The Compliance Risk of Fragmented Data + Multiple Repositories

The Modern Records Reality 

We’ve spent the last twenty years being told that paper would be “dead” by now. While a few tech-forward companies might have achieved a zero-paper environment, that’s not the world most of us are living in. And it’s certainly not the reality faced by law firms, government entities, school districts, and others who must maintain paper archives despite now being a digital-first environment. 

In addition to the paper/digital divide, many firms also use multiple digital storage systems. Active files may live in a document management system (DMS), while collaborative data is stored in the cloud, and archived digital files are kept in an on-premises system. So while you’re definitely not alone if your organization runs a hybrid environment, we’re willing to bet it’s a source of concern for you - because you’ve told us so. During several conference-filled months this fall, our team heard over and over again that a major challenge when governing information is how to do so effectively and consistently across multiple repositories. Having a system that unifies oversight decreases costs, risk, and inefficiency - and it’s what FiT’s Information Governance platform solves for. 

What Fragmentation Looks Like 

Depending on the organization, fragmented systems take on a few different looks. Your firm may be dealing with any of the following: 

1. Digital Silos. Companies that run separate DMS, SharePoint, and OneDrive environments - or their equivalent - that don’t share metadata or retention rules. On-premises digital storage may also be in play. 
2. Physical Islands. Organizations keep paper records off-site or in-office with limited tracking and inconsistent to nonexistent retention enforcement. Very often an “out of sight, out of mind” situation. 
3. Legacy Systems. Many firms continue to use the same software or system they’ve been using for the last 10+ years, even if it’s no longer operating effectively. Outdated connectors or broken custom code mean policy isn’t enforced as it should be in digital environments. 
4. Manual Workarounds. Due to having any of the first three issues, companies resort to “solving” the issue themselves through even more fragmented systems such as spreadsheets, ad-hoc reviews, or a million help desk tickets to try and plug the gaps. 

Whether you checked one -  or all  - of the above, your concern can be boiled down to this: your retention policy isn’t being enforced with 100% consistency across all of your storage environments, and you know that opens you up to risk. 

Compliance and Other Risks 

Multiple repositories create risk in several places. The top concern for most firms is legal exposure from compliance failure, i.e. failed audits due to inconsistent enforcement of retention and disposition policies. This can especially be true if physical files were destroyed or over-retained without proper documentation.  

Lack of documentation for physical records can also create security gaps. Unlike digital files which accumulate rows and rows of metadata showing who has accessed which files and when, paper often bypasses encryption or access logs leaving a big unknown. Even digital repositories aren’t immune to these concerns, however, if permissions and policy enforcement is inconsistent across platforms. 

Financial waste is another big concern for multi-repository situations. Organizations duplicate data, and no one can answer why the file is in two places, but Finance wants to know why cloud storage costs have gotten so high. In an attempt to curb them, manual processes are enforced or duplicate files are deleted en masse without anyone checking if it was safe to do so. And thus you find yourself back at worries over compliance risk. 

Fully Digital Isn’t the Answer

With all these concerns, it can seem like a fully digital environment is the answer. But many organizations can’t - or shouldn’t - fully digitize. There are valid reasons for maintaining paper. Even if you could just scan everything, you might just end up creating new digital clutter that lacks the necessary metadata or retention context that would make doing so useful. Just like no one would tell you the way to manage your money is to have it all in one place, neither is making everything digital and storing it in only one spot the answer to your challenges. Rather than focusing all your efforts on where things are stored, you’re better off creating and maintaining consistent governance across all formats. 

Building Consistency Across Repositories 

There are two ways your organization can build consistency across repositories. The first is to create a unified governance framework. The second is to use a system that puts all your files - digital and physical - into the same dashboard. That’s where FiT can help. Our Information Governance software simplifies compliance by putting everything “in a single pane of glass,” and governed by one set of rules. We do this through: 

• Sustainable integrations that use engineered endpoints for DMS and cloud storage that won’t break when the API changes. 
• Configurable workflows that allow you to adapt rules by role, department, or client requirement without altering core code. 
• Unified governance for digital and physical files in a single platform that manages retention, disposition, and security policies across all places you store information. 
• Audit-ready dashboards that provide complete traceability for all information and data so that you can prove compliance to regulators, auditors, and clients. 

By bringing scattered repositories under one set of rules that are overseen in one program, you skip unnecessary digital overhauls while protecting your data and your bottom line. 

Simple Governance for Multi-Repository Environments 

Organizations of many types have data housed in multiple places, for good and bad reasons. Bringing it all into one location in one format isn’t the answer, however. If you’re looking to reduce risk, cut costs, and gain control of your information landscape, look to unified governance. Because what matters isn’t where your data lives, but the consistency with which it’s governed. To see how FiT can help you govern more effectively, book a demo today.