Lawyers and CMS
Most of us like to make jokes at the expense of lawyers. It's a known occupational hazard for anyone entering law school. Lest we forget though that they're usually some pretty bright folks. Alan Pelz-Sharpe over at CMS Watch has penned an interesting summary of a LegalTech event he recently attended.
After reading it, I wish I could have heard more of the discussion that gave rise to the quotes he recalls, particularly this one:
"1GB of storage costs around 20 cents to buy -- 1GB of storage costs around $3,500 to review"
Wow! While a person could probably quibble over the actual amounts, there can be no doubt that the costs involved with NOT following a defined retention policy can be significant. This is fresh for me as I'm working on some records management demonstration scenarios. I love the way that this pithy statement cuts to the real core of policy adherence.
The other quote that I (and Alan) particularly loved was:
"You have to ask....does your data truly belong where it sits today?"
Again, right to the substance of what we need to talk about as an ECM vendor, particularly since he's really referring to unstructured content and the challenge it presents. Understanding where data "belongs" is one of the hardest things for an organization to define since different departments will have different opinions regarding the same data. However, to truly manage that data/content, there still needs to be some classification of that content that allows it to be secured, sorted, and searchable, and thus, useful.
I'm still letting this stuff sink in, so that's where I'll leave it today. Now if I could just come up with a good joke....
