INFORMATION GOVERNANCE · WORKING SYSTEM
Determinant System Wizard
The problem is not writing a retention policy. It is proving what actually happened to the data.
Organizations can have a perfectly reasonable policy and still be unable to answer basic operational questions: Which copies exist? Which rules apply? What is on hold? What was deleted? What remains in backups, exports, vendors, archives, or downstream systems? And who can prove the answer?
Determinant turns that gap between written policy and technical reality into a reconstructable decision process for Legal, Privacy, Security, Records, Data, and accountable system owners.
Evidence state: extensively operator-tested; external client efficacy and product-market fit remain to be established through a bounded engagement.
UNDER THE HOOD
Inventory the real record estate · classify data and dependencies · map overlapping obligations · preserve holds and exceptions · assign decision rights · verify the resulting action.
The system is designed to connect legal and policy requirements to the systems, evidence, owners, and technical residues that determine whether retention or deletion can actually be defended later.
THE BUYER AND TRIGGER
For leaders who can no longer reconcile written retention rules with technical reality.
Typical sponsors
General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer, CISO, Chief Data Officer, records leaders, compliance leaders, and accountable system owners.
Common triggers
Litigation or investigation readiness, acquisition integration, regulatory change, storage cost, security exposure, policy refresh, deletion requests, or inability to verify prior actions.
The first boundary
One defined record domain, a limited historical sample, authorized owners, and an explicit question leadership needs answered.
THE PROBLEM
A retention policy cannot show what an organization actually retained, deleted, excepted, or verified.
Fragmented evidence
Authorizations, business rationales, system events, deletion logs, and exception records live in different places.
Hidden obligations
Contracts, holds, downstream dependencies, regulatory requirements, and internal exceptions may never reach the systems carrying out the policy.
Policy-execution drift
Written schedules and actual storage behavior diverge as systems, vendors, backups, exports, and ownership change.
Deletion uncertainty
Teams may initiate deletion without knowing which copies, derivatives, archives, backups, or justified residues were addressed.
THE BOUNDED DIAGNOSTIC
One record domain. Historical evidence. Four executive outputs.
The proposed engagement uses a limited, client-approved historical sample; policies and obligations identified by authorized teams and counsel; and interviews with accountable owners. It does not require live production credentials or autonomous deletion.
01
Structured decision record
What was found, which authorities participated, what evidence mattered, what was decided, and what remained unresolved.
02
Risk findings
Missing evidence, policy-execution gaps, unnecessary retention, unresolved exceptions, and weak verification loops.
03
Retention-and-deletion framework
Record categories, triggers, exceptions, evidence requirements, and ownership based on obligations supplied by authorized teams.
04
Remediation plan
Sequenced priorities, responsible owners, dependencies, required evidence, and decisions needing legal or technical validation.
THE OPERATING SEQUENCE
From data sprawl to a decision leadership can reconstruct.
01
Inventory
Establish which records, systems, exports, archives, and owners exist in the bounded domain.
02
Protect
Use redacted, de-identified, anonymized, or synthetic material wherever practical.
03
Classify
Sort by type, sensitivity, purpose, age, ownership, dependency, and evidentiary significance.
04
Map obligations
Connect legal, contractual, security, privacy, hold, policy, and operational requirements identified by authorized teams.
05
Decide
Apply an approved decision standard, document exceptions, and assign accountable owners.
06
Act and verify
Retain, reduce, or delete through authorized client systems, with evidence of the action and any justified residue.
COMMERCIAL VALIDATION AND ENGAGEMENT BOUNDARIES
The system works in operator use. The commercial thesis remains unvalidated until a qualified buyer funds the work and acts on the findings.
Extensive operator testing establishes functional use of the decision system. It does not establish external client efficacy, product-market fit, production integration, or validated software performance in a client environment.
- One defined record domain or retention problem.
- Limited historical material approved and prepared by the client.
- No production credentials, live database access, autonomous deletion, or silent action.
- Internal Legal, Privacy, Security, Data, Records, and Operations participation where required.
- No jurisdiction-specific legal conclusion, compliance certification, guarantee of deletion completeness, or claim of validated client efficacy.
- Pricing, scope, confidentiality, data handling, outputs, and decision rights defined in a written engagement agreement.
Current availability: selected design-partner conversations with organizations that have a concrete record domain, accountable sponsors, and a credible reason to act.
Please do not send confidential, privileged, regulated, customer-identifiable, or proprietary material in an initial inquiry.