Information Governance

As we put 2020 behind us and look forward to 2021, InfoGovANZ reflected in an interactive virtual discussion forum on the key IG learnings from the past 12 months and the insights and actions we now need to be taking to make the most of the opportunities and challenges on the road to recovery in 2021.

We’ve seen the different ways governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the results in managing the pandemic. Similarly, organisations have had to adapt to the changes and, in particular, to faster digital transformation. Robust governance of organisations and of information has never been so important. Increased cyber risks and the importance of access to real-time and accurate data for decision-making, both at the board level and throughout the organisation, are now critical issues.

Given the expected ongoing complex and uncertain operating environment in 2021, robust information governance is needed to provide a system for the effective control and management of information assets to enable access to real-time and accurate information, as well as optimise data assets and value-generating activities while minimising risks.

This will enable the optimum:

• Board oversight with access to real-time information and data for decision-making - COVID-19 highlighted the need for access to real-time information for decision-making, notwithstanding ongoing complexity of operating environments.
• Integration of information security and regulatory compliance -a holistic strategic IG framework is needed to govern and effectively align data, information, compliance and technology together with policies, processes and people.
• Data optimisation through complete and accurate data - organisations need to be focused in investing in the data that is critical to advancing digital transformation and driving transformation initiatives.

7 Information Governance takeaways for 2021

1. Implementation of AI responsibly - governance processes must adequately embed dynamic risk management and impact assessments to ensure better oversight of AI technology and properly mitigate risks to achieve compliance by design.
2. Cybersecurity will continue to be a significant challenge with increasingly sophisticated attacks on organisations - working from anywhere has increased cybersecurity risks and ensuring employees have regular cyber and privacy training is essential to creating and maintaining a culture of data privacy, data protection and security with full compliance of policies and procedures.
3. The explosion of data being collected and generated by organisations, together with the relentless nature of cyberattacks, will continue to pose substantial risks to organisations, particularly in the event of a data breach - it is essential that information be governed through its lifecycle – collection, protection and use, security, archive and disposal. In 2021, the combination of regulations, data volumes and the increasing focus on understanding what data to optimise and what is ROT will lead to an increased understanding and action in secure disposal to minimise organisational risks.
4. Development of new technologies, particularly those that enable increased collaboration, will continue to rise and create efficiencies with work productivity - be mindful that they also present information governance challenges and are already resulting in rising eDiscovery costs in legal proceedings.
5. Organisations and law firms will need to be smarter in how eDiscovery is approached - investing in earlier strategic work in the discovery process to prevent the cost and burden spiralling out of control.
6. Working from anywhere has highlighted the importance of physical interaction for incidental learning, mentoring and social interaction - this requires careful planning for future workplace design and governance of systems and people.
7. Changing privacy regulations will continue toward the EU’s GDPR standard - in addition to the review of Australia’s Privacy Act 1988 (submissions received in response to the Issues Paper are available here) and New Zealand’s updated Privacy Act coming into force on 1 December, the following has occurred so far in 2021:
   • China’s Civil Code took effect on 1 January providing a statutory right of privacy for individuals and establishing data protection principles
   • Indonesia’s Personal Data Protection Bill was submitted to the House of Representatives
   • Singapore’s Amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) took effect on 1 February, with accompanying regulations published on 29 January 2021 - strengthens organisational accountability and consumer protection while enabling organisations to use personal data for innovation
   • India’s Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is expected to be tabled in an upcoming parliamentary committee budget session.

The sped up digital transformation of 2020 gave us an insight to the workplace of the future and the importance of robust information governance and both online and physical connectivity.

Moving into 2021, InfoGovANZ calls on information governance professionals working across the information, data, regulatory and technology facets to step up and ensure that systems and governance in their organisations are adequate, integrated and enable information assets to be maximized while risks are minimized.

You can read the insights from the rest of our expert panel in our InfoGovANZ Key Learnings from 2020 – Action and Insights for 2021 Report. The report was developed from a virtual forum discussing the impact of COVID-19  and IG implications for organisations on data, access to information, trust, transparency and accountability, cybersecurity, global privacy regulatory developments, eDiscovery, ethics and artificial intelligence.

You can also watch the recording of the 28 January 2021 webinar here.

Author

Susan Bennett (LLM(Hons), MBA, FGIA, CIPP/E) is the Founder and Executive Director, Information Governance ANZ and Principal, Sibenco Legal & Advisory

As we put 2020 behind us and look forward to 2021, we reflected in an interactive virtual discussion forum on the key IG learnings from the past 12 months and the insights and actions we now need to be taking to make the most of the opportunities and challenges on the road to recovery in 2021.

We’ve seen the different ways governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the results in managing the pandemic. Similarly, organisations have had to adapt to the changes and, in particular, to faster digital transformation. Robust governance of organisations and of information has never been so important. Increased cyber risks and the importance of access to real-time and accurate data for decision-making, both at the board level and throughout the organisation, are now critical issues.

Our expert panel included InfoGovANZ Advisory Board member, Sonya Sherman, with over 20 years’ experience is a highly regarded subject matter expert in public records, information access and information governance.

Sonya has held senior public policy and advisory roles, developing legislation and international standards, providing strategic policy advice and implementing sector-wide reforms in areas such as digital transformation, data sharing and open government, in Australia and internationally.

She is a member of the cross-jurisdictional, cross-sector Data Sharing Taskforce convened by the Australian Computer Society (ACS); and a member of the International Organization for Standardization ISO/IEC JTC001/SC32/WG6 Joint Technical Committee Working Group on Data Usage. Sonya’s passion is helping people create, find, use and share information, for better business and more connected communities.

Sonya’s insights:

At last year’s Roundtable, Sonya pointed out three priorities for information governance:

• Connectivity - had to do with maintaining business as usual during the shift to digital and remote working.  Organisations in 2020 quickly realised that access to reliable information was just as important as access to technology. Rapid digital transformation has been broadly successful in knowledge industries and laggards did a lot of catching up over the past year. But we also saw innovative use of data and technology in sectors that previously relied on in-person interaction. Think about orchestras and choir groups; personal trainers; real estate auctions; Cabinet meetings; and Parliament.  Moving forward, we’re seeing connectivity transition to creativity, with new types of digital products and services coming into play. This is going to have flow-on effects for information governance and regulation.
• Sustainability - ensured the systems and processes put in place last year will help maintain good governance across a remote workforce and a distributed information ecosystem for the longer term.  The jury is still out on this one. Rapid transformation in some cases will mean data and information have ‘slipped through the cracks.’ It’s likely some organisations are suffering major challenges with version control, with increased risks of data leakage or data breaches. It’s likely we'll never go back to working the way we used to, but this doesn't mean we will all remain working remotely.
• Accountability - recognised the critical importance of keeping records during the crisis, even though it may seem more difficult than usual.  Last year, Sonya noted that every decision and action would potentially come under scrutiny and we’ve certainly seen a lot of inquiries already, with, no doubt, more to come. We've also seen the benefits of keeping records, to learn from and adjust our actions through successive virus waves.  Accountability will transition to transparency and organisations or governments that communicate very openly with staff or citizens and provide regular, reliable information will build trust that helps them meet their goals.  Trust will break down when information is withheld or people have doubts about it.

We are also seeing the advantages of sharing data and information to enable contact tracing and to rapidly develop vaccines. It's really important that people can trust systems and processes to maintain data integrity and protect their personal information at this time.

There will be growing awareness of the value IG brings to organisations, government and communities. The pandemic is having a huge impact on the way we live, the environment and global politics.  Maintaining accessible records and data about this period in history continues to be vitally important for our future world.

Questions for leaders

• Connectivity and creativity: Given the new types of digital products and services coming into play, are you ready for the flow-on effects for information governance and regulation?
• Sustainability: You will see sustainability transition to scalability. Will your IG systems and processes support a hybrid workplace, where some people are in the office and others are anywhere else.
• Have you carried out a reconciliation, that is, cleared out the redundant, obsolete and trivial (ROT) and duplicates?
• Accountability and transparency: Have you got a communications culture that builds trust? Information sharing leads to better business outcomes.

You can read the insights from the rest of our expert panel in our InfoGovANZ Key Learnings from 2020 – Action and Insights for 2021 Report. The report was developed from a virtual forum discussing the impact of COVID-19  and IG implications for organisations on data, access to information, trust, transparency and accountability, cybersecurity, global privacy regulatory developments, eDiscovery, ethics and artificial intelligence.

You can also watch the recording of the 28 January 2021 webinar here.

As we put 2020 behind us and look forward to 2021, we reflected in an interactive virtual discussion forum on the key IG learnings from the past 12 months and the insights and actions we now need to be taking to make the most of the opportunities and challenges on the road to recovery in 2021.

We’ve seen the different ways governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the results in managing the pandemic. Similarly, organisations have had to adapt to the changes and, in particular, to faster digital transformation. Robust governance of organisations and of information has never been so important. Increased cyber risks and the importance of access to real-time and accurate data for decision-making, both at the board level and throughout the organisation, are now critical issues.

Our expert panel included InfoGovANZ International Council member,  Brynmor Bowen, Principal Consultant at Greenheart Consulting Partners, and a Board Director of MCCG Guyana, a management consulting company based in Guyana. Bryn is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management and Past President of the ARMA Metro NYC chapter. He is also a founding Steering Committee member of the Law Firm Information Governance Symposium, an organization dedicated to providing IG guidance to the legal industry through published white paper guidance.

Bryn is formerly the Director of Information Services at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, a New York-based law firm, where he established an information governance (IG) program in addition to overseeing the new business intake (NBI), conflicts/risk, record and information management, research/library services, and knowledge areas. Prior to that, Bryn was Director of Legal Systems and Information Management at Greenberg Traurig LLP, a large US law firm, where he established a global IG and records management program and reengineered the NBI conflicts and risk programs, and at the referenced millennium (2000), was Head of New Business and Conflicts at Clifford Chance, a newly transatlantic and transpacific merged of 3,200 lawyers.

Bryn’s insights:

• 2020 was certainly a year of acceleration of some long-awaited advances in how technology could be used to improve metadata enrichment and analysis.  We saw the knowledge-related workforce become largely virtual, which led to the rise in the deployment of collaboration platforms along with the attendant IG issues, ranging from intra and extra enterprise security considerations to access rights management and the need for proper provisioning to reduce information proliferation.
• We also saw project realignments to reflect shifting priorities brought on by the pandemic, such as accelerated infrastructure moves to the cloud and the already mentioned increased digitisation. We also saw the use of AI enabled technology to mitigate effects of the shifting workforce stance, such as virtual support functions around knowledge workers and vastly improved functionality, like task suggestions in Office 365, empowering the governance of information in a significant way.
• There will be an acceleration of the changes already started in 2020, particularly with added functionality to collaboration replacement tools and the governance considerations and requirements that will need to be put in place.
• For new organisations, there will be an increased level of awareness of the need for IG frameworks, as this becomes more of a foundational necessity due to the virtual workforce.  This will also lead to more thoughtful implementation and adoption of technology, with a greater focus on end user needs and overall user experience.
• Virtual workplace collaboration among knowledge workers has grown exponentially due to the restrictions demanded by logical response to the pandemic.  Even after the pandemic subsides, significant virtual collaboration will be part of the new normal.

Action for leaders

• In order to ensure maximum positive effect and also take advantage of some of the value-added elements of virtual collaboration, a thoughtful, well-guided creation of a proper IG framework is critical.

You can read the insights from the rest of our expert panel in our InfoGovANZ Key Learnings from 2020 – Action and Insights for 2021 Report. The report was developed from a virtual forum discussing the impact of COVID-19  and IG implications for organisations on data, access to information, trust, transparency and accountability, cybersecurity, global privacy regulatory developments, eDiscovery, ethics and artificial intelligence.

You can also watch the recording of the 28 January 2021 webinar here.