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| Thought Paper |
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Compliance and the Management of
Corporate Content |
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| Abstract |
A changing regulatory climate, increasing shareholder demands for better corporate
governance and continuous technological advancement have corporate managers
reexamining their records and document management investments in the light of an ever
increasing compliance load. Compliance imposes the responsibility to provide documentary evidence that the business obeys laws, regulations and other standards and commitments applicable to that company.
Compliance requires the company to conduct business in a particular fashion, and to document its conduct. The period that evidentiary records must be retained is
governed by legal and regulatory requirements, internal corporate policies and good risk
management practice. Corporate documents and content are created in the normal course of executing business transactions, produced as evidence of corporate policies, procedures and decisions, developed to aid in the marketing and sale of a company's products and services, or
organized as the result of internal or external reviews or audits, corporate litigation, or the
organization's records management policy.
Some of this content must be considered as
records and retained while other content is transitory and should be discarded as quickly
as practicable. Technology has complicated the management of corporate records, since the records are more voluminous, in more formats, and distributed more widely throughout the organization. The increased focus of regulators on electronic records coupled with, in
many cases, management inattention to the business risks of mismanagement of this
corporate asset increases the potential for serious and irreversible consequences to the
organization that include financial penalties, loss of reputation and even criminal
prosecution. The quality and accessibility of business records will undoubtedly influence how
corporations perform dynamic governance and compliance functions, and the business'
ability to effectively leverage the value of its information assets will ultimately affect the
company's valuation. Systematic records and information management is key to achieving
these goals.
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