* Results from, “The Current State of Information Management Compliance: An Industry Study”
Many organizations are changing the way they manage information in order to meet new legal, regulatory and business requirements. However, several obstacles impede them from carrying out new compliance programs, according to the results of a survey conducted by enterprise content management association AIIM and Kahn Consulting.
Based on responses from more than 400 participants, “The Current State of Information Management Compliance: An Industry Study” points to the need for a broader framework for managing information assets.
“Information management compliance has significant financial urgency,” says John Mancini, AIIM president. He notes that regulatory compliance deadlines are everywhere. For example, portions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, kicked in on July 1, and a November 15 Sarbanes-Oxley deadline looms over publicly traded companies.
Here are some of the survey findings:
* Policies and procedures: A full 80% of respondents have made or are planning to make changes to the way they manage information. However, some executives need to do a better job of spearheading such programs. More than a third of responding organizations haven’t received any guidance pertaining to information management from an executive in the last 18 months, and close to half don’t provide an executive statement of support for the program.
* Communication and training: More than 60% of companies surveyed fail to provide regular employee training on information management. And worse, the training often targets the wrong people. More than 52% of records and information managers receive training, but only 31% of general business executives and 30% of IT staff get help on this issue.
* Effective enforcement: Although companies mean well, enforcement isn’t always adequate. Only 34% of surveyed firms agreed that their companies’ records and information management directives are consistently enforced. IT executives were more skeptical about performance than records managers or general business executives.
For more information, check out the complete study at www.aiim.org/documents/currentstateofimc.pdf
