Let me continue on what I wrote in another post a few years ago.
“Governance” is a term that creates a sense of dread in many people. Unfortunately for them, governance is indeed an absolute requirement for progressing on the path to a truly digital enterprise. Do you want a digital workplace, where homeworkers and remote personnel can do exactly as much as people in the office, and yet be certain that all that work stuff is being handled in safe and controlled manner? Then you will need governance! Governance is the system of rules and constraints to manage the digital resources (hard- and software), in order to achieve information security, information lifecycle management, well-documented automation, and more for all concerned – even suppliers. Good governance will help you reduce risks for your enterprise.
The article “What Is Governance and Why Does it Matter for the Digital Workplace?” may already be a bit older, but its content is still valuable as an introduction to the “what” and “why” of governance. The article does not talk about the GDPR and similar regulations (which are a form of governance by itself), and it does not address relatively new phenomena such as “artificial intelligence”. But that is not relevant: the digital landscape continues to evolve, and even the best governance system will need to be evaluated and adapted continuously.
For the “how” you need to clearly define your “workplace”. As a small example, let’s compare a bank and a small enterprise whose main digital resource is a combination of a website and some social media presence. For a bank, essentially every document produced – from client account statements over complaints to personnel files and lots more – should be covered by governance. There are laws and regulations that specify the form in which certain types of documents must be stored, how long they must be stored, etc. The small enterprise mentioned above will have to write down and implement the rules for updating and maintaining the website, as well as who can post which information on the social media chosen. From this it should be clear that the scope as well as the tools used to implement the governance will be different in both cases. You may need to get specialist help in order to set things up how they should be, depending on your needs.
Since I referred to my earlier post, let’s make the link between content management and governance clear: the “hard choice” I mentioned there should be made within the governance playbook of the enterprise. Once the choice made, the governance rules should be adapted to include the new CM tool and all that goes with it. Governance isn’t easy, and will require permanent re-evaluation. But: it is essential. Governance rules, indeed!
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