2
comments
Too often organizations fail to establish tangible
performance metrics to support electronic records management implementation
initiatives. A recent AIIM research found that such absence
of metrics result in a lack of top down executive commitment to approve funding
for electronic records management projects.[1] The same research found that rapidly
escalating regulatory compliance and e-discovery costs notwithstanding only 9%
of organizations surveyed have an enterprise-wide electronic records management
strategy and systems in place.[2] There may be a number of reasons for such a
poor enterprise records management adoption trend. For one many organizations
tend to have a disproportionate number of disparate document management repositories
resulting in a fragmented departmental approach to records management. This may
be further compounded by insufficient investments in an enterprise wide
information management strategy that strives for a consistent and normalized
meta-data model for all corporate information assets. There may be lack of
clarity as to what dimensions of electronic records management implementations
ought to be measured. One may focus on
efficiency metrics associated with how the electronic records management system
performs in terms of declaration, classification rates, retrieval times and
disposition. Or one may focus on the outcomes associated with electronic
records implementation measured in terms of tangible ROI such as lower physical
storage space costs, reduced e-discovery costs or intangible measures such as improved
constituency services. However organizational alignment and executive support
are imperative determinants to the success of an effective electronic records
management program. As one noted authority observed “Many EDRMS projects are
“led from the middle”, making them highly susceptible to failure. Without
senior management endorsement, the prioritisation of the project and provision
of resources required over the typical 12 to 30 month timespan – both of which
are prerequisites to success – have a high probability of being withdrawn.
Senior managers generally support the idea of good recordkeeping and
compliance, but do not know what is involved and do not understand the
productivity that is unleashed by a successful project. At the other end of the
spectrum, users tend to see an EDRMS project as just another compliance driven,
administrative burden with little personal benefit. Getting engagement up and
down the hierarchy is therefore fundamental to the success of an EDRMS
implementation.”
Recently Bruce Miller of www.rimtech.ca has provided very useful
guidance relating to successful electronic records management implementation
best practices. The link to the article
is here and it will also appear in Canadian
Government Executive.
[1] Records Management Strategies, AIIM 2011: “A lack of commitment at
the highest levels is the most likely reason that organizations have no records
management system, either by default, or by not seeing sufficient need to
invest the money.”
[2] Records Management Strategies, AIIM 2011: “A lack of commitment at the highest levels is the most likely reason that organizations have no records management system, either by default, or by not seeing sufficient need to invest the money.”
