People ask this like there’s a number: a certain amount of storage, a record count, a point where a sensible organisation should start worrying. There isn’t one, and looking for it is why so many organisations never get past the question. The real test has nothing to do with how much data you have. It’s whether anyone can account for what you’re holding.
Scale Is A Distraction
“The scale of the problem is too big” is one of the most common objections I hear. The number does look daunting once you examine honestly what’s built up over ten or twenty years. But when you assess it properly, the gaps are never spread evenly across everything. They concentrate in a handful of old systems and shared drives nobody’s touched in years.
Every Organisation Thinks It’s Different. None Of Them Are.
The pattern is identical across legal firms, insurers, health services and property groups: data sitting somewhere, built up by habit, that nobody can explain. The amount of data differs by size and history. The gap doesn’t.
People Already Know. Budget Is The Blocker, Not Awareness.
I’ve done a few assessments over the years, and almost nobody is surprised by the result. People already suspect they’re holding too much. What the assessment doesn’t solve is the next step, because somebody has to be given the job of acting on it, and that’s a much harder decision than simply admitting the problem exists.
Ask This Instead
For any set of data: can someone name why it exists, is there an actual person who owns the decision to remove it, and when was it last properly reviewed? If the answer to any of those is no, the volume was never the point.