What is Records and Document management?

04/15/97

What is Records and Document management?


First off, I'd like to throw away the traditional terms used in this field (records management, document management, library science and archivist are a few) and replace them with a new one:

INFORMATION ASSET MANAGEMENT

Why call it "Information Asset Management"? It's helpful to think of information as a resource that must be wisely managed. Records contain information that is critical your organization. Your bookshelf or library contains publications that you use as references to support business processes and decision making. Your business records support the decision-making process, sustain communications, control the delivery of services and ensure accountability. Selected archival records, perhaps some from your office, document organizational history.
Besides the considerations of value and cost, there is a legal obligation to manage information effectively as well. Records that are not properly disposed of can be damaging to your organizations credability. Proper information mangement ensures that the information is available when you need it and is properly disposed of when it is no longer required.
Information Asset Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, maintaining and purging a organization's information assets. Good management ensures that information is available when and where it is needed at minimum cost. Effective management, however, is more than simply a cost saver and more than merely a filing and storage system. It is a management plan for the creation, organization, use, retention, disposal, and selective preservation of records showing a organization's decision making process and activities. Paper, microfilm, computer tapes and disks, maps, photographs, video and sound recordings, etc., the list of media we should consider is long. All documentary materials created, received or accessed by an organization to use in thier activities and decision making should be included in your information asset planning.
What's all this about 'records' and 'documents'? What's the difference?
Here are a few of my rough definitions:

DEFINITIONS

  1. Document - A Document is information that has been captured on a retainable media.
  2. Record - A Record is information (regardless of media) which must be retained by an organization for a period of time until the information contained in it is of little or no value. It may include multiple documents brought together to document a process, activity or decision.
  3. Hard Copy - Any document recorded in a physical media.

Documents exist in many forms, the medium isn't really as important as the information it contains:
  1. Correspondence - both internal and external (letters, memos, e-mail, invoices)
  2. Completed Forms - timesheets, financial records (checks, deposits, ledgers, etc.)
  3. Images - photographs, radiographs, charts
  4. Reports -
  5. Electronic - Electronic documents, e-mail, databases, phonemail messages, etc.

You'll notice that these catagories can cross-over each other, like correspondence and e-mail. Don't depend on media being the defining factor in your information management plan.

SOME OBSERVATIONS:

  1. Organisations spend a great deal of money on producing, collecting and maintaining information assets.
  2. The primary aspect of producing documents is for the information they contain.
  3. Some documents are not worth keeping at all, that sticky note from a co-worker saying "let's do lunch" is a document, but it's value after lunch....probably not much.
  4. Collections of documents worth keeping become records.
  5. All organizations produce records.
  6. Efficient organisations implement sound Information Asset Management programs to be able to cope with growth.

Business spends millions of dollars annually on records keeping, on the salaries of personnel who design and support information systems, and on the costs for the space, equipment, supplies, and services needed to collect, store, and retrieve information. To be sound, the investments in information management systems must be well-planned and well-managed.

Do you need Information Asset Management? Here are some questions to help you decide.


You need Information Asset Management if . . .
You have trouble finding a crucial memo or report that you know is in your files, or
You saved a document on your PC but don't know on which disk or directory to find it again, or
You are cramped for office space because the number of office filing cabinets keeps growing, or
Computer printouts are piling up in the corner of your office, or
You don't use the microfilm copies of your records because the film is difficult to read, or
you don't have the equipment to read the microfilm, or
You do not store a security copy of your microfilm or computer tapes off-site, or
You didn't know that there are legal requirements for disposing of records that are not needed, or
It's been years since you reviewed your office records to dispose of those that are not needed, or
You don't have the reference when your manager asks "where did these figures come from?", or
....The list goes on...
Location of Records
  1. Do you know where all your company files are located and what documents are contained in them?
  2. Can you find all the documents associated with one of your records?
  3. Are you taking advantage of available and applicable technology?
Document Workflow Management
  1. Are you confident that all incoming work is properly processed ?
  2. Do you know at what stage of processing important work has reached?
  3. Does your process ensure that work is tracked to completion or advise you when actions are pending or overdue?
Records Retention and Disposal
  1. Have you got enough office space for the records you are keeping?
  2. Do you know which records you are legally required to retain?
  3. Do you know which you are permitted to destroy and when and how you should destroy them?
  4. Do you know how much you are paying for storage of your records?
In order to manage the retention and disposal of records a information asset manager develops "Retention Schedules" to insure that records are retained and then properly destroyed and that the destruction is documented. Some of the reason's for retention of record are:
  1. to meet legal and regulatory requirements
  2. for essential organisation needs (vital records)
  3. for their information value
  4. for historical significance

Quality Records Management
  1. Did you know that to achieve ISO 9000 Quality accredited status, your Quality program must have a good records management system?
  2. Could you prove that procedures have been followed?
  3. Did you know you could achieve considerable efficiencies by establishing and following a good Information Asset Management Program?
Think about your answers, if you answered NO to any of these you may need to implement a Information Management program in your organization.
What is the information asset manager's responsibility?
The manager is responsible for managing information assets in a way that supports the mission and functions of the work unit and the organization.
  1. Collecting only the information that is needed to conduct business.
  2. Creating records that control and document the organization's policies, procedures, transactions, and decisions.
  3. Designing, monitoring, and refining efficient and effective information storage and retrieval systems, whether paper files, microfilming operations, office automation systems, or electronic data processing applications.
  4. Maintaining an up-to-date inventory of company records and information assests.
  5. Ensuring that no records are destroyed without legal authorization.
  6. Ensuring that no copyrighted information is used improperly.
  7. Establishing and implementing approved records retention and disposition schedules, which govern how long, where and in what form records must be kept and when records can be destroyed or archived.
  8. Identifying vital records (records needed to resume business in the event of a disaster) and archival records (records that have enduring value for administrative, legal, historical, and other research purposes) and taking precautions to protect them.
  9. Administering access to company information esp. in the case of sensitive or confidential information.
  10. Educating work unit staff to treat information like other company property and to understand information asset management requirements and sound practices.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD INFORMATION ASSET MANAGEMENT PROGRAM


  1. "A good Information Asset Management program is cost effective and provides valuable control over an organisation's information resources."
  2. "A good Information Asset Management program ensures that information can be easily located."
  3. "A good Information Asset Management program will permit the user to move easily through the available information and combines ready access with built-in security."
  4. "A good Information Asset Management program will manage information throughout it's life-cycle, providing collection, organization, access, retention and disposal functions."
  5. "A good Information Asset Management program will provide organized workflow functions to assist with the processing of information."
  6. "A good Information Asset Management program integrates information regardless of the media it is in."
  7. "A good Information Asset Management program is one that grows with the organization."
  8. "A good Information Asset Management program allows users to take full advantage of available & applicable technology."

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Produced by JOHN GAHRMANNoriginal content ©1996 by John Gahrmann