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Alan Pelz-Sharpe

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Records Management on the rise?

12-Apr-2010

Tags: Document Management (ECM), Building Business Case, E-Discovery, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology, Energy, Finance, Government, Health Care, Higher Ed, Legal, Pharma

I just finished reading an excellent article in Hedge Funds Review called "Records management in the new regulatory environment." It's piece that echoes much the same message I've been preaching for years now: that Records Management in even highly regulated environments is very often chaotic, inadequate, and sometimes barely operable. 

People outside of highly regulated environments typically assume that records and retention management in sectors like healthcare, financial services, and energy is state of the art.  This is far from the case.

Most often Records Management is underfunded,  inadequately resourced, and unloved.  It is no cliche to say it is also often run from underground, literally in basements out of sight of those who need to do "real work." 

In places where records are actively managed, they are usually managed well, with detailed and well-maintained file plans and retention schedules.  But many organizations only manage a fraction of the records they should be.  For example very few records management departments include e-mail as part of their remit, yet e-mail is where all the "stuff" happens. 

But maybe, just maybe, the tide is starting to turn.

Here at the Real Story Group we currently support a number of large advisory customers who are looking at records management strategically across highly complex working environments.  We have others who are looking at the whole issue of information management and ECM more strategically than in the past, and have begun to include RM as a component or a recognized future element of their work. 

That might not sound like much, but just a year or so ago it seemed like nobody cared.  Things like e-government initiatives, healthcare reform, demand or need for more self-service applications, increased regulations, and so forth seldom have the immediate impact people expect. And in a world where decisions can get driven by today's opinion polls, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that many of the biggest and most profound changes we encounter in our society occur at a far slower pace.

The most overused phrase in my personal lexicon is, "time will tell." But I fervently hope that time will tell us that awareness of the importance of RM and archiving has slowly risen to the fore.