By Noel Rath

What is the relevance of e-discovery related legislation for organizations operating in various countries? And what impact does this have on how organizations manage electronically stored information (ESI). Good corporate governance requires organizations to protect its shareholders (be it a public, private or government body) and its most valuable assets, information and people.

Being prepared for e-discovery means being able to demonstrate that there are systems and processes in place that ensure the authenticity of your information and documents. This means that alterations to documents are authorized and full audit processes are in place that show the complete history of the document lifecycle. In addition, the integrity of your documents needs to be ensured for the complete lifecycle of all documents and records until disposal. If you cannot ensure the integrity of information across the lifecycle of documents, in the event of e-discovery the organization is exposed to lengthy discovery processes and adverse findings by courts.

The goal is to manage all documents and records throughout their lifecycle from their creation through to their disposal. Some systems treat documents separately from records and require the electronic information to be declared as a record before retention and disposal rules are applied. This approach will not assist in the e-discovery process as all documents are discoverable, not just declared records.

HP TRIM manages all documents from creation and for the complete lifecycle of the document, applies classification and security and provides a single logical repository for all documents. As such HP TRIM is an excellent platform for managing ESI and preparing for e-discovery.

Preparation for e-discovery is good corporate governance, regardless of the jurisdiction in which a multinational organization operates.

If you are interested in an international view of e-discovery, then an excellent presentation worth reviewing is delivered by Seamus Byrne at the Computer and Enterprise Investigations Conference (CEIC) 2008. http://www.seamusbyrne.com/_media/_pdf/SEB_CEIC2008_Internationale-discovery_PublicDraft.pdf