Transcript Records Management

Reference: Textbook Chapter 1
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Update 2010
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What is record?
What is records management?
Why do we need to manage records?
Trends and problems in records management
Careers in records management
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Information created, received, and
maintained as evidence and information by
an organization or person, in pursuance of
legal obligations or in the transaction of
business (defined by ISO 15489)
Stored information (defined by ARMA)
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In any media or with any characteristics
Made or received by an organization
Provides evidence of its operations
Has value requiring its retention for a specific period of
time
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Form
◦ Correspondence, report, form, contract, order,
invoice, statement, manual, working paper,
photograph …
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Source
◦ Mail, email, fax, special courier, Internet,
Intranet, …
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Media
◦ Paper, magnetic, optical or digital storage media
(e.g. film, audio/videotape, disk, microfilm, CD, DVD, …)
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From Records to Contents
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General correspondence
Transactional records
Vital statistics
Working papers, including drafts, routine reports, etc
Electronic messages (including e-mail, instant
messaging, and voice mail)
Web sites (including Web pages, images, documents,
and audio/video files)
Electronic backup media (including tapes, disks, and
other storage devices)
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Early records
◦ Based on business transactions
◦ Created by hand
◦ Almost entirely paper documents
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Modern records / contents
◦ Content - focus on the digital forms
◦ Include many types of information in many forms
◦ Electronic / digital multimedia records
◦ Technology plays a big role in creation and
management
◦ Provides basics for business intelligence
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By Use
Transaction
Reference
Operational
Personnel
…
By Place of Use
By Value
 External
 Vital records
 Internal
 Important
records
 Web
 Useful records
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 Nonessential
records
•Active, semi-active, inactive
•Public, restricted, confidential, …
•….
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Burden (?) of Records / Contents
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It is estimated that as much as 80 percent of
data currently occupying space on expensive
enterprise storage infrastructure has little
chance of ever being referenced again.
There may be good reasons to retain some of
this data …
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Administrative value
◦ help employees perform office operations
◦ knowledge management
◦ decision support
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Fiscal value
◦ keeps transactions, funds, and other financial processes
◦ business intelligence / analysis / decision support
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Legal value
◦ evidence of business transactions
◦ law compliance
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Historical value
◦ to achieve records of an organization
◦ intellectual property
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Meet operational requirements
Improve operational efficiency
Support effective decision making
Protect legal, financial and other interests in
the regulatory environment
Preserve corporate memory / intellectual
asset
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Contents / Records Challenges
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Industry analysts estimate that information
workers spend 30% of their time finding
information*
A major financial institution lost a $1.5B
lawsuit for failing to produce required
documents
A Turkish bank was spending 16 days to
manually process credit card applications**
See:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/2/b32b5f8acb7f-4cd0-96e653d9ab9d0f6d/Enterprice%20Content%20Management.ppt
* New World of Work – Microsoft whitepaper
** Microsoft case study
Discussion
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Your understanding of records vs. general
information
◦ specific concern on records
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Records / Content Status
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Active
◦ currently in use by a business process
◦ e.g., a bill in the payment process
◦ usually contain the current year’s records plus those of the
immediate past year.
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Semi-active
◦ completed ones that are referred to
◦ generally kept nearby on-site in filing systems
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Inactive records
◦ those maintained for longer periods of time for legal, regulatory
or sound business practice
◦ kept in boxes or shelves off-site in a records storage facility
(archive)
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Technology advancement / decreasing storage costs blurs the
differences in their physical treatment.
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Creation/Receipt
Active &
Semi-active
Inactive
Final disposal
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To ensure that only those needed records
will be created and managed
To ensure that records are properly and
promptly classified, retrieved and used
To ensure that inactive records are
properly managed (for example,
transfer to records centre)
To ensure that those records of value
can be properly preserved and the
remainder will be destroyed
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The systematic control of all records from
their creation or receipt, through their
processing, distribution, organization,
storage, and retrieval to their ultimate
disposition
It means planning, organizing, directing,
controlling and other activities needed for
effective life cycle management of records
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Importance of Records / Contents
Management
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A routine practice in various organizations
◦ business offices, government agencies, non-profit
groups, educational institutions, and medical
facilities
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A systemic approach aims to
◦ streamline records / contents management
processes
◦ Link records / contents with business operations and
decisions to improve organizational performance
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Electronic records management
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E.g., how to manage emails, multimedia, …
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
◦ capture, store, preserve and deliver content and
documents (in electronic form)
◦ across all departments within an organization
◦ dynamic, unstructured, distributed, inter-related
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Electronic records in E-business
◦ Electronic data interchange (EDI)
◦ Electronic fund transfer (EFT)
◦ across organizations
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Reduction of paper storage
Reduction of paper handling and error-prone manual
processes (e.g. reduction of lost documents)
Faster access to information online
Security over document access and modification (?)
Improved control over documents and document-oriented
processes
Streamlining time-consuming business processes
Improved tracking and monitoring, with the ability to identify
mistakes, bottlenecks and modify the system to improve
efficiency
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EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
◦ A set of standards for structuring information that is
to be electronically exchanged between and within
businesses, organizations, government entities and
other groups.
 The standards describe structures that emulate
documents, for example purchase orders to automate
purchasing.
 More than transfer of electronic file
◦ Also refers to the implementation and operation of
systems and processes for creating, transmitting, and
receiving EDI documents.
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EFT - Electronic Fund Transfer
◦ Refers to the computer-based systems used to
perform financial transactions electronically
◦ A system of transferring money from one bank
account directly to another without any paper money
changing hands.
◦ EFT may be initiated by a cardholder when a payment
card such as a credit card or debit card is used. This
may take place at an automated teller machine (ATM)
or point of sale (POS), or when the card is not present,
which covers cards used for mail order, telephone
order and internet purchases.
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Records Management (RM)
Electronic Records Management (ERM)
Records and Information Management (RIM)
Content Management
Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
Archive Management
Document Management
Electronic Document Management (EDM)
*also related to Knowledge Management, why?
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Benefits of Electronic Contents
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Electronic records / contents under proper
technologies can enforce
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Authenticity
Reliability
Integrity
Usability
Security
Privacy
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Discussion
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Use an example which you are familiar with to
discuss your understanding of records
management (what and why)
An example in library environment
◦ In a library, in addition to various bibliographic records
used for public service, librarians also need to manage
the internal records, e.g. library purchase requests,
purchase orders, and payment. These records are
managed throughout a number of steps including
creation, receipt, distribution, process, maintenance, etc.
The management of such internal records is important
for efficient procurement transactions of the library.
Some of the records should also be retained based on
financial regulations.
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+ Web
+ Database
+ Multimedia …
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Management Process Concerns
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Major Concern
◦ Records Classification
◦ Retention Scheduling
◦ Disposition Management
Which is more specific to records / content
management instead of general information
management?
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Main Management Activities
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Storage/Filing
◦ A systematic way of storage according to a plan
◦ Further processing may be required (e.g. scanning,
imaging, and data conversion)
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Retrieving
◦ Locating a record / file / content from storage
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Retention
◦ Decision about how long to retain them
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Disposition
◦ Destroy or migrate them to another archival media
such as microform or archival electronic storage
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Large organizations lose a document every 12
seconds
67% of data loss is directly related to user
blunders
business workers typically misfiles 2-7% of all
records
While the majority believes RM is a key
determinant in the outcome of future legal
actions, 62% doubt they could defend their own
records
-- From a statistical report by PRISM International
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Management problems
◦ Lack of concern
◦ Poor overall planning / standards
◦ Excessive records costs—inefficiency due to various
problems leading to high costs
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Human problems
◦ Staff training
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Operation Problems
◦ Inefficient filing procedures—overloaded drawers,
poor labeling, misfiles
◦ Poor use of systems, equipment, and space
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Responsibilities of RM / ECM
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must know what records / content you have
◦ Maintain authentic, reliable and usable ones
◦ Protect their integrity
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must have them well organized or grouped
◦ Knowing where it is
◦ How to find it when you need it and then
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must identify their retention requirements
must have a mechanism to pull and destroy
them properly
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Records/Files Storage
Retrieving Service
Retention Planning
Media Conversion
Records Protection
◦ Physical qualities
◦ Access control
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Knowledge Management
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Opportunities to work with records exist in
every type and size of office and
organization
More positions from large organizations
Certified Records Managers™ (ICRM)
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http://www.icrm.org/
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Example
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Content Resources Executive, a position
opening at SCMP
http://www.hkla.org/content/blogcategory/22/48/lang,english/
Apr 2010
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Association of Records Managers and
Administrators, Inc.
http://www.arma.org/
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Important professional group interested in
improving
 Educational programs in schools and industry
 On-the-job knowledge about records
management
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Content & Records
Management
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PRISM International
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Professional Records & Information Services
Management
http://www.prismintl.org/
◦ A not-for-profit trade association for the
commercial information management industry
◦ This industry is made up of outsourcing partners
that provide their clients with physical and digital
information protection, access, retention, storage
and disposal
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Association for Information and
Image Management (AIIM)
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Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is 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.
Content - focus on the digital forms
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Extended Objectives of ECM
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integrative middleware
components of independent services
uniform repository for all types of
information
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_cont
ent_management
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ECM as Integrative Middleware
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overcome the restrictions of former heterogeneous
vertical applications and island architectures.
offers the requisite infrastructure for the new world
of web-based IT
establishing itself as a kind of third platform
alongside conventional host and client/server
systems.
EAI (enterprise application integration) and SOA
(service-oriented architecture) will play an
important role in the implementation and use of
ECM.
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ECM as Independent Services
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used to manage information without regard to the
source or the required use.
provided as a service that can be used from all
kinds of applications.
The advantage of a service concept is that for any
given functionality only one general service is
available, thus avoiding redundant, expensive and
difficult to maintain parallel functions. (=> SOA)
Therefore, standards for interfaces connecting
different services will play an important role in the
implementation of ECM.
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ECM as Content Warehouse
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used as a content warehouse - both data
warehouse and document warehouse
combines company information in a repository with
a uniform structure
Expensive redundancies and associated problems
with information consistency are eliminated.
All applications deliver their content to a single
repository, which in turn provides needed
information to all applications.
Therefore, content integration and ILM (Information
Lifecycle Management) will play an important role
in the implementation and use of ECM.
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