Key findings

Specific practices implemented among best-in-class organizations for the legal custody of information result in much lower expenses, including

• 94 percent lower spending for legal settlements and fees than firms with the worst practices
• 92 percent lower spending among these firms for IT to find, protect and preserve information on legal hold
• 80 percent lower spending on legal settlements and fees than a majority of firms with normative practices
• 75 percent lower spending among these firms for IT to find, protect and preserve information on legal hold

Download Improving Results for the Legal Custody of Information to find out which practices are reducing costs and improving results the most.

Better practices in IT and Legal are the primary reason for lower expenses and improved results

Legal holds on information start when firms reasonably anticipate legal requests for information. But not all firms implement the practices needed to minimize expense for this activity. Benchmark research conducted with 235 firms, primarily in the United States, reveals the specific practices implemented across the firm—and within the legal and IT functions—that are the primary reasons why some organizations spend much less than others on legal settlements, legal services and in IT to find, produce, protect and preserve information on hold.

Practice makes perfect

While the saying “practice makes perfect” is true, it helps to know which practices actually improve results. The research shows that firms with the lowest spending on legal settlements, legal fees and expenses in IT related to legal requests for information are all implementing the same practices, especially when compared with the practices implemented by all other firms. Download Improving Results for the Legal Custody of Information to find out which practices are reducing costs and improving results the most.

ISACA Research: Top Business/Technology Challenges and Opportunities

New research from ISACA, conducted with 3,173 professionals from around the World, highlights the top business and technology challenges and opportunities facing organizations today.

The top, rank-ordered, business issues facing organizations include:

1. Regulatory compliance
2. Enterprise-based IT management and IT governance
3. Information security management
4. Disaster recovery and business continuity
5. IT value management
6. Managing IT risk
7. Compliance with financial reporting
8. Continuous process improvement and business agility
9. Vulnerability management
10. Collaborate value chain management
11. Modernization and consolidation of IT systems, assets and applications

This freely available report provides insight into the challenges facing many organizations, and the opportunities awaiting firms that solve the challenges. Among the interesting findings contained in this report are the divergent priorities across IT auditors, IT management and IT security functions within organizations.

This report is definitely worth the read.

Insight on What’s Working to Improve Results

The results of the ISACA survey are similar to those from the ongoing IT Policy Compliance Group (IT PCG) benchmarks, where regulatory compliance, IT governance, risk management, and information security top the list of challenges and opportunities for improvement among organizations.

For a comprehensive view of what’s working to improve results, download the recent IT PCG 2008 Annual Report. This research report provides a wealth of insight into the practices that are resulting in improvements to revenue, profits, customer retention, regulatory compliance, business continuity, the protection of sensitive data, and the management of IT value.

In addition, Interactive Tools at the IT PCG site quantify how business outcomes are changing, in multiple regions and currencies around the World, from improvements made in IT for the same challenges and opportunities cited by the ISACA research findings.

Jim Hurley