Content counts the cost of compliance

The Butler Group has urged organisations take a broad approach to making IT systems compliant with a range of business regulations.

Speaking at a round table discussion on enterprise content management, Butler Group research director Tim Jennings said that vendor offerings fell into three broad categories: information management, security and analysis.

Some companies have to consider regulations such as international accounting standards and Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as domestic legislation on areas such as money laundering.

Jennings explained that the areas addressed by enterprise content management fell into the area of management.

He said there was still a need to define compliance in terms of what it means to an organisation, and to draw up a policy, communicate it to employees, monitor its execution against the law and defend it in court if necessary.

"But the effective control and use of information first requires measuring the costs of creating, managing and using content," said Jennings. "There is still a great deal of confusion about what products can help with compliance."

The analyst stressed that it was not just about managing records but content throughout the business, including web content and email, that would become central to compliance.

Brenda Morris, UK managing director at enterprise content management vendor Open Text, insisted that records management should continue the trend of migrating "from the basement to the boardroom".

And Liz Maloney, managing director at fellow vendor Hummingbird, stressed "the ability to enforce and manage a very structured records management approach to what you do in your business".

Maloney also advocated the US idea of a 'records tsar' for controlling technology compliance investments.