ARMA International & EDRM Jointly Release White Paper to Provide Guidance on Information Governance

Dec. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- December 20, 2011 – Overland Park, KS and St. Paul, MN – ARMA International and the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) announced today the publication of a jointly developed white paper entitled, How the Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) Complements ARMA International’s Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (GARP). This white paper is the result of the collaboration between EDRM and ARMA International, which began this past September.

EDRM’s Information Governance Reference Model (IGRM) illustrates key responsibilities and interdependencies of information stakeholders – business, IT, RIM and legal – in organizations pursuing higher levels of information governance. The IGRM is a communication methodology that promotes cross-functional dialogue and collaboration among those stakeholder groups. It complements the metrics defined by ARMA International’s Information Governance Maturity Model (IGMM).

ARMA’s IGMM paints a comprehensive picture of what effective information governance should look like. It is based on the eight GARP® principles as well as a foundation of standards, best practices and legal/regulatory requirements. The IGMM goes beyond a mere statement of the principles by defining characteristics of various levels of recordkeeping programs. For each principle, the maturity model associates various characteristics that are typical for each of the five levels in the model.

Raising the Awareness of Information Governance Principles
Information governance is a business process. In order to lower risks and achieve greater efficiencies through process improvement, electronic discovery is increasingly becoming tightly integrated with an organization’s information governance policy, procedures and infrastructure. Both organizations have made considerable contributions to raise awareness of information governance issues. ARMA International has recognized the need by developing the GARP maturity model. EDRM has recognized the need by developing the IGRM, an entirely new reference model separate and distinct from the model developed specifically for electronic discovery.

“Collaboration has never been more important to an organization’s success,” says Marilyn Bier, CAE, executive director of ARMA International. “We’re excited to be a part of this white paper to help emphasize both the importance of good governance to an organization, as well as the necessity of cross-functional collaboration in order to reduce risk and raise business performance to the levels that stakeholders demand.”

“EDRM recognizes that effective electronic discovery management is based on effective information governance across all teams – IT, records management and legal,” said Tom Gelbmann, co-founder of the EDRM. “We are extremely pleased to be partnering with ARMA on this educational effort and helping raise the level of awareness on this important practice through this joint white paper.”

A copy of the ARMA-EDRM information governance white paper is available on EDRM’s website at: http://edrm.net/10892.

About ARMA International
ARMA International (www.arma.org) is a not-for-profit professional association and the authority on managing records and information. Formed in 1955, ARMA International is the oldest and largest association for the records and information management profession with a current international membership of nearly 10,000. It provides education, publications, and information on the efficient maintenance, retrieval, and preservation of vital information created in public and private organizations in all sectors of the economy. It also publishes the award-winning Information Management magazine.
The association also develops and publishes standards and guidelines related to records management. It was a key contributor to the international records management standard, ISO-15489. For more information, please visit http://www.arma.org/index.cfm

About EDRM
Launched in May 2005, the EDRM Project was created to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the e-discovery market – a problem identified in the 2003 and 2004 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery survey as a major concern for vendors and consumers alike. The completed reference model provides a common, flexible and extensible framework for the development, selection, evaluation and use of e-discovery products and services. Expanding on the base defined with the Reference Model, the EDRM projects now include nine projects including the Information Governance Reference Model project. Over the past five years, the EDRM project has comprised more than 230 organizations, including 150 service and software providers, 57 law firms, three industry groups and 22 corporations involved with e-discovery. Information about EDRM is available at http://www.edrm.net.

Contacts:

Tom Gelbmann                     Jeff Randolph
EDRM                                      ARMA International
tom@gelbmann.biz              media@armaintl.org
(651) 483-0022                       913.217.6016

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EDRM – the Electronic Discovery Reference Model – was created in May 2005 to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the electronic discovery (e-discovery) market.