The managament of information created and retained at an organization is inextricably linked to the challenge of an efficient and thorough e-discovery process. Without proper guidelines surrounding how information is destroyed, collected and organized, an organization can find itself with ballooning costs as it sifts through volumes of uncatergorized information. While e-discovery cost containment frequently focuses on the process itself, data governance can proactively parse down and simplify that process in advance.

“Data governance expertise is as critical, if not more critical, than e-discovery expertise. If you don't approach data governance in the right way, the volume of work regarding e-discovery is going to go off the charts. Data grows at an alarming rate, so you have to get a handle on it as early as possible,” explains Linda Luperchio, director of information lifecycle governance and e-discovery at The Hanover Insurance Group.

The information governance lifecycle, Luperchio says, is not something that many people think about on a day-to-day basis. However, that lifecycle encompasses all of the information employees use to do their jobs. Accounting figures, training documents, audits and emails each have retention and disposition lifecycles that need to be proactively managed. Just as it has brought complication to the e-discovery process, the proliferation of digital storage that allows information to exist indefinitely means that even more care must be taken to protect the organization and retain mission critical info, as well as dispose of it when it is no longer needed for business or legal purposes.