Electronic document 'management': Now you see it, now you don't…

Posted by Paul Quigley 01 September 2009

In an age where the wisdom of true transparency and accountability have become the general consensus, it beggars belief that in the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, the Combined Code on Corporate Governance, Transparency Directive etc. etc., the list goes on and on, that any divergence from compliance should be countenanced.

In an age where ethics and avoidance of moral hazard is also paramount, open government wherever it may be is what modernising government is all about. OpenGov, eGIF, CMIS, MoReq2, IFRS are also examples of standards-making processes and goals which all but collapse if any one rotten apple is allowed to upset the collective apple-cart. Years of dedication and hard-work cannot be allowed to be wasted by ring-fencing, out-of-bounds, non-disclosure caveats for the benefit of the few over the welfare of the many.

Open source is one way of achieving such transparency also. When it comes to computer code and proprietary code, the decision must be a commercial one, balancing ease-of-use with the risks and rewards of support, future-proofing and security. Not only with content management has compliance become a key performance indicator, so too email management compliance, especially in the wake of demands for long-term storage of email, web browsing, IP addresses and phone call records.

Leaving a blank space in the audit trail of any of these media, rather suggests that there might be something afoot. Best practice therefore suggests retaining complete records for total transparency, accountability and security. Lest we forget.

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