More CIOs having eDiscovery Thrust upon Them

As reported by Messaging Architects, today’s CIOs have one more looming responsibility to add to their overloaded to-do list: eDiscovery.

The news is courtesy of a United States Investigation Services (USIS) study, which found that CIOs are playing a more significant role in eDiscovery development, policies and solutions.

Specifically, CIOs are being asked — or, rather, are expected — to take primary ownership of eDiscovery-related issues like: data management, response requests, and ensuring that everything is handled in a timely manner.

As expected, this trend isn’t generating a lot of joy in this new CIO-led eDiscovery World. More than 33% of respondents claimed that two of eDiscovery’s biggest components — preservation and collection – need major improvement. That’s like saying the only things missing from a cup of coffee are the cup and the coffee (aside from that, though, it’s fantastic!).

And for the CIO’s out there who think that jumping ship and CIO-ing another organization might make them smile more and worry less; sorry, that’s not a good plan. The study also found many organizations still don’t prioritize eDiscovery, despite the mountains of evidence saying that they should. In fact, of all the organizations surveyed, not a single one was satisfied with its eDiscovery process.

But the news isn’t all grim. Reinforcements for CIOs news may on the horizon, thanks to Michael Santelli, President of USIS’s Information Management Division, who is taking up the cause.

“This survey reinforces how important it is to have good information management practices in place for the eDiscovery program, and the burden it can place on a team when those practices simply aren’t there,” Santelli said.

Truly. Do we want to live in a world where CIOs are treated so…inhumanely?