May 2009 Blog Archive

The Growing Problem of Missing Data

There have been a number of high profile incidents lately involving data being misplaced, stolen or lost.  And these aren’t just minor incidents involving little known players.  Last month, the Department of Defense admitted hackers had accessed sensitive data from its state-of-the-art fighter jet program, while last week the National Archives announced that it had misplaced a 1 TB hard drive containing huge amounts of Clinton-era data, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and Secret Service and White House procedures.  And lest one think this is a US-only problem, just this week the UK’s behemoth NHS (National Health Services) reported “losing” thousands of medical records between January and April of this year.

Why are incidents like these happening at an accelerating pace?  Two reasons: 1) skyrocketing data volumes and types, and 2) a shaky information management infrastructure using out-of-date technology.  There’s not a lot that enterprises and government entities can do about the proliferation of things like email, IM, SMS, texting, blogs, wikis and Twitter; as countless examples have attested, trying to prevent such media from being used can be exceedingly difficult if not impossible.  But what these entities can do is implement intelligent systems capable of automatically categorizing, indexing, accessing, preserving, deleting and collecting data in whatever form it might come.  As former Senator Bob Graham recently opined in the Washington Post, good records management is in everyone’s best interest – especially when dealing with particularly sensitive information.

And this problem will not go away anytime soon, at least not until enterprises and government organizations get serious about their information management needs.  On the positive side, the technology available to address these information management issues – automated categorization software, data loss prevention (DLP) products, more intelligent archives, etc. – are increasingly proving themselves up to the task. 

Posted by: Craig Carpenter on May 28, 2009, 5:35 pm | Permalink | Trackback

Recommind Survey Finds Information Access Struggles in the UK’s Healthcare and Public Sectors

Recommind recently commissioned a survey delving into the issues facing healthcare and public sector professionals in the UK.  The study generated some surprising and thought provoking results:

  • 94% of healthcare IT directors and a further 73% of public sector institutions cite data security fears as a key concern when providing employees with the information required for their day to day jobs
  • Using first or second-generation enterprise search tools, professionals could search basic data such as documents, emails and intranets; however, only 27% of public sector and 39% of healthcare respondents were able to search individual expertise and experience
  • 70% of respondents from both these sectors wanted the ability to locate expertise in order to help employees perform their daily jobs
  • Approximately 80% of respondents wanted to be able to search external information sources such as reference websites; however, less than 50% could successfully achieve this with current search systems
  • Nearly 40 % of healthcare respondents stated that their employees spend half a day or more each week fruitlessly looking for information they need without finding it – revealing the inadequacy of existing search solutions

Simon Price, Recommind’s European director, summed up the findings by observing “These alarmingly low figures suggest that inadequate first and second-generation search systems can make day-to-day researching a very time-consuming task for employees. These findings clearly show that legacy, ‘one-size-fits-all’ enterprise search systems have proven to be woefully inadequate.”

With such poor user experiences, we wonder how providers of first and second-generation search tools were able to grow to such dizzying heights, and continue to grow through acquisition.  Are customers benefitting?  We welcome your thoughts, comments and experiences.

Posted by: Simon Price on May 8, 2009, 10:57 am | Permalink | Trackback

Welcome to Our New Blog

INFOcus, Recommind’s first blog, is now live!

The focus of this blog is the intersection of Information Access and eDiscovery, Compliance and Records Management.  Namely, how these issues interact and affect business on a daily basis. The name, INFOcus demonstrates our commitment and focus on search-powered information management.

We aspire to make this blog thought provoking, educational and, of course, fun.  We are lucky at Recommind to have a unique and diverse blend of talent that share in the challenges and accolades of our client base.   We believe in the consultative approach and take pride in being thought leaders. From this talent, the goal of this blog is to provide an exchange of ideas on a variety of topics including technology, current events, case law, strategies, government regulation, compliance, records management and, of course, e-discovery.  We encourage discussion among those who are both “in the know” and those who “would like to know.”

“The great accomplishments of man have resulted from the transmission of ideas and enthusiasm.”  - Thomas H. Watson, Sr.

Posted by: Craig Carpenter on May 7, 2009, 8:41 am | Permalink | Trackback