When I presented at ARMA 2009, I suggested that records management professionals can add a lot of value to their organization by being partially the custodians of the information.  By custodian, I mean care taker and not garbage taker outer.  I got a vehement “NO, that is not out job!”  The audience was very particular to note that they wanted to be focused on policies and procedures so the users could be their own custodians.  A very valid point and I think the true value lies somewhere in between.  Records Managers can not just make policies and be hands off from the rest.

I spent Wednesday at an ARMA E-Discovery conference.  The attendees were CRMs and attorneys.  Given this was focused on the E-Discovery aspect of the RM responsibilities, I still got the feeling that preparing for litigation is a major focus in the life of the RM.  Just about every company will get sued at one point or another, and so a good RM policy that lowers the cost of litigation is critical, but unfortunately this is not a psychologically appealing story to business leaders (comment if you think I’m wrong).  The last thing a business manager wants to hear “Hey! We are getting sued but because of the awesome records management platform, which we paid millions of dollars for, the cost of litigation will be really cheap.”  Please note a slight tone of sarcasm.

Conveniently, the same things that make E-Discovery easier are also things that help with content management and even web site usability.  Systems that can demonstrate direct line of business cost savings and even sale and marketing value for public vaccine web sites are very linked to what records managers are doing.   File plans and data maps, all help E-Discovery, but they are also central to developing a better information architecture for the rest of the organization.

Rather than just storing records and preparing for litigation, I imagine the best Records Managers are able to identify strategic value for their projects, not just in terms of risk mitigation and cost savings in litigation.

E-Discovery, Information Architecture, Records Management, Value