Managing Remote Workers: Don’t Get Caught Out in the Cold!

As you’ve undoubtedly noticed, this winter has broken records for snowfall across the country—we even had a few inches of snow here in Austin!  But what a difference a week makes. As of this post, the high temperature in Austin should be near 80 today!  As most of the country begins to thaw and come out of hibernation, it really is incredible to think about how this winter’s inclement weather forced many of us to work virtually from home…more often than usual. However, remote workers can create major information management concerns—opening organizations up to data breaches and complicating eDiscovery requests. According to the Financial Times:

Whether the corporate IT team is ready or not, a growing number of employees now exercise choice when it comes to the tools and services they use to get their jobs done. They are bringing their own mobile phones, tablet computers and laptops to work and using them to send and receive potentially sensitive business data.

In case of an eDiscovery request, organizations can be caught out in the cold dealing with remote desktops, laptops and tablet computers if they don’t have the right information management technology in place.

Typical desktop collections that rely on file-copying software can be cumbersome—Organizations often over-collect data, as up to 90 percent of desktop data is non-responsive to a legal matter.  They also face significant difficulties properly preserving all metadata, taking enormous amounts of time to complete data collection activities, and having no automated method to restart the collection process after a network interruption or if a remote user disconnects while a collection is in progress.  The result is that either a member of the IT staff or a consultant is dispatched to a remote location to perform custodian collection, or remote users are forced to ship their laptops into a main office for a few days.

Although we’re more than halfway through this winter, now would be a good time to define an information management policy for your remote workers so you’ll be prepared for that next big storm.  Some things for you to consider should include:

1. Define, document and publish an official company policy on working remotely, including security, network and information access;
2. Ensure that you have sufficient access points and bandwidth to support your remote staff;
3. Implement a desktop collection capability as part of your information management strategy to meet any regulatory compliance, eDiscovery and security obligations.

Let’s hope that Punxsutawney Phil is right and we’re in for an early spring, at least here in Austin it looks that way!

Madison Chooses StoredIQ to Manage eDiscovery In-House

Madison Capital Management, LLC (“Madison”), an alternative investment management firm with offices in the US and Europe has deployed StoredIQ’s Intelligent Information Management Platform to gain actionable intelligence from its rapidly expanding electronic data – allowing legal and IT teams to work in tandem to enhance eDiscovery strategies, meet compliance mandates and reduce risk and cost.

We wanted to better understand what data we have, where it resides and determine how we can better manage our information across the enterprise and do so in a proactive manner. With StoredIQ we are able to make intelligent decisions about the state of our data based on corporate policies and legal discovery requirements. – Tony Balding, vice president, software solutions at Madison

From a GC’s perspective, we needed a solution that allowed me to work closely with the IT department, analyze the data to determine the merits of a dispute quickly, understand related review cost and provide a defensible audit trail. StoredIQ exceeded that expectation with their unique capabilities, such as analyzing data where it natively resides, the user-friendly legal and IT workflow, and the scoreboard that keeps track of review costs as data is identified, preserved and collected. – Judy Michael, assistant vice president, legal, asset and risk management at Madison

Market-leading companies use StoredIQ to respond rapidly and efficiently to legal matters, litigation, and investigations. Utilizing StoredIQ, corporate legal teams can locate, analyze and act upon unstructured electronically stored information much more comprehensively and efficiently. As a result, companies can better manage their legal risk and reduce expenses, while formulating superior legal strategies. With StoredIQ, companies:

• Quickly locate matter-relevant electronic documents with advanced search technology
• Analyze electronic documents in-place with detailed data topology maps, advanced analytics, and precise data explorers
• Preserve and collect data to a secure legal hold repository, preserving all metadata and business context
• Perform first-pass reviews on documents before exporting data downstream
• Act on and manage potentially relevant data in a legally defensible manner with audit trails and a robust chain of custody

StoredIQ’s award-winning solution streamlines eDiscovery processes for legal and IT, allows for early case analysis “in the Wild,” and provides complete cost predictability.

StoredIQ Sponsors Risk Management Track at Upcoming ARMA International Conference & Expo

StoredIQ will be the conference sponsor for the Risk Management Track during next week’s ARMA International conference. The premier event in the records and information management field, ARMA International’s 55th Conference & Expo, will be held November 7-10, 2010, at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco.

Sessions within the Risk Management Track include:

•    A Case Study: Are You Ready for E-Discovery?
•    Cost Containment: Preservation Techniques for Litigation
•    The Nuts and Bolts of E-Discovery
•    Access Control and Permissions in Electronic Record Keeping Systems
•    Integrating E-Discovery Services into Corporate Records Management Programs
•    Privacy for Records Management Professionals
•    E-Discovery On the Move: Mobile Communications
•    SharePoint and E-Discovery Readiness
•    E-Discovery: Defining an Architectural Roadmap

The need to understand what information exists, and manage it accordingly, has grown exponentially.  Whether required for legal eDiscovery, compliance mandates, internal governance, or government regulation, fundamentally, this mountain of murky data now represents enormous risk and cost to a company.

Here at StoredIQ we are focused on delivering powerful information management solutions that can provide the comprehensive data insight and control that corporate counsel, compliance managers, and records managers need to make the best and most informed business decisions, while meeting the stringent requirements that IT departments demand.

In addition to sponsoring the Risk Management conference sessions, StoredIQ will exhibit our intelligent information management solution at booth 930 during the two-day event. Booth visitors can register to win a free data assessment service from StoredIQ. Attendees that would like to schedule a meeting in advance should contact Brent Pohl at info@storediq.com or +1 512-334-3107. To register online for ARMA International, visit the conference website.