Businesses
face high costs when responding to requests for electronic
information, from the likes of regulators and lawyers, because they
are not allocating enough budget to eDiscovery tools.
A survey by information risk management software supplier
Recommind revealed that 69% of UK IT chiefs allocated less than 5%
of their IT budget to supporting
eDiscovery, with nine out of ten dedicating less than 10%.
Most IT departments allocate a greater proportion of their
budget to information security, e-mail archiving and productivity
tools than to technology that can help them satisfy electronic
information disclosure requests.
That is despite 41% reporting an increase in eDisclosure
requests in the past year, according to the survey.
There is a "disconnect" between a high level of awareness and a
low level of action, said Craig Carpenter, vice-president, general
counsel at Recommind.
"This is no longer a US-only problem. It affects all companies
because of the global trend towards increased regulatory scrutiny
and associated litigation," he said.
The proliferation of information within large organisations
means that a lack of preparedness could be
extremely costly, said Carpenter.
"Preparing for eDisclosure requests is as important as preparing
for security breaches, and a failure to do so could cost as much,
if not more," he warned.
According to Carpenter, the allocation of IT budgets is skewed
by the fact that at most companies the IT department is responsible
for eDisclosure, rather than the legal department.
The survey showed that IT has ultimate budget responsibility for
eDisclosure in 49% of companies, compared with 14% where the
responsibility lies with legal.
Carpenter said legal departments know what information should be
discoverable and should educate IT directors about the requirements
and importance of eDisclosure. "There is not nearly enough
collaboration between the legal, compliance and IT departments
within large organisations around this issue."
Reactive eDiscovery is always more costly than a proactive
approach, which is the most compelling argument for increased
budget allocations, he said.