Are you the person who has to call your IT department and request more space for email? Do you have the .pdf of the company Holiday Party from 1999 saved? Are there 3 copies of the report you’re writing saved as version.1, version2 and version3? If so, you just may be a data hoarder.
Frequently, we find lots of stale data sitting around in various repositories; stuff that hasn’t been accessed in years. Now, some of it may need to be saved for regulatory compliance, but it doesn’t include everything ever produced by every individual in the company. It helps clear the mind to do some periodic cleansing. Since it’s now Spring, (at least there are some promising signs of Spring), it may be time to do some cleaning. We’re not saying delete everything. There’s a smart way to go about cleaning your data. A structured data governance approach can provide a safe, clear path that has little impact on business processes. If you’re the owner of a lot of data, taking the time to identify what is stale versus active can help alleviate storage issues, time to search and help avoid data loss.
But, the first step is always admitting you have a problem and that you’re finally willing to make the changes to help make the problem go away.
Let us know what you do to ensure that you don’t hoard data!
