The Challenges in Records Management

Posted by Mark Brousseau

The convergence of physical and digital records management – and tying them together to create an “umbrella” information governance model – is the top concern of records managers, Jim Cuff, vice president of strategy, Iron Mountain Digital, said today during a panel discussion at the ARMA Annual Conference. “Complicating matters is the growing volume of digital data and the issues of eDiscovery.”

Cuff said that the most significant stumbling block in creating an information governance model is that organizations have content – which Cuff affectionately calls “stuff” -- everywhere. “Records managers must figure out where all of this stuff is, and how to bring it all together in a sane approach,” Cuff said.

“Records managers are most successful are those instances where they involve other groups, whether they are IT, legal, compliance or even business folks,” said panelist Victor Owour, senior director, Oracle.

Historically, there hasn’t been a lot of collaboration in records management technology, Cuff noted.

But these stakeholders must determine the components that records managers should focus on. “What we found is that a number of our customers have been successful by planning the obit for their records management program early on in the process. They think through the entire problem and what they hope to achieve,” Owour said. “You want to tie records management into your business processes so it fits seamlessly into what the organization does; this way, it’s no longer a task, it is a convenience.”

Regardless, organizations need a retention hold policy, said Perceptive CTO Darren Knipp.

What do you think?