The IG Industry Report 2023 tracks the key developments and trends in Information Governance. This year’s key findings include:
- The key drivers and priorities for information governance activities within organisations were:
- External regulatory, compliance or legal obligations
- Good business management practices
- Internal technology restructuring or transition; and
- Mitigating risks associated with data that can be defensibly deleted.
- The survey results revealed that a quarter of all IG projects either underway or planned to be underway in the next year were driven largely by changes or foreshadowed changes to privacy laws with a further quarter being ‘somewhat’ driven by changes or foreshadowed changes to privacy laws.
- Organisations are increasingly governing with a formal IG framework. The number of respondents reporting that their organisation is doing so has increased from 51% in 2019 to 64% in 2021 and then 71% in 2023.
- In another positive sign, nearly two-thirds of respondents assessed their organisation’s IG maturity as intermediate or advanced.
- A significant increase in IG projects is planned across the next 12 months from 74% in 2021 to 82% in 2023.
- Over a third of respondents indicated their organisations are expecting to increase their IG spend this financial year.
As recent high-profile data breaches have shown, boards and governing authorities of organisations need to have in place robust information governance to reduce information risks across the enterprise. Boards need to ensure they are actively monitoring the governance of data and information lifecycle– from collection to use and disposal - to comply with privacy regulations and reduce overall risks, including reputational and legal risks and costs to the organisation.