Link Group’s evolution over 60 years has been marked by a series of acquisitions, mergers and expansions, each contributing to the complexity of its data ecosystem. With growth comes the accumulation of diverse data stores, systems and processes, leading to inefficiencies and challenges in maintaining data quality and governance standards. Consequently, with the pace of change often outstripping the capacity of our existing infrastructure and systems to keep up, our governance around data sometimes gets out of step with those changes.
Untapped opportunities
In this changing IT and business environment, the concept of ‘dark data’ has become increasingly pertinent. Like many organisations, Link has struggled until recently to use the considerable knowledge and untapped opportunities locked away in this dark data, and our journey of managing this has been a testament to the challenges and transformations faced by everyone in the digital era.
We recognised the need to address these challenges and embarked on a comprehensive initiative to tackle dark data. Central to this initiative was the development of an information governance strategy and framework tied to Link’s strategic objective of delivering first-class governance and assurance.
Use of non-corporate channels
We then created an information governance board, enhanced and formalised the role of ‘information asset owners’ and created an operational data and records working group. These groups, in addition to broader information governance issues, support our data quality policy which aims to enhance the accuracy, completeness and consistency of data across the organisation. Furthermore, efforts were made to provide more clarity on the use by Link staff of non-corporate communication channels, revamp our records and information management practices, and strengthen an ‘acceptable use’ policy to govern data usage and access.
Our ‘digital procurement journey’ provides the means to assess any digital solution requested by the business. This ensures that thorough security and data protection checks are carried out against our baseline requirements and limits the risk of new dark data stores being developed. This rationalisation process culminated in a strategic move towards SharePoint as the primary EDM system for the group. At the same time, a records management roadmap was developed to outline the lifecycle management of records, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and organisational policies by introducing both technical and organisational controls.
Stronger & clearer policies
One of the critical measures implemented as part of our information governance framework was the enforcement of controls to delete redundant or obsolete documents on our legacy storage system (Zdrive). By imposing limitations on the size of available storage and enforcing data retention policies, we aimed to mitigate the proliferation of dark data and reduce the associated risks of data breaches, compliance violations and resource inefficiencies.
Link’s journey in addressing dark data reflects a paradigm shift in data management, from a reactive stance to a proactive approach focused on governance, rationalisation and strategic utilisation.
By leveraging available technologies, refining our policies and fostering a culture of data stewardship, Link is poised to unlock the hidden value in our data assets while strengthening our resilience in a data-driven world.
Gary Dougal is the information governance coordinator at Link Group.
