UK enterprises identify email management as primary information management pain point

Wed 11 May 2011 @ 13:44

Recommind research reveals need for realignment of day-to-day email management and budget allocations by UK CIOs in order to reduce information risk

Recommind, the leader in predictive information management software for enterprises and law firms, today announced the results of its latest information risk research (conducted by Vanson Bourne) which surveyed 200 CIOs and IT directors within large UK organisations. The data reveals a stark disconnect between the real, day-to-day information management issues that organisations face, and the budgets and resources allocated to tackle these problems. The research, conducted in conjunction with the InfoRiskAwareness Project*,highlighted that more than one third (36 percent) of all UK CIOs and IT directors cited email overload as their company’s main pain point, whereas only 8 percent of those surveyed considered social media tools, such as Twitter and LinkedIn, to be the utmost concern – a considerable drop from 35 percent in 2010’s results**.

Whereas IT budgetary allocations for social media were in close alignment with just 11 percent of respondents focusing on managing Web 2.0 information, the research indicates that just 16 percent of organisations assigned the majority of their budget to addressing email management, despite being the UK’s top pain point. This inability to gain control over enterprise email at a time when information risk is escalating, will have costly repercussions to businesses in the long term.

“The disparity between the real issues that CIOs are facing, and the way that budgets are being allocated, is concerning,” commented Simon Price, European director at Recommind. “The buzz surrounding social media and the risks associated with it will no doubt continue to dominate headlines, and it is of course important for organisations to have policies in place to manage and control information that can potentially be spread via Web 2.0 channels, however these results show that social media is only a minor part of the greater information management challenges organisations are faced with on a daily basis.”

The challenge of information management has heightened recently as organisations realise the risk and repercussions surrounding the electronic information that is within their firewall. Seemingly benign stores of archived email are not so benign when faced with the UK’s increasingly stringent regulatory climate, including an increase in high-profile investigations, the rise in financial penalties such as ICO fines and the announcement of the controversial UK Bribery Act. Whereas email archives were once forgotten data stores, the risk of maintaining them has caused 71 percent of companies surveyed to rethink their information risk strategy in order to protect themselves from financial and reputational damage.

“It’s encouraging to see that so many organisations are reassessing how they mitigate and control information risk,” continued Price. “Email has become such a big part of our day-to-day working lives that its impact is often underestimated. If and when firms are faced with an investigation or an eDisclosure request, retrieving the necessary information from email creates a huge amount of work, not to mention business disruption and waste of valuable employee time. When it comes to information governance, it is essential that companies focus the appropriate amount of resources on these big, everyday issues to ensure they don’t fall foul of the regulations at a later date. These research findings clearly show that fixing email management is an issue that needs to be promptly readdressed.”

Given the FSA and ICO’s more aggressive stance, as well as recent high profile incidents such as ACS:Law and Google Street View, it comes as no surprise that organisations continue to cite fraud and data breaches as the biggest dangers to corporate information (83 percent), with compliance and regulatory investigations coming in second at 46 percent. In order to address these issues, 43 percent of those surveyed are focusing the majority of their information management budgets on document management and enterprise search systems.

“From the research, it’s evident that fraud and data breaches continue to be a major concern for organisations today. Thanks to a stronger stance from the ICO and FSA, and a stream of high profile cases – such as the recent Sony Playstation incident – that have hit headlines this past year, data protection is finally beginning to receive the attention it requires,” said Jackie Groves, head of data protection at Sophos and InfoRiskAwareness Project contributor. “It’s now time for boardroom members, not just the IT department, to pay attention to the risks associated with information mismanagement, and to ensure that they have the proper policies, procedures and technology in place to protect their customers’ data and also to enable employees to safely make the most of technologies like social media and mobile to do their jobs.”

The information risk landscape that organisations must now contend with is vast and it is clear that the regulatory climate alone – in particular the reputational fallout and individual culpability that could occur should companies fail to comply – has had an obvious impact on how firms choose to deal with their information management processes.

“The proliferation of electronically stored information is affecting all industries, as business critical information is now almost entirely online,” said Mark Surguy, partner at Eversheds, and recent addition to the InfoRiskAwareness Project partner roster. “In the legal sector, we’ve seen a radical shift in the past few years as lawyers are constantly challenged by the volume of electronic data being generated and stored by their clients and that may be relevant to a legal proceeding. As regulations and compliance in the UK become stricter, organisations need to ensure that they’re focusing their attention on the issues that really affect the people on the ground and keep a tight rein on their information management processes if they are to stay ahead of the curve in today’s fast-paced business environment.”

* The InfoRiskAwareness Project is an independent resource driven by an alliance of like-minded industry organisations that is designed to promote a better understanding of all aspects of information risk amongst UK and European companies through its ongoing community, series of events and online resources

For more information on InfoRiskAwareness, visit:

Website: http://inforiskawareness.co.uk/

Twitter: @inforiskaware

LinkedIn: InfoRiskAwareness

** Information risk research in conjunction with Vanson Bourne, surveying 200 CIOs within large UK organisations across several vertical sector industries, April 2010

About Recommind

Recommind is the leader in predictive information management software, delivering search-powered business applications that transform the way enterprises, government entities and law firms conduct eDiscovery, enterprise search, and information governance. Recommind’s solutions are all built on the CORE (Context Optimised Relevancy Engine) platform, which automatically accesses, organises and analyses large volumes of information in context from myriad sources. With greater control over and more accurate access to information, organisations can lower risk, heighten productivity, increase the value of information assets and improve competitiveness and profitability. Recommind customers include AstraZeneca, BMW, Cisco, Clifford Chance, DuPont, Marathon Oil, Morgan Lewis, US Department of Energy (DOE), White & Case and Wilmer Hale. Recommind is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Boston, London and Bonn, Germany. For more information, e-mail info@recommind.com or go to www.recommind.com