Managing Collaboration Data Equals Retention and Technology

In the second of a four-part blog series, Jim Gill of Hanzo discusses collaboration data challenges faced by organizations prior to litigation and how technology can assist. Although collaboration data has become essential for many businesses, determining how long to keep records on chat applications like Slack and Teams has become a problem. In today’s litigious environment, it is crucial that organizations establish a reasonable retention period. Unlike email, these tools have unique retention settings that may depend on the company’s license. An increasing number of companies are now implementing retention policies and schedules to mitigate this issue. A recent survey by Hanzo found that 65 percent of respondents had a collaboration retention policy in 2022. 

When managing collaboration data, companies need to balance regulatory requirements, business needs and records hygiene. To help with this, many organizations are turning to technology. Technology can help identify and extract information from conversations and attachments, which can then be tagged and managed, allowing a channel to be deleted or archived for compliance purposes. Technology can also be useful in digital pattern recognition, leading to smarter workflow and better decision-making. As the demand for technology increases, companies should embrace it to assist with information governance and make informed decisions about retention policies.