Throughout the pandemic, our dependence on digital information has significantly increased. It’s not just remote workers who need access to records, public demand for information has also been increasing.

The speedy adoption of new technologies has made it a great deal harder to find information across the organisation. Rapid digitisation and migration to the cloud, has meant that records have been shifted from their traditional homes into new locations, and not everyone was sent the memo. And the acute need for online communication and collaboration has resulted in the rampant spread of Microsoft Teams sites. It all happened so quickly that access & security needs could not keep pace: Osterman Research White Paper, Teams Archiving and Data Protection and Concentric Report Shows 450% Increase in Oversharing of Sensitive Documents | IDM Magazine.

Now that the genie is out of the bottle, how can we quickly re-establish compliance and control?

Knowledge through Information Asset Management

The tool for you is an Information Asset Register (IAR). An IAR provides you with critical knowledge when planning migrations; decommissioning servers; managing privacy; applying access and security rules; determining disposal; planning digital continuity.

It is the Swiss army knife of information governance – a tool with something for everybody:

• an information discovery tool
• a data protection tool
• a register of personally identifiable information (PII)
• a vital records register
• an intellectual property register
• a migration planning tool
• an appraisal tool for records managers

Maintaining an information asset register isn’t just useful, it is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions: Australia, South Africa, New Zealand; the United Kingdom and Europe.

Building an Information Asset Register is easier with a.k.a. software

a.k.a. software is a purpose built tool for building data and information governance controls which meet industry best practice.

Better than a spreadsheet

While it’s tempting to use a spreadsheet, there are real benefits to using database software for this task.

With a.k.a. you can deal with scale; compile multiple sources of knowledge into a single database, and cross reference information assets with organisational structures, security policies, retention and disposal schedules, classification schemes, glossaries; master data, legislation and more.

Start immediately

If your need is immediate, consider using a.k.a. online. Deploying a.k.a. is as easy as sending you a URL and providing you with a prebuilt design for an Information Asset Register that meets best practice standards. Our IAR design delivers on multiple fronts – marrying the needs of the business, IT, risk, records and archives.

Your IAR can be as simple or as complex as you require. All a.k.a. design templates are fully customisable, and can be easily adapted to accommodate your organisations requirements.

Furthermore, we provide quick and easy import tools to load data from your existing spreadsheets.

Easy online publishing

How information is represented makes an huge difference to its usefulness. An effective IAR will be professionally presented and targeted to your stakeholders needs.

Our Interactive Online Reports make the IAR visible and accessible, and enable end-users to slice and dice the dataset to extract the specific knowledge they need.