Shaping the Connection between Records Management Principles and Information Governance
I have spent the last couple of weeks speaking with customers about their recent implementations. Due to my background and role at OpenText , the customers I engage with always have a Records Management component in their project. What I found remarkable (and am very happy that it’s actually materializing) is the real shift in the organizational culture surrounding Records Management and Information Governance. It won’t be a surprise to anyone that Records Management used to be seen as people in the basement managing dusty boxes – recently, it has found a new, more vital (no pun intended) role within the organization. I believe a key reason for this shift stems from the fact that organizations are realizing they must evolve and embrace Information Governance (of which RM, Archiving, and eDiscovery are key components). Not only are they embracing Information Governance, organizations are realizing the costs and risks that they will incur if they don’t embrace it.
I just read Barclay Blair’s latest executive brief entitled Justifying Investments in Information Governance which specifically calls out the sources of the costs faced by organizations should they fail to invest in Information Governance. This further substantiates the value of an Information Governance Program.
From recent customer calls, to my delight, I am seeing organizations take the Generally Accepted Records Management Principles (GARP) and apply them to ALL corporate information (meaning, not restricting the fundamental principles of Records Management to “official records” [which we all know only account for a small percentage of all enterprise information]). Looking at two of the eight principles–retention and disposition–I trust you will see the immediate value it brings to all your corporate information.
The principle of retention is about keeping information for as long as required, based on legal, regulatory, fiscal, operational, and historical requirements. This principle needs to be applied to all information so that your organization is mitigating all risks and minimizing all costs associated with information. How can it help? Just look at your shared drives—how many copies/duplicates are residing in your shared drives? How much storage is that taking up? How much does that information increase the risks and costs should your organization be involved in a lawsuit?
You can then add in the principle of disposition, which is about getting rid of information that is no longer required to be maintained by organizational policies or applicable laws. Being able to defensibly disposition information will minimize the risks and costs associated with all of the information. An easy example to demonstrate the value of disposition is to look at an inbox. How much information within the average inbox is not relevant to the business? How many copies of the same attachment does one normally have? How much information could have been deleted years ago?
Looking at these two principles and examples is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a lot more value for your organization by extending all the Records Management Principles to all your corporate information. There is no doubt in my mind, this approach will result in drastic improvements, on how you view and deal with information. I recognize that this will be a transition and will take time, but strongly encourage your organization to start the journey!
