Records Management - Dream or Reality?
Happy New Year everyone! As we prepare for 2012, we add goals to our lists. Invariably, some of the goals are attained and others aren't. Is records management finally at the top of your list? Let's talk about it a bit.
The basic principles of records management were established when all records were mostly generated and stored on paper. A recent AIIM survey revealed that most organizations still follow those principles in their day-to-day practice of managing paper and electronic records.
Today’s technologies have evolved to the point that paper records and electronic records can be managed in the same environment, Enterprise Content Management (ECM). Enterprise Content Management is defined as “the strategies, methods and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization's unstructured information, wherever that information exists.” The business drivers for implementing an ECM solution are accessibility, knowledge sharing and regulatory compliance.
How are you doing managing the content within your organization? A recent research paper published by AIIM recently indicates the answer is…not so good! In this report, AIIM compared the adoption and success of traditional approaches, the strategies being considered to cope with current and future challenges, and the trend of investments in ECM solutions.
Key Findings:
- The volume of paper records is finally decreasing. Paper records are decreasing in 41% of organizations, compared to 31% where it is still increasing. This is the first time AIIM has measured a net decrease across all sizes of organizations.
- Access to records across the enterprise is still poor: 28% of respondents consider the accessibility of records to employees across their business to be poor or very poor. Only 4% consider it to be excellent – for example, being able to search an enterprise records system for records from many sources.
- The goal of an enterprise-wide ERM system is still popular but is proving hard to achieve: A single enterprise records management model underlying all content systems is the goal for 58% of respondents. Only 9% have achieved this, although a further 12% have RM integration across organizational units or subsidiaries. 28% have no RM systems.
- Support is needed at the highest level: Lack of commitment at board-level or C-level is given as the biggest reason for non-adoption of ERM systems, and the difficulty of securing agreement across departments is also frequently cited.
- Key policies are not in place: Only 16% of organizations have a documented and effective information management strategy. A further 15% have such a policy but it is largely unreferenced. Less than half of even the largest organizations have a risk management plan that includes records management.
- Reduced storage cost joins compliance as the biggest driver: Statutory and industry compliance combine to be the strongest drivers, ahead of reduced storage costs. Sharing and exploiting knowledge comes next.
- Legal costs could be reduced by a quarter. Most respondents feel that audit costs, legal costs, court costs, fines and damages could be reduced by 25% with best practice records management.
- Poor records practice can severely harm your reputation: 28% have had their records management and security practices criticized or exposed by an auditor in the last three years. 6% have been criticized by a regulator, 5% by lawyers and 4% (1 in 25) in the press.
- Dealing with emails and agreeing taxonomies are still front of mind: Managing emails as records and agreeing corporate classification systems are the biggest current issues. Social, mobile and cloud are the least pressing.
- Search and automated classification are taking some of the heavy-lifting: Many organizations (37%) are focusing on search to improve e-discovery and knowledge-sharing. Others (28%) are making increasing use of automated classification.
- Resources for RM are being increased: A net 36% of organizations are planning increased RM budgets (50% increasing, 14% reducing) and a net 20% are adding dedicated staff resource.
- Spending on system software is set for biggest increase: Spending intentions for dedicated RM systems, RM modules for ECM, e-discovery tools, and email management are high, whereas spend on outsourcing for both physical and electronic records is set to fall.
Please contact us for a complete copy of this research paper, or other industry information on this topic.
DISC Corporation has more than five decades of hands-on experience in eliminating both paper and paper-based processes. We solve document and content management problems. Many of our earliest solutions are still in use at our client sites, and DISC continues to help customers refine their business content strategies as well as understand the hidden effects that mismanagement of paper has on its business. By integrating document imaging and data capture into its overall content management strategy, DISC has helped countless clients in a wide variety of industries use document imaging to increase productivity, reduce costs and become more efficient.