Records Management - Incorporation of Electronic Records into a RM Program
From EDRM
| Information Management | |||||||||||||||
|
The cornerstone of a good corporate RM Program is that it addresses all types of business records, regardless of media. There should be no distinction between paper and electronic records. Until recently electronic documents were not considered records. Traditionally, individuals printed electronic records and saved them as records. Then and only then were they considered records.
Such traditions are no longer viable. The volume of e-mail and office documents, as well as the number of mobile workers have grown so large that electronic documents never make it to the paper file. Lacking standards (and enforcement) for labeling Windows file folders, users store electronic files wherever it is convenient, without consistency or predictability.
Recent experience and surveys show that 80% of corporate information resides in different repositories, e.g. on individual hard drives and file shares. Approximately 80% of these are not reviewed or retrieved within 30 days and more than 50% are not retrieved within 90 days. A recent case showed that of these "unstructured" electronic documents, 25% are E-mail, 25% are on shared network drives, 48% are on personal drives, and 2% are on the Web and in Public Folders. Furthermore, 67% of such records had not been updated in over 2 years and between 16% and 33% were exact duplicates. Finally, there were no document or record management systems governing their classification, storage or disposition.
Effectively incorporating electronic records into an RM Program requires:
- Awareness,
- Systems, and
- Management support.
(back to top)
Contents |
Awareness
Awareness involves two elements: (a) awareness of records management and what it means; and (b) awareness of procedures to comply with records management and the risks of non-compliance.
(back to top)
Awareness of Records Management
The first element necessarily involves a comprehensive records retention policy and supporting record classification and retention schedule. Implementation is accomplished through web-based training on the contents of these documents (upon hiring and then annually thereafter). The documents should also be posted on the corporate intranet so employees can access them anytime. Employees should be required to sign a certificate (by electronic check mark) indicating that they understand the effects of non-compliance. Web-based records management (RM) training will often take into account and train employees on appropriate content for business records.
(back to top)
Awareness of Compliance Procedures & Risks of Non-Compliance
The second element involves the management of information as an asset and ensures that the company handles that information in the appropriate manner according to established procedures. This can be accomplished through regular operation reviews, check ups and audits. The bulk of this procedural awareness - especially for electronic records - is provided by systems that are designed to internalize these procedures and to gate the user accordingly.
(back to top)
Systems
Records management is a business function, not an IT function. Electronic Document and Record Management Systems (EDRMS) are supported and maintained by IT, but designed by the business units collaboratively to meet the corporate record classification and retention schedule standards.
Ideally, the e-mail application (Outlook) will have an integrated EDRMS that prompts the user to declare a message (and its attachments) as a record and determine where to file it when the message is sent or received. The user should be able to identify what qualifies as a record by virtue of his RM training.
By the same token, other office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio) should be integrated with an EDRMS such that the user is prompted whenever a SAVE or CLOSE operation is requested to declare whether the file is a record and, if so, where to store it. In both cases, the user will have a standard set of files, defined and set up by IT at server levels, in which to store the document or message.
(back to top)
Management Support
Physical record management support groups were typically constituted at the physical site level. For electronic records, it is on the functional/business unit level, much as the Corporate Record Classification scheme is.
IT always had infrastructure support people responsible for the lower-level, horizontal, system related programs and technologies. End users were responsible for application programs such as Word and Excel. However, electronic records management requires an IT support group that is vertical - that owns the folders and files holding the business unit's records regardless of software application. IT can interface with the business units and the program system administrators to set up "virtual file rooms" with standard folder types and labels on the servers for each record generating "System." They also interface with the Corporate RM Group to support and bolster RM "Awareness."
Awareness, systems and management support are primary prerequisites to effectively integrating electronic records into a RM program. They will not all necessarily move in a smooth, fluid, well-integrated fashion - but they should move forward in an open, communicative fashion as time and resources permit. As this is generally an enterprise-wide initiative, it is usually led by an Executive Sponsor with the assistance of an Executive Advisory Board and the hands-on resources of a dedicated, cross-functional Project Team.
(back to top)
