On the Record

In my previous column I highlighted a few key elements that are necessary for completing an inventory of electronic records. The next step is to look at the shared drive directories and compare the names of the files to the records series and records names in the hard copy inventory.  If you have some consistency, that’s good. Most likely, though, you will not see much consistency due to the organization’s resistance to imposing rules on how documents are named or classified and due to a limitation on the tools available.   What this exercise will give you, however, is the beginning of an “also know as” (aka) list, which will include abbreviations and acronyms in use. 

Searching the shared drives for potential records is now possible with the hard copy list and the aka list you’ve developed.  This is best done after hours to reduce the strain on the network.  As hits come up, list the locations, noting those not on the information provided by the records creators so that you can determine where else records may be stored.  Go to the owners of the shared drives and discuss what you’ve found.  If these are original records, add them to the list.  If there are shared drives that have not come up on your hit list, ask the owners what is on them.  They could be potentially new records series the owner may not even think of as records. 

When you find duplicates, keep track of how much extra storage your company has purchased and is also managing and backing up.  The cost for managing the duplicated information may be equal to or greater than the cost of electronic records management software program.  At the end of the project, you will have the beginning of a data map that indicates who creates business records, where they are stored, what is used to create them and how often they are backed up. 

How long will all this take to do?  Allot seven to eight hours per employee in the company to inventory the electronic records they create.

For more information on best practices for improving your records management center, more effectively leveraging your records information management systems and other document process management- related topics, feel free to visit our web site (http://www.ocesolutions.com) or http://www.arma.org.

In my last column I focused on how to inventory hardcopy, offsite records. This month I focus on how to inventory electronic records.

The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and recent rulings on the inability of companies to provide electronically-stored information in a timely manner have focused companies on their records management programs.  Over the years, these same companies spent a significant portion of their information technology budgets on managing structured data and realized tremendous business value through the use of data mining tools to analyze market trends, customer needs and the costs of doing business. 

It’s unfortunate that, for the most part, these resources cannot be applied to the challenge of managing unstructured records.  The exceptions are electronic records software applications that were configured with naming conventions and classification systems, or taxonomy, from enterprise-wide implementation.  As records are preserved and managed in an ERMS, structured metadata is applied to the unstructured content.  Identifying responsive material and applying disposition holds become more efficient and assured processes.

For the vast majority of businesses that have not implemented an enterprise-wide records management system, the task of identifying the electronic records created by employees as well as finding where and how the records are stored is a much larger challenge.  In order to be ready for litigation, however, it’s a task that needs to be done.  The practice of waiting for a subpoena to be delivered has become more risky over the past few years.  Courts have stated that if competitors in your industry have been sued, you should expect litigation in your company’s future as well.  The same holds true for audits. 

Last month’s topic –hardcopy inventories – is a good starting point.  Go back to the departments with hard copy records and determine if these records are created electronically.  Also find out other information such as: What is used to create them?  Where are they stored?  How often are they backed up? To who are the records distributed? At the same time, ask if there are other records created by the department that are not on the hard copy listing.  Again, how they are created, where they are stored, who else uses them, and are they backed up?  Once you have the replies and have analyzed the information, looking for potential duplicates, types of storage devices, usage and back ups, call the IT department for a meeting to discuss what you have found and ask to compare it to how much storage is in use and how often it is backed up.  The difference between what the record creators say they have and what IT is managing in terms of non-database storage will give you an idea of the scope of the project. 

One company had record creators claiming 14 terabytes of unstructured records while IT was managing 35 terabytes of shared drives for those same creators.  The 21 terabytes of additional storage had to be reviewed – the question is: how is this information identified? 

In my next column I’ll spotlight a few additional key steps necessary to inventory electronic records. In the meantime, for more information on best practices for improving your records management center, more effectively leveraging your records information management systems and other document process management- related topics, feel free to visit our web site (www.ocesolutions.com) or www.arma.org. 

The project management axiom of “assume the worst case scenario and double it” holds particularly true for records information management systems.  Companies are faced with a literal mountain of boxes, in some cases dating back a hundred years or more, that must be reviewed in order to determine the disposition of their contents. Boxes that were sent to offsite storage in the classic “file it and forget it” mode usually don’t have a list of records, or if one exists, it is in a notebook in another box in offsite storage. Company executives are reluctant to decide that “everything older than 10 years” can be destroyed because this action may increase risk of sanctions rather than decrease it.

If you consider three key elements, you can build a project plan with a defined ending.  First, identify which boxes and cabinets have non-records.  Good clues are boxes labeled “Desk Files,” “Copies or Duplicates” or “Samples.”  You will need to confirm that the contents of the boxes are not records, or don’t have historical value.  We’ve found boxes with hard hats and steel-toed boots, desktop accessories, journals and magazines, vendor catalogs and other non-records that were obviously ready for the trash.  In one clean up project, reams of misprinted letterhead were kept in expensive office space.  While the company was waiting for replacement letterhead, it kept the misprints as evidence of vendor non-performance. The misprints lost that value, however, when the vendor corrected the situation.  Once you’ve identified any potential records and all you have left are the non-records, dispose of the non-records.  Recycling is usually sufficient. 

Second, count the number of boxes and cabinet drawers of records remaining.  Multiply by 3.5 hours – this is your worst case timeline.  This is assuming that there is no record of what is in any of the boxes. 

Third, pull out any boxes with identifying information such as a department name or document type or project name.  Pop the top and list the first and last folder or clipped documents in the box into an Excel spreadsheet.  Send the Excel spreadsheet to the current department head and request any transmittals or inventories they may have for the boxes.  Multiply the number of boxes that come back with transmittals or inventories by 30 minutes.

Fourth, count the boxes left at this stage and multiply by 3.5 hours.  Add this number to the total from step three.  This is the best case scenario for your inventory project will take in terms of hours.  Determine how many hours per week you can spend on the project and you’ll have a range of the number of weeks it will take to inventory your current hardcopy records.

Next month I’ll highlight key elements of how to inventory electronic records.  For more information on best practices for improving your records management center and other document process management- related topics, feel free to visit our web site (www.ocesolutions.com) or www.arma.org. 

Based on our current research and work with clients, below are four key findings involving records management gap analyses. These analyses help clarify the difference, or “gap,” for many organizations between their current and ideal state of recordkeeping.

1. New legal and security demands
US law affects the way that companies manage electronic and hardcopy documents and records.    In particular, laws covering privacy and data protection dictate that information relating to individuals must be secure, classified and accessible on a strict need-to-know basis (e.g. HIPAA, and Data Protection).  Appropriate platforms to address these concerns for physical media and electronic documents are not being addressed at the majority of US businesses.  Fragments of information security and classification policies exist, but there is no mechanism to simply or automatically enforce or audit the organization for compliance with the policies.  Knowledge about records retention is generally limited to those business areas that have retention responsibility for specific types of records that are routinely audited or reported upon, such as a tax return. Most of these types of records are maintained in paper form over a period of time because of a lack of confidence in the electronic format.

2. Documents not treated as valuable assets 
Gartner Group estimates that 80% to 95% of enterprise information is located within paper and electronic documents.  The rest is in databases, a topic for another day.  We are highly dependent on many document intensive processes and a reliance on email for business communication.  Documents also provide critical support to business transactions and, in some cases, can constitute the foundation for conducting business (e.g., signed contracts).

There is little active management of documents and content beyond the local level; there is limited appreciation of the potential for document and content re-use and there is little recognition of the power of document lifecycle management and automatic workflows to improve business processes. 

3. Inefficient and overlapping record and imaging processes
Few companies have set and maintained standardized processes for collaboration utilizing documents and records across the enterprise.  These processes often evolve organically with the business, with little reference to the potential re-use or adaptation of existing processes for collaboration, document lifecycle management and distribution.  The issues include:

• No reuse or archive of previous work
• Unsure of what documents are the master files, naming inconsistencies and lack of ownership
• No process flow, documents are handed off desk-to-desk
• No audit trail of work performed
• Can’t search for information, across previous (or even current) previous document (presentations, requests for proposals, etc).

4. Major issues with repositories
It is difficult to find information that can be trusted.  Often, important documents, including records, are stored in more than one place, have multiple possible owners, and have no visible control.  The repositories or file cabinets within which they are stored are also often inappropriate with regard to security, access and management functionality.

In my next post I’ll focus on some solutions to these records management challenges. In the meantime, feel free to visit www.ocesolutions.com to learn more about records information management systems, best practices concerning the retention of records, creating an efficient records management center and related topics.

Unknown address, return to sender, no forwarding address: What is your company doing with its returned mail?  Is it stacking up behind the reception area?  Stuck in an unused office?  Thrown out?  Does your company keep paying postage for correspondence that you know is going to bounce back, month after month after month?  What do you do?

If you are in the financial or healthcare industries, your returned mail is regulatory evidence of your attempt to reach a customer or member; it is a business record just like the green, certified mail receipt.  The returned mail piece becomes critically important in contentious situations, such as when a policy lapses. Returned mail is also an opportunity to improve your CRM (customer relationship management database. If you don’t manage your returned mail, it can waste money in the form of excessive paper usage as well as higher outgoing and return postage costs. 

Additionally, as with any document that isn’t actively managed, returned mail will either be stored “just in case” or thrown away, often with no consistent procedure.  If your company is audited on its client outreach, it will need to provide this evidence or proof of destruction based on a records retention schedule to the auditor. If your company’s records information management systems can’t show a consistent, standard business practice, it could be in trouble.

Technologies exist that can capture the information that is on the returned envelope with minimal labor.  The data that is extracted can be used to update your customer databases, which in turn can reduce the amount of returned mail.  Updates include editing the information, such as fixing incorrect spelling or adding a zip code.  As an example, a large healthcare insurance company reduced its returned mail from 86,000 pieces per month down to just a few thousand by extracting the appropriate data and updating its database.  (The few thousand is a fairly constant number due to changes by individuals during a month.)

For businesses not regulated with regard to customer outreach, managing returned mail can boost efficiency by reducing costs, particularly in the case of large documents that require high postage.  The median cost to scan and extract the address and postal information from an envelope is $0.46 with a return of investment, on average, of 12 to 14 months. This makes it worthwhile to investigate the process. 

For more information on best practices for improving your records management center feel free to visit our web site (www.ocesolutions.com) or www.arma.org. 

A key challenge faced by most law firms today is maintaining the integrity of client records while keeping pace with other client-related needs and complying with increased regulatory requirements for managing records. 

In meeting this challenge, law firms with an analog (paper and microfilm) records infrastructure face increased exposure to liability, lack of accountability, competitive pressure, increased costs, and operational stalls.  The introduction of electronic records management, in 1985, reached partway to a digital environment but was often stalled due to a lack of resources.  Today, firms use individual wrap color coding labels on pockets and folders, print emails on single-sided paper for filing into hard copy files and, as time permits, manually input file information and current location into the records program.  File information is also input into a case-matter management program in a separate procedure, resulting in discrepancies in the two databases.  It’s important for law firms and their document management service providers to find points of integration that reduce the manual effort required to maintain client information and resulting records, whether analog or digital. 

The most common primary law firm databases are the Time and Billing system and the LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) or ActiveX directory.  Integrating the Document and Records Information Management Systems with these databases – including the creation of drop down menus from standard naming conventions for file and document types, status, location and retention codes – can help reduce the amount of keystroking to a minimum.  Barcoded and color-coded labels for any analog records can be printed from the integrated data with one click.  When a law firm brings a new client on board, the Time and Billing system creates a main file in the Document and Records Information Management Systems. Also, depending upon the firm’s preference, inserts or clips specific to the relevant practice group can be created.  The billing attorney, paralegal and secretary information can be populated, with location descriptions.  Court calendars can be set up to automatically send a notice to Records so that relevant files can be retrieved and prepared in advance, without additional action by the attorney. 

This improves efficiency in a number of ways:

1.  Files can be created with 6 clicks instead of (on average) 200
2. Standard naming conventions improve search results (Early & Associates, Business Case for Taxonomy; January 2011).  Relevant records aren’t missed because of spelling errors or personal abbreviations. 
3. Retention codes keep relevant information easily accessible; older, less valuable information can be archived or destroyed, depending on the firm’s preference.
4. Selecting from drop down menus in standard fields improves compliance with filling in data as well as improving the accuracy of the data.
5. Information is consistent between applications, which make it easier to train new associates. 
6. Proactive processes result in fewer errors or missing information compared to rushing to meet last minute requests.

The success of any integration effort requires a business plan that outlines the overall objective and includes a description of a model office, a detailed Statement of Work, a timeline with well-defined roles and responsibilities, and education, communication and training plans, which are critical to successful change management.

For more information on best practices for improving your records management center feel free to visit our web site (www.ocesolutions.com) or www.arma.org 

In my previous post I spotlighted some challenges a major cosmetics company was facing in its accounts payable processes, which Océ Business Services completely transformed. We combined document imaging technology and a workflow that enabled plant managers and the company to verify invoices more quickly and accurately so they could be paid on a much timelier basis. 

Here’s how it works: the suppliers now send the paper and email invoices, totaling approximately 1,500 a day, to Océ Business Services’ western regional imaging center. Océ converts every document into an image using an optical character recognition (OCR) system that creates the image as a searchable PDF file. Specific data fields are automatically extracted such as vendor name, plant name and purchase order number, which are matched up with information in the company database. Successful matches are verified and payments are processed. Océ collates any anomalies into a report that is sent to accounts payable, which in turn works with the plant managers to reconcile discrepancies.

How much faster is the new Océ system? If an invoice is scanned and all the data fields match with the company’s database, the process takes approximately 30 seconds and the cosmetics company has the invoice available within 24 hours. Instead of 45 days, the company completes payment in an average of two days. Overall, results include the following:

• Mistakes have been dramatically reduced and the company pays its bills much faster.
• The company now has an automated paper-handling and analysis process that previously consumed excessive amounts of time and energy.
• With less time spent reviewing invoices, plant managers now have more time to address critical operational tasks.
• The company is tracking and meeting its state tax obligations in a timely manner, resolving cash flow problems and eliminating fines.
• Vendors are now eager to service the company, knowing they will receive timely payment and are more likely to offer discounts in exchange for faster payment cycles.
• The imaging process enables the company to easily hold invoice and payment records in an electronic repository for 10 years without concern about physical space requirements, decay, disaster or other data loss. The repository is a de facto disaster recovery system.

If you are interested in improving your records management center operations or learning more about records information management systems best practices, feel free to visit www.ocesolutions.com.

Retention of records isn't just about boxes of paper stuck in a warehouse.  A record is information, regardless of its format, that supports the functioning of a company and provides evidence of its business transactions.  To illustrate, I was recently part of a team that assisted a company in bringing its accounts payable (A/P) processes under control.  Part of the discussion in the implementation planning focused on how long documents should be kept and in what format would they be maintained for the required retention period.  We also discussed how the documents are most usable outside of the payment system.

This company is the North American arm of a multi-billion-dollar global cosmetics company. The main issue was that the company wasn’t paying its bills quickly or accurately enough. Some suppliers, upset by the company’s lengthy payment process that sometimes took 45 days, threatened to withhold service. To address the problems, the company asked Océ Business Services to streamline its accounts payable process. The result was dramatic – quicker, more accurate payments and happier vendor relations.

The cosmetics company’s North American business receives thousands of invoices annually from suppliers to seven plants in the region. These invoices represent purchases of ingredients for cosmetics, materials for packaging, utilities for each plant, and other plant-by-plant spending, such as the hiring of temporary staff.

The suppliers would send the invoices to the plant managers who were responsible for confirming that the orders were valid and correct. This confirmation process resulted in delays of up to 45 days because the process was largely manual and because plant managers had many other responsibilities. Some suppliers would send invoices directly to the cosmetics company’s accounts payable department, which would have to wait for plant managers to confirm that they received full or partial orders. This process, in addition to being lengthy, also resulted in mistakes due to miscommunication. As a result, vendors became irritated with late payments and threatened to curtail service.

Complicating matters further, some states have different tax rules that affect how the vendor should invoice the cosmetics company. The vendors weren’t always following the rules and consequently the cosmetics company was missing state tax payments that resulted in large, unanticipated bills and, occasionally, fines.

All this was costing the company too much time, money and goodwill. The company needed to streamline the process so invoices (and taxes) got paid on time, cash flow was predictable, receipt of goods and services was verified, and vendors stayed happy. In my next post I’ll highlight the solution and the results of this case study example.

If you are interested in improving your records management center operations or learning more about records information management systems best practices, feel free to visit www.ocesolutions.com.

Did you know that April is national records and information management month? Since 2002, records and information management (RIM) professionals have devoted the entire month of April to promote best practices in records and information management.

Records management including proper retention of records is about finding the right information at the right time and delivering it to the right person. To do so efficiently requires only keeping what is necessary to run the business – no more, no less.  Annual clean-up days are a good way to purge obsolete, redundant and “non-records” files that are cluttering up your organization’s records information management systems, hard drives and offices. 

Clean-up days are also a good way to build spirit with departmental contests and awards for such categories as finding the oldest record or destroying the biggest volume of records. The benefits of better utilizing expensive office space, improving network speed and enabling quicker search times in databases more than compensate for the one day taken to clean up. Most companies only clean out when they’re preparing to move to a new location in order to reduce the cost of the move. Doesn’t it make sense to clean up on a regular basis so that an expensive move doesn’t even have to happen in the first place? 

How do you organize a clean up day? Here are five suggestions to help make your initiative a success:
 
1. Gain Executive Support
• Facilities – promote benefits such as freeing up space and clearing out cabinets
• Risk & Compliance – promote benefits such as better compliance with your written records management policy

2. Visit the Association of Records Managers and Administrators web site (www.arma.org) for posters, pins and other give-away items specific to records management.

3. Contact your offsite and/or document disposal vendor to schedule extra bins at each site or a dedicated truck at the largest site.

4. Communicate, communicate, communicate…
• Before the event to build momentum (company newsletter articles, email blasts, posting on the company intranet)
• After the event to thank everyone and talk up the success (calculate the hard dollars saved with freed up resources, calculate the increased speed on electronic retrieval requests)

5. Schedule next year’s event right away while the positive feelings are abundant.

For more information on best practices for improving your records management center feel free to visit our web site (www.ocesolutions.com) or www.arma.org. 

If you feel you spend too much time looking for the information you need to do your job, consider a taxonomy project. Companies doing so cut the time they spend researching and accessing the right information by up to 50 percent. 

Records management is all about finding the right information at the right time and delivering it to the right (authorized) person.  Key to the process is knowing what the information is called and how it’s spelled.  Hours are wasted by knowledge workers looking for information either because they can’t remember what they themselves called it, or, the information was created by a departed co-worker.

Corporate culture is reflected in the unique names for specific types of business documents – “scratch and dent”, for instance, is a name used by a mortgage company for its due diligence research.  This particular company started in the automotive loan industry and this particular document reflected its roots.  In moving towards a paperless workflow for its loan documentation the company looked closely at the function of the records created in the process in order to come to a clear understanding of what various departments named the documents as they were created.  A business classification system (BCS) was developed and from that a taxonomy.

A business classification system is analogous to a chart of accounts or an organization chart.  It defines a standard language by which various entities within an organization identify documents and records.  It codifies the names and labels of specific documents. 

Taxonomy is a hierarchical classification scheme to organize and describe documents, content and records.  Categorizing, defining and grouping information, usually within a process context, originates from different business requirements, but with a common aim to structure the collection of documents and records in a recognizable and standardized way. 

Electronic and physical documents and records are tagged by metadata for security, privacy and retention data in a consistent form so that searches can be conducted with fewer resources.  Absence of taxonomy and metadata can delay the process of searching and retrieving information.  Think of the fact that an internet search involving the phrase “records management” will yield over a million hits.  Is this really useful?  However, if you search on “records management, software, RFID”, you have a more manageable retrieval hit list with more focused research.  The same concept works on your shared drives.  Searching for a “contract” will yield those native format documents with the word contract in the title or somewhere in the document, or, if you have run your tiff and pdf versions through an OCR engine, you will get those, too.  If you have an electronic content management system that encompasses documents and records, you can perform a search on “contracts,” “memorandum of understanding,” “2007,” “ABC Company” and find the specific document you’re looking for immediately.  The taxonomy would look like:  “Record Series”  “Record Type” “Year” “Client.”  When setting up ECM’s many companies stop after “Record Series” and the date that the document was entered into the ECM, not necessarily the date the document was created. 

For more information on records information management systems, managing electronic documents, retention of records and other related information, feel free to visit www.obs-innovation.com. ARMA (www.arma.org) is another good source for information on topics related to your organization’s records management center.

Whether your business is publicly traded multi-national corporation or a sole proprietorship servicing one community, you need to manage your business records.  Why? Here are a few compelling reasons:

Litigation – there is no question that the United States is the most litigious country in the world.  You need to maintain business records that support your business decisions, your operations and your treatment of individuals for the length of time required by agencies regulating your business, and, as dictated by the statutes of limitations for others to bring a claim against you.

Corporate Culture – an effective records management program covers the important how to’s:
• How to “write for the record”
• How to write a business email
• How to and when to dispose of drafts
• How to consistently classify and label documents
• How to dispose of records and non-records

Cost Control – If you don’t need a record for legal, regulatory or operational reasons, why keep it? 
• Keeping records beyond their useful life leaves them open to discovery.
• If you don’t have a records program in place and the judge in your litigation finds you “grossly negligent,” your insurance company may not cover an imposed fine.
• Why pay to store records that are no longer required or useful?

Improved Customer Service – When you keep the most active records close by or online, retrieval time to look up a customer question or address a complaint takes seconds or minutes instead of hours and days.
 
Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure assumes that you have a records program in place.
• Safe Harbor isn’t available to you if you don’t have a program in place
• Inability to provide responsive material because it’s too expensive may not be an accepted reason by the court. ("Failure to adopt a compliant records retention and destruction protocol that permits cost effective access to relevant records and creates an audit trail subjects the non-compliant litigant to sanctions and constitutes spoliation.” Starbucks Corp. v. ADT Security Services, Inc. 2009)

Implementing a records program after you’ve been in business for a few years (or more) is, undoubtedly, expensive to do initially.  Not having it is expensive for the life of your company with year after year of increasing costs to store, search through and respond to litigation.

For more information on records information management systems, retention of records, deploying a records management center and related topics feel free to visit www.obs-innovation.com. Another good source of information on records management is ARMA (www.arma.org). 
 

Our most recent research, At the Crossroads: Leveraging Document Management Strategies on the Path to Economic Recovery, indicates that companies are strongly focused on electronic document scanning (paper to digital conversion), which offers a variety of business benefits such as helping to track compliance, enabling collaboration and lowering the storage costs associated with paper files. Our work with a client clearly demonstrated the power of this document management activity.

Our client, one of Connecticut’s oldest public institutions of higher education, has 7,000 full-time and 5,000 part-time students. Over the last century, the school accumulated hundreds of thousands of student files that became too costly to manage and too risky to protect in paper form. Océ digital imaging management experts were brought in to convert the paper files to digital. Now the registrar can turn around requests for student records on a dime using electronic retrieval, saving time and money.

Here’s how the solution worked. First, the student “grade books” were imaged. These files contain student class grades that are most active. An electronic repository increased productivity immediately and provided a backup. The second phase tackled “current files,” defined as the past ten years’ files. All the documents in these files were imaged and indexed per the school’s records retention schedule. The third phase converted files older than ten years. These files were also purged of documents that exceeded the retention schedule. The physical paper files were thinned by destroying documents no longer needed, reducing the physical storage space. Océ designed and installed the imaging technology and process and staffed the scanning operation.

As the student records were brought on-line and the registrar’s office began to use the electronic system to fulfill requests for records, improvements in several business metrics were immediately noticed:

1. Pressure to hire additional staff dissipated and there was no need for overtime.
2. The chronic backlog in requests for records was eliminated. Now the requests are turned around immediately.
3. Physical files are not disturbed and records do not get misfiled.
4. Valuable space was freed and is being refurbished for other, revenue generating uses. In addition, the school’s officials can feel a little better knowing that should anything happen to the paper files, business will not be interrupted because they now have an electronic and microfilm archive.

I’ll spotlight more examples of digital imaging management in future posts. For additional information on office document scanning topics visit www.obs-innovation.com

 

Over past years, corporate scandals and legislation have intensified the focus on accountability. As a result, compliance and integrity risks associated with business records have been elevated to the C-level. Bottom line, gaining solid control of records is essential for any company that wants to retain the confidence and trust of stakeholders and to support market valuation. Our work with one client, an insurance and financial services company, highlights the benefits of putting the right program in place.

The problem in a nutshell: The insurance company’s records management controls were minimal, making it difficult and costly to comply with regulatory requirements and audits. The company asked us to go the extra mile in improving document management activities that spanned records management in 18 locations.

For example, we took over records management for the company’s Phoenix operation, developing a file indexing taxonomy and assumed management of the entire records process, including file requests, tracking and monitoring, and off-site storage. Business benefits included centralizing records centers, streamlining operations and reducing costs. We have expanded the services we provide to the Phoenix with file room scanning projects for its Small Business Insurance and Small Workers Compensation divisions designed to verify the location of thousands of files.

We also teamed with the company to enhance its insurance records file management in major locations including Atlanta, Philadelphia, and New York. The ultimate goal was to improve customer service and compliance as well as reduce operational risk. The project provided the process control that virtually eliminates lost files, giving the firm’s executives better access to information when needed.

I’ll highlight more examples of records management programs in future posts. For more information on records management center best practices, the retention of records and other topics, feel free to visit our web site (www.obs-innovation.com). The Association of Records Managers and Administrators (www.arma.org) is also a good source of information.
 

Why bother to worry about your organization’s records management program? An efficient program can help lower the risk of non-compliance with state and federal laws. Bottom-line translation: a good program can potentially save your company a lot of money in fines.

Let me give you one example, which involves a records manager who helped implement a project that saved his company substantial money. The company is a food manufacturer. The records manager put together a business case to help protect the company against Superfund problems. (A Superfund site is a toxic site placed on a list of sites requiring clean-up mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency.) So the records manager went to senior management and basically said: “This records program will require some budget but it will help us sleep at night knowing our back is covered with all these Superfund problems.” The issue was that management knew it had a mass of boxes that contained insurance contracts that protected the company against future insurance claims. The contracts had never been indexed or inventoried. After implementing the program and indexing the files, the company was sued for Superfund clean up. They did have a contract from 1942 that held them harmless, so the insurance company had to pay the fine, ranging from $4 million to $5 million dollars.

Senior management sometimes is not tuned into the value of records management because often there’s no cost savings involved with records management projects, such as a technology upgrade. This was one example, however, of just how much value a good program can provide.

For more information on records management center best practices, including the retention of records, feel free to visit our web site (www.obs-innovation.com). Additionally, feel free to download our survey, Driving Business in a Tough Economy (click the box in the right hand column of the page), which offers some interesting findings on records and related document management strategies.

 

I’ve posted about the importance of records management in terms of lowering risk, saving money and other business benefits. Although the size and scope of records programs vary widely, they share common elements: global policies, specific procedures, IT support systems, ongoing records management training, and personnel dedicated to assuring that program responsibilities are managed effectively.

The key components of a high-quality records management program include:

• Policies and procedures for creating and storing records in both paper and electronic format that are visibly supported by an organization’s executives, including the CEO, CFO, CIO, and members of the board of directors

• A thoroughly documented records retention schedule that lists records series (categories) and the expected retention period in months and years based on legal, regulatory and best practices research. (See my previous posts on the retention of records: Why is Retention Important and Creating a Retention Schedule.)

• An organizational file plan that lists primary records types by functional unit so that information can be located without dependence on any one employee.

• An format-neutral taxonomy with meaningful naming conventions so that records are consistently labeled across all business units. 

• A vital records program that identifies and protects those records that are critical for immediate restart of an organizations business process following a disaster

• A records management implementation and training program that works with identified records coordinators in primary functional units to train them in the policies, procedures, workflow, and systems required to assure quality recordkeeping occurs

• A dedicated hardware/software electronic records system repository so that employees have a place to store personal computer files, electronic mail messages, and any other electronic documents for long term retention based on a formally defined records retention schedule and business rules.

• Periodic audits to assess the clarity of procedures, effectiveness of training, and that provide an ongoing enforcement vehicle.

For more information on records management center best practices, feel free to visit our web site (www.obs-innovation.com). Other good sources are ARMA (www.arma.org) and AIIM (www.aiim.org), industry groups specific to records and information management.

 

One critical element of an effective records management program is the right approach to the retention of records. I mentioned previously that if there’s no retention schedule being followed, there is no compliance. That’s risky.

When considering a records retention policy, companies often ask about the typical steps that go into creating one. Here is a high-level look at what usually occurs during the creation of a policy:

• Records Inventory – a comprehensive inventory of all department records. This inventory will include a survey of individual records series in all designated departments.  A record series is defined as documents or records that are filed together in a unified arrangement relating to a similar function or activity.
• Scope of the Inventory – a complete set of record retention periods for all active records based upon analysis of records inventory data will be prepared. 
• Appraisal of Records – retention periods to govern the disposition of all records series will be established.  These retention periods will reflect an assessment of the operational/administrative, fiscal, legal, research and historical values of the records.
• Creation of Classification Scheme/Taxonomy/File Plan – a classification scheme or taxonomy is analogous to a chart of accounts in that it standardizes how specific record series will be named.  It applies to both hardcopy and electronic records and is developed after the inventory is complete.
• Development of Schedule – set of disposition instructions prescribing how long, where, and in what form a records series shall be kept. 
• Vital Records – a records program involves the selection and protection of those records, which if lost or destroyed, would result in serious legal, regulatory, financial or operational consequences. 

For more information on records management center best practices, feel free to visit our web site (www.obs-innovation.com). Another good source is ARMA (www.arma.org).
 

An effective records management program can potentially save an organization millions of dollars by preserving responsive records and disposing of obsolete records in systematic, consistent processes that can be defended. This helps avoid fines from courts or auditors. Ignorance of records retention requirements is no longer an excuse with the publication of the Sedona Guidelines, ISO 15489, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and state level adoption of the Federal Rules.  So that begs the question: What are the elements of a good program?

One vital ingredient is the right approach to the retention of records. When it comes to a retention schedule, most companies either don’t have one or they don’t enforce it. This can be costly in terms of monthly records storage fees that pile up for many years. It can also be risky, leaving an organization vulnerable to litigation or discovery with regard to documents that should have been destroyed. So if your organization needs to create or re-think its retention schedule, here are some key objectives to keep in mind:

• Control documents and other materials from creation through storage to destruction/archiving. Included are correspondence and other documented materials, which have historical or operational value or are essential to the conduct of business. 
• Provide recommendations to eliminate duplication and ensure preservation of official records. 
• Establish a records inventory that will indicate the type of record being retained, whether hardcopy or in electronic. Employees need to be interviewed regarding the degree of reference activity. 
• Provide specific record retention periods for each type of record based on Federal and State regulations, counsel opinion, fiscal and operating requirements.  All documents should be considered, such as corporate files, accounting and correspondence, and a business value determined. 
• Select and recommend which records are considered to be part of the Vital Records Protection Program and indicate the most economical methods of protection. 
• Evaluate the use of electronic storage media, file tracking systems and improved offsite storage techniques.