A Modern Approach to the Old Inventory/Data Map Problem

Information inventories and data maps are critical to governance success – and quite challenging to accomplish. (See here, here, and here for more.) For many, the challenges are so great that their projects either never get off the ground or return less-than-conclusive results.

Most commonly, this happens because (a) no one in control wants to commit the resources or time needed to do a properly-thorough job, or (b) those resources are too limited to consider allocating to the effort.

This doesn’t mean they don’t want to do the work – they know they must address their governance issues, and that the job starts here. But it’s often too big a lift for them to take on right now.

So I started to ask around: Would you do it if it wasn’t so involved? Answer: a resounding YES.

Lightweight, Definitive, and Quick

In response, Holly Group has rethought how to do information inventories and data maps so they take much less time and many fewer resources than they usually do – and thereby get you right to the governance decisions you’re being paid to make.

With substantial input from many of you, we’ve combined a lightweight bit of technology with our years of experience to give you a non-invasive, definitive, and quick way to complete these vital tasks:

• Collect and synthesize everything you need to know about your information, from the basics of data types, locations, and ownership to such governance-critical factors as retention requirements, regulatory constraints, and privacy and security controls,
•  Normalize and cluster this intelligence, applying mathematical, graphical, and textual processing to deterministically identify what’s what, and
• Analyze the results, recommend action plans, and execute your program in a disciplined, measurable, and repeatable way.

What you get is the ability to establish a firm information baseline without having to wait for the “right time” or the improbable appearance of extra resources. Better still, we’ve done the math and estimate our fresh approach will save you around 40% of the time (and, thereby, budget) you would have had to spend before – and do so while enhancing the quality of the intelligence you’ll gain and thus the effectiveness of your governance initiative.

Sound Good? Let’s Talk!

If this sounds good to you, then let’s talk about how you can take advantage of our modern solution to the old inventory/data map problem, and do the work faster, smarter, and with less friction than you’d ever think possible.

You know you’ll have to tend to your governance at some point, and here’s a non-burdensome way to get started and make clear-eyed decisions about the actions you’ll take next. Ping me today and let’s put it to work for you.

Steve Weissman, Founder & CEO, Holly Group • “The Info Gov Guy™” • steve@hollygroup.com • 617-383-4655 • Member, AIIM Company of Fellows • Recipient, AIIM Award of Merit