In light of corporate misconduct in the management of their information by such industry giants as Enron, Arthur Andersen, and WorldCom, effective control of the organization's information resources has become a critical element to re-establish marketplace credibility and shareholder confidence.  The tragedy of the terrorist attacks on America and the ability of impacted businesses to recover quickly have also focused much attention on the management and protection of data and paper record assets.

Executives are searching for solutions to ensure that their company's information is accessible, accurate, complete, and protected. The solution combines traditional records management processes, technology, and outsourcing to meet the increasing demands on an organization's information infrastructure. Examination of each of these elements can lead to an effective strategy for organizations to manage increasing and diverse information resources.

Evolving the Records Management Program Responsibilities
Traditional records management programs include compliance and document handling process policies and procedures that primarily address paper and imaged documents at the point when they are no longer actively useful to the organization. Program elements included:

• Records Retention Schedules
• Semi-active and Inactive Records Storage
• Active File Center Management
• Vital Records Programs
• Forms Management
• Microfilm Systems Management

Today's Records Management Program must focus on information resource standards (including compliance policies and procedures), staff education, and compliance auditing. The only element that is carried over from the traditional set of records responsibilities are compliance standards in the form of Document Retention Schedules addressing all information media. These standards must encompass the life cycle of information from the point of information creation through dissemination to disposition. This means moving records management standards for metadata, indexing, and retention to the desktop.  

Outsourcing Clerical Functions
Clerical functions, such as file processing, records storage, and document scanning can easily be outsourced to commercial records centers or service bureaus. Legacy internal file rooms can be outsourced to companies who will provide staff to fulfill the functions specified by the organization. These records centers or service bureaus have resources to provide specialized services such as "scan-on-demand" for routine requests to retrieve records from remote records to vital records protection for both data and documents to satisfy business continuity plan requirements.

The focus of the internal records management program should be managing these outsourcing functions, auditing adherence to established standards, and providing guidance or "help desk" support to internal users. The advantage to the organization is a minimal number of skilled records professionals required to monitor outsourcing contracts, set policy, market the program, conduct training and protect the organization's information resources through compliance auditing. 

Incorporating Technology
The most critical factor that drives the new records management paradigm is technology. Implementing the right software at the desktop is critical to the enterprise-wide enforcement of records standards, performance of security audits, and ensuring secure access to complete and accurate information. The cooperation and direct involvement by the corporate information technology (IT) staff is vital to the selection and implementation of the appropriate document management/records management tool. Without IT's participation, the management, protection and security of the organization's resources will not occur at an enterprise level.  

Too often, IT professionals will limit their responsibility to the hardware and software, and assume that data is the responsibility of user. Today's changing information control requirements, including government regulations pertaining to the access and preservation of data, requires IT to take responsibility for the data, embrace records management standards, and apply indexing and metadata rules to all systems and services. This will require:

• Document Management/Records Management Software (DMS/RMS) for maintaining indexing and retention standards providing enterprise access to information;
• Application development strategies to integrate DMS/RMS tools with other enterprise data bases and software;
• Network solutions for the storage and access of shared and mission critical data
• Security software to manage incoming and outgoing company information; and
• Contingency Planning software that incorporates both electronic and paper documents.

Embracing the Paradigm
Challenges face all professions, IT and Records Management cannot escape today's information realities of enterprise solutions addressing all information. If these information professionals are not proactive, take responsibility for policies, standards and technology tools to effectively response to changing market, compliance and business conditions, then management will find a source that can move their organization toward the new information resources paradigm. 

This article was written by Fred V. Diers, CRM, FAI. For more information, contact Entium Technology Partners at (888) 757-2045.

Entium Technology Partners develops and implements life-cycle information programs that ensure compliant business rules and standards for all company records regardless of media type. These information programs control the creation, processing, maintenance, distribution, storing, and disposing of all corporate documents and records by combining information policies, processes, and procedures with the appropriate technology tools. Our solutions will allow enterprise-wide access to corporate documents and records while meeting internal security and business continuity needs.