Organizations look to information governance professionals to provide strategy tips and risk assessment. A key focus of their job is to comprehensively and intelligently classify corporate data. It’s not enough for organizations to simply capture and store data and information. They also must synthesize and understand it so they can act on it for different reasons, whether it’s to collect business intelligence, meet compliance requirements, or respond to discovery requests. Most employees will lack the time, training, and information management skill set needed to classify and file things properly. This makes it challenging for information governance professionals to efficiently analyze organizational data.

Luckily, automated software exists that can help organizations govern high volumes of information. Auto-classification, also known as auto-categorization, is a process that uses computers to make information more accessible and useful. These programs use metadata (data that describes other data) and algorithms to assist with classification and determining which information needs to be preserved. For example, an email spam filter is an auto-classification tool that recognizes and sorts spam from valued email.

Auto-classification software can be useful for many aspects of business, including business intelligence, compliance, or litigation purposes. 

Below are some of the major benefits of using auto-classification sofware to manage information:

• Auto-classification promotes efficiency:This type of software gives organizations the ability to obtain meaningful metrics. In most instances, computers accomplish classification tasks faster and more accurately than humans. Auto-classification software consistently yields results that are accurate and reliable. If applied properly, it can alleviate many of the “where to file” decisions that without automation often result in content not getting categorized or filed. This makes it is easier for organizations to timely weed out irrelevant data, which in turn reduces storage costs.
• Auto-classification improves risk management: The rote and consistent nature of auto-classification software reduces the risk of human error. This provides organizations with increased risk management capability. Having a better risk management program decreases costs and litigation potential. It also provides the opportunity to better allocate an organization’s resources.
• Auto-classification reduces the time and cost spent on eDiscovery tasks: Auto-classification frequently can answer questions that may arise in an eDiscovery context related to the process by which the data has been stored and retrieved, and may offer other requested information. Additionally, using auto-classification for information governance can also reduce the universe of materials that need review during the eDiscovery process. As a result, litigation risk is decreased and organizations can avoid facing potential discovery violations that have a higher chance of occurring through manual review.

All of these benefits improve an organization’s overall productivity and provide means for a potential reduction or reallocation of staffing. Employees who do not possess information management skills will not have to spend their time trying to figure out how to classify and govern important corporate data. Instead, auto-classification software will take care of this step and employees can focus on their assigned duties. This once again saves time and money, promotes efficiency, and strengthens business relationships. Overall, information governance professionals prefer that organizations use auto-classification software because it helps them conduct information analysis in a more accurate and efficient manner.