Modern information asset management present new rules for CIOs, others- Valutrics

Data asset management: Who is stepping up?

Lawyers and law departments have fought to gain control of information asset management, at least for records management and the newly branded of “information governance.” Largely, their goal is to accelerate the destruction of any data that could encumber defense of the company’s interests. Too much data, poorly indexed data, metadata — tens of millions of dollars have been spent by companies discovering these infirmities during legal processes.

Partnered with legal have been the efforts of chief compliance officers to gain ownership of the digital information they seek as evidence of the truth to document compliance with the requirements imposed upon the company. Those could be legal regulations but, increasingly, compliance also relates contractual requirements, notably service-level agreements.

Service-level agreements emphasize performance reporting that is steadily moving toward continual disclosure of operating data important to assuring the continued functional integrity of the related commercial relationship.

Some companies have established chief data officers and/or migrated CIO duties into a new role called CTO. This option has some merit, but leaves questions about who pursues and exploits economic opportunities represented by information asset management.

For that reason, CFOs have asserted control over this area, recognizing that their inherent responsibility to maintain and report on the financial integrity of the company depends upon the integrity of internal information and their associated control processes.

A final path forward is the creation of a chief trust officer. This position is still quite innovative and immature. In those companies pursuing this option, either alone or in combination with any of the others previously mentioned, the chief trust officer has less operational control, but greater communication duties. These duties include communications with external partners and customers to describe and assure the integrity of a company’s data and data-related services.