention policies help to ensure regulatory compliance and protect vital information assets. But retaining too much data eats up storage space and creates chaos. Effective governance finds a sweet spot that protects the organization while driving efficiency.

Back Up Critical Business Data

Microsoft 365 includes a host of tools for collaboration, which store data in a variety of locations. For instance, users keep and share documents through SharePoint and OneDrive. Outlook mailboxes contain thousands of emails and appointments. And Teams stores chats and voicemails for future reference.

Microsoft 365 enables administrators to implement retention and destruction policies on specific data or locations. However, data not governed by such policies is subject to manual destruction and Microsoft does not maintain backups of data.

Therefore, organizations should look to third party backup solutions and determine how much of this data requires backup and how often to run backups. This varies, depending on business needs, industry regulations and applicable legislation, such as HIPAA. Data archive solutions should also be considered to provide long term compliance options.

Preserve Data Organization and Configuration

If businesses simply back up the data, without consideration for the way the data is organized, restoring from the backup would cause chaos. For instance, users often depend on a system of folders and subfolders in SharePoint to group like documents together and make them easy to locate. Backups should take that organization into account to allow for seamless restoration.

When backups also include configuration settings, it further eases the process of restoration. This is particularly true in the case an organization needs to rebuild much of the system after a ransomware attack. Configuration includes access management settings, library settings, sharing permissions and so forth.

Get More Microsoft 365 Governance Tips

Microsoft 365 offers powerful tools to empower collaboration, protect data assets, and support innovation. But powerful tools require fine-tuning and careful management. Understanding and properly configuring the options available requires training and experience.

The information governance consultants at eGovernance bring extensive experience in Microsoft 365. Along with powerful archiving, eDiscovery and Compliance solutions, they provide the Microsoft 365 governance tips and expertise organizations crave for success.

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Managed by the information governance experts at eMazzanti Technologies and powered by iPro, eGovernance.com solutions empower businesses to effectively manage their data with hosted solutions for electronic data discovery, security, and compliance.

Reduce Costs with Affordable Information Governance

A data breach poisons reputation and piles up recovery costs. And mismanaged information adds risk in an age governed by privacy regulation. Information governance supplies the controls, access, and protections required, now at a cost most businesses can afford.

When companies know where their data lives and who owns it, they begin to unlock its potential by putting it to work. And with comprehensive data security, categorization, and management across the life of the data, innovation flourishes.

In addition to enabling innovation, affordable information governance solutions deliver a host of business benefits, including:

• • Reduced eDiscovery costs
  • Reduced risk of a costly data breach or mishandling of sensitive data
  • Decreased overhead and liabilities arising from obsolete information
  • Increased productivity when employees quickly find needed data, rather than piling up repetitive or conflicting information
  • Faster access to useful business information resulting from improved organization

Affordable Data and Records Management

Data and records management means identifying, organizing, and cleaning up data to make it more useful.  Organizations benefit from solutions that cover the entire data lifecycle, beginning with a simple data audit and including sensible processes, policies, and procedures.

For example, data tagging enables the organization of strategic business information into suitable categories for eDiscovery. Tagging allows users to quickly and accurately search millions of emails and files to find essential information.

On the other hand, search solutions that return inconsistent results, work slowly, or become difficult to use often lengthen the eDiscovery process, resulting in increased costs.

With data properly organized, regulatory compliance becomes much easier, hence less costly. Data managers easily implement retention policies to automate archival and deletion of obsolete or redundant information. Likewise, the identification of sensitive data blocks unauthorized access or sharing and the loss of proprietary information.

Efficient eDiscovery

The cloud-based data indexing and eDiscovery platform from eGovernance^® simplifies the eDiscovery process. Its rich eDiscovery tools greatly aid in the distribution and collection of relevant data to improve the speed and efficiency of requests across multiple disparate systems and Office 365 licensing levels. eDiscovery teams work faster with reduced discovery overhead.

Legal teams empowered to create and track discovery cases, search, and export content without engaging IT. Even better, complex searches take just seconds to perform, because documents are classified with searchable tags and comments.

Cost-Effective Digital Compliance Management

Regulatory compliance has become a fact of business life, as inevitable as taxes. eGovernance^® Compliance solutions reduce compliance monitoring time and effort and enable internal investigations with no outsourcing. They deliver data visibility, both on-premises and in the cloud, through a single console.

In addition, eGovernance^® monitoring tools allow compliance/security teams to tackle all regulations simultaneously, including HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, SOX, PCI-DSS and more. Reporting options provide proof of policy and regulatory compliance. Further, users remediate all sensitive data automatically or manually from the same user interface.

Knowing the information you have and where it is aids discovery and records management. But from a security and compliance perspective, organizations both must know if there are breaches and be able to do something about them.

While some solutions stop data from being created that contravenes data compliance policies, a solution is also required that allows that content to be quarantined, reviewed, and moved. eGovernance provides compliance options to quarantine, review, delete, or return potentially suspicious documents and email residing in your systems.

Multi-layered Data Security Strategies

The perfect storm of cloud migration, increasing cyber-attacks, and remote work security challenges have left data more at risk than ever. Thus, data security forms a necessary and increasingly outsourced piece of an overall information governance strategy.

The experienced consultants at eGovernance.com have lived the transformation from closed data storage systems to cloud-based systems. They audit and identify potential security risks, then tailor multi-layered cybersecurity strategies to support business goals. A variety of security services include email and ransomware protection, mobile device security and more.

Acquire Affordable Information Governance with eGovernance^® Cloud Solutions

Successful businesses strive to increase data security and compliance while tapping into the benefits of big data to drive innovation. eGovernance^® provides the tools to do that efficiently and economically. With cloud-based archiving and eDiscovery solutions, comprehensive data security and compliance monitoring, organizations choose the options to meet their requirements.

Contact us today to explore affordable information governance solutions beginning at just $2.50 per user per month.

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Now, picture an organization that has implemented an optimized eDiscovery process with cloud-based eDiscovery tools. Rather than working long hours to search for data when litigation appears, they run various complex searches and compare results in seconds. Thus, they respond to eDiscovery requests quickly while reducing data collection and review costs.

eDiscovery Challenges

eDiscovery requests appear straightforward at first: Deliver all the information relevant to the pending case. But the subtleties of modern communication and information storage complicate the process in a variety of ways.

For example, organizations with a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy face a formidable data gathering challenge. Employees often combine personal and business use on laptops, tablets, and smartphones. In addition, they may use a variety of third-party applications to do their work and probably have not retained some critical information.

As devices and data storage locations multiply, increasing volumes of data must be searched and reviewed, ballooning eDiscovery costs.

Once a pending or lawsuit or preservation letter is received, one of the key steps is the deposition of the target company. At this point, the legal team is interested in determining what information is available from the organization.

Overcome eDiscovery Challenges with Consistent, Secure, and Quick eDiscovery Tools

Instead of reacting in a frenzy to requests for eDiscovery, modern organizations practice solid information governance, and employ effective eDiscovery tools that are consistent, secure, and quick:

• Consistent – Organizations need to produce consistent results when performing eDiscovery searches and have confidence in both the results they obtain as well as stating that confidence to the people requesting that data.
• Secure – Guaranteeing the integrity of the data is vital. Some eDiscovery systems are built into the data management systems or applications. These could be compromised “accidentally” or “willfully” by individuals tasked with maintaining system.
• Quick – The time to discover, search and produce information often requires multiple individuals with the associated costs in time and effort. Solutions should be quick, and efficient and reduce overall effort spent performing discoveries.

The Modern, Cloud-Based eDiscovery Approach

Consistent, secure, and quick eDiscovery tools empower legal teams to sift through all their data in minutes. These modern cloud-based solutions enable personnel to review and analyze data in place, then collect only relevant electronically stored information (ESI). Thus, they are enabled to:

• Perform all eDiscovery efforts in-house and decide sooner to litigate vs. settle to save money and resources.
• Identify and review relevant data before collection and confidently reduce the amount of data to collect, hold, and review.
• Process discovery requests quickly and reduces the risks of sanctions while maintaining a continuous chain of custody.

Modern eDiscovery tools expand eDiscovery from just email by adding data sources to index and search. They provide quick access to electronic information from various sources such as Microsoft OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, Citrix ShareFile, Box, Slack, Egnyte, and others.

The modern, cloud-based approach allows centralization of eDiscovery and the ability to keep critical data where it currently resides. Your data stays safe and protected there or you may want to extract copies to meet more strict retention requirements.

Quick eDiscovery Tools Reduce Costs

Modern, high-speed eDiscovery tools position organizations to:

• Reduce Costs – The bulk of eDiscovery costs arise from the collection and initial review of data to discover information pertinent to the discovery request. Streamlining this process saves time and dollars by limiting items produced for final review.
• Simplify the Process – Organizations today are spending more time with discovery. They need to simplify the process instead of complicating it with multiple tools, data formats and complex search tools and syntaxes.
• Shorten the Learning Curve – Discovery teams get up to speed quickly and easily using a familiar and easy-to-navigate web-based interface. Searching is simple with easy-to-understand search terms and intelligent syntax.
• Respond Quickly to eDiscovery Requests – No more scrambling. Teams locate and produce the needed information quickly, without interrupting regular business operations.
• Practice Early Case Assessment (ECA) – With a clear picture of the relevant data, business leaders and their counsel make informed strategic decisions early on.

For large or small organizations, these solutions should be able to scale to any number of users and any amount of data. Expect them to provide support for multiple auditors and allow for graduated access levels of security.

The Right Tools from eDiscovery Experts

Modern eDiscovery tools connect to all the organization’s unstructured data locations. They identify relevant data and maintain an up-to-date index of the information before any data is collected.

With consistent, secure, and quick eDiscovery tools and processes, business leaders gain visibility into data in seconds, reduce the data sets to present to attorneys, and accelerate early case assessment. It all adds up to much lower eDiscovery costs.

The best time to prepare for litigation is now, long before a court order appears. The consultants and project managers at eGovernance.com help organizations practice efficient eDiscovery. And with deep knowledge of Office 365 and other pertinent technologies, they can assist modern data and identity governance.

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