Information governance spans every part of your organisation.
Effective information governance reaches across information management, ICT, cybersecurity, privacy, risk, and the people who create, use, and manage information every day. Without a consolidated view of how these disciplines interact and where the gaps sit, governance frameworks remain incomplete and the risks that accumulate across the boundaries between them go unaddressed.
Votar’s IM Maturity Assessment examines the key considerations that underpin effective information governance, identifying the improvements needed to support the long-term management of information and enabling a more efficient, resilient organisation.
Five disciplines, assessed individually or in combination.
Our information management maturity assessment covers five disciplines, each of which can be assessed independently or together, depending on your organisation’s priorities and areas of greatest risk.
Privacy
Examines the frameworks, policies, and cultural awareness underpinning how personal and sensitive information is handled across the organisation, identifying gaps that expose it to privacy risk and reputational harm.
Records Management
Covers the governance, processes, and system controls determining how well corporate records are created, captured, stored, and disposed of, identifying the capability improvements needed to address identified gaps.
Information Security
Assesses the controls, frameworks, and governance structures protecting information assets from unauthorised access, use, disclosure, and loss, identifying where protective controls are missing, inadequate, or inconsistently applied.
Data Management
Assesses your data management programme maturity and compliance against international best practice, including the DAMA Data Management Body of Knowledge, identifying governance and compliance improvement opportunities.
AI Ethics
Evaluates the governance frameworks in place for the ethical use of artificial intelligence against the National Framework for AI, identifying the controls and accountability structures your organisation needs.
Understanding the difference between compliance and capability.
An information management maturity assessment provides executives with an evidence-based view of information-related risks, compliance obligations, governance effectiveness, and operational inefficiencies across the disciplines that matter most. Our focus is on establishing a maturity baseline, identifying priority improvement opportunities, and delivering a practical roadmap to improve organisational performance, cyber resilience, compliance, information governance, and digital transformation readiness.
Votar’s IM Maturity Assessment is modular by design. Organisations choose to assess across all five disciplines or focus on the areas most relevant to their current priorities and areas of greatest risk, making it a flexible, targeted engagement shaped around the specific needs of each client.
Compliance alone does not tell the full story of your information management risk.
An organisation can meet its minimum compliance obligations while still lacking the governance structures, staff capability, and system controls needed to sustain those obligations over time. That gap between appearing compliant and being genuinely capable is where risk accumulates, often unnoticed until a breach, audit finding, or regulatory action brings it to the surface.
A structured information management maturity assessment surfaces those gaps before they escalate into compliance failures or regulatory findings, giving leadership a realistic, evidence-based view of where the organisation stands and a clear pathway to building genuine capability.
01. Project Initiation, Planning and Control
Key to the success of every project is planning. Every engagement commences with a project initiation session undertaken in conjunction with the project sponsor and key stakeholders, validating and finalising the engagement scope, the extent of consultations required, resourcing, schedules, project expectations, and deliverables.
A Project Initiation Document is developed, providing a common understanding of what will happen and a clear framework for measuring progress. The plan is used to monitor progress and ensure all deliverables are provided to the agreed schedule.
02. Consultation and Evidence Gathering
Working with you to determine the most suitable engagement methods, our consultants gather evidence through interviews, facilitated workshops, meetings, and surveys across every relevant stakeholder level. The approach is shaped by your organisation's size, structure, and the disciplines being assessed, ensuring we build a complete and accurate picture of current capability before analysis begins.
03. Analysis and Maturity Rating
Evidence gathered across each discipline is assessed against the maturity framework to produce a structured rating of current capability. The analysis identifies where governance, processes, and controls are functioning well and where the gaps are most significant, providing the foundation for targeted, evidence-based recommendations that reflect the realities of your operating environment.
04. Reporting and Recommendations
A clear, evidence-based report is delivered covering maturity ratings, gap analysis, and a prioritised action plan for improving capability across each assessed discipline. All recommendations are tailored to your organisation's specific needs, budget, and capability, ensuring the findings translate into actions that are realistic, achievable, and focused on the improvements that will have the greatest impact.
05. Project Close
Every engagement concludes with a structured review of the project and your experience of working with Votar. Lessons learned are shared back with our consulting team to continuously improve our service delivery. Each project and client is unique, and this final stage is an opportunity for your organisation to provide direct feedback to the Votar team.
Outcomes built around your organisation's objectives.
An information management maturity assessment does not simply identify problems. Our focus is on strengthening governance and accountability, giving executives a clear plan for incrementally improving maturity over time.
Maturity Rating
A structured rating of current information management capability across each discipline assessed, establishing a clear baseline for measuring improvement over time.
Gap Analysis
A detailed identification of the gaps between current capability and the target maturity level, prioritised by risk and potential impact on the organisation.
Capability Recommendations
Practical, evidence-based recommendations for improving information management capability across the assessed disciplines, tailored to your organisation's specific context and operating environment.
Action Plan
A prioritised, structured action plan giving your organisation a clear pathway to improving maturity, sustaining compliance, and reducing information risk over time.
Discuss which information management disciplines are most relevant to your organisation
Contact us to discuss your information management priorities and learn how a maturity assessment can help your organisation identify, prioritise, and address its information management risk.
What a clearer view of your information management maturity makes possible
A structured information management maturity assessment gives organisations the evidence needed to make better decisions about where to invest, what to improve, and how to reduce information risk across the disciplines that matter most.
A consolidated view of your information management risks
Reduced risk of privacy breaches, data loss, and regulatory non-compliance
Clearer ownership of information management responsibilities across the organisation
Better informed investment decisions about information management improvement
A measurable baseline for tracking capability improvement over time
Improved staff capability and awareness across information management disciplines
Speak to us about your information management priorities today.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss your information management challenges and determine how a maturity assessment can help your organisation identify, prioritise, and address its information management risk.
Common questions about our information managagement maturiy assessments.
An information management maturity assessment provides executives with an evidence-based view of information-related risks, compliance obligations, governance effectiveness, and operational inefficiencies. It establishes a maturity baseline, identifies priority improvement opportunities, and delivers a practical roadmap for improving organisational performance and resilience.
A compliance assessment determines whether an organisation is meeting its legislative obligations. A maturity assessment goes further, examining how well the practices and governance frameworks that support compliance are embedded, and identifying the capability gaps that leave an organisation exposed even when it appears compliant.
Votar’s IM Maturity Assessment covers records management, privacy, information security, data management, and AI ethics. Each can be assessed independently or in combination, depending on your organisation’s priorities and areas of greatest risk.
Subject to agreed scope and the availability of stakeholders, the assessment process can be delivered over an indicative eight-week duration. We work with each client to define an approach that fits their timeline and available resources.
Involvement varies depending on the disciplines being assessed. Records management assessments require input from records and business unit teams, privacy assessments involve privacy officers and business unit representatives, information security assessments engage ICT and security teams, and data management and AI ethics assessments involve data governance and technology leadership. We guide clients through the right stakeholder involvement for each engagement.
At the conclusion of an information management maturity assessment, Votar delivers a structured report including maturity ratings across the assessed disciplines, a detailed gap analysis, evidence-based capability recommendations, and a prioritised action plan tailored to your organisation’s specific needs, budget, and capability.
The appropriate frequency depends on the pace of regulatory change in your sector, the scale of recent technology or organisational change, and whether a previous assessment has been conducted. Many organisations benefit from reassessing every two to three years, or following significant change to their information environment.
Insights on information management maturity and capability
The perspectives our team shares on information management practice and capability are drawn directly from assessments conducted across government, health, water, education, and not-for-profit organisations.
