Records Management Considerations for Social Media 220 New Best Practices for Managing Social Media Records 222 Notes 223. Strategic Business Drivers for Project Rationale 342 Benefits of Electronic Records Management 344 Business Case Presentation 346.
PART ONE
First, some basic definitions of core terms used in this text: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines (business) records as "information created, received and maintained as evidence and information by an organization or person pursuant to legal obligations or in connection with the transaction of business.”1 It further defines records management as “[t]he area of management responsible for the effective and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including processes for gathering and maintaining evidence and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records.” 2. Electronic records management (ERM) has moved to the forefront of business issues with the increasing automation of business processes and the tremendous growth in the amount of electronic documents and records that organizations create.
Records Management Business Rationale
In the face of real-life disasters, such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and 2012 Superstorm Sandy, executives are now realizing that disaster recovery and business resumption is something they must plan and prepare for. The focus is on vital records (more details on this topic in the following chapters), which are necessary to resume operations in the event of a disaster, and vital records management is part of an overall records management program.
Why Is Records Management So Challenging?
Also, many of the benefits are intangible or difficult to calculate, but help to justify the capital investment. There are many ways in which an organization can achieve significant business benefits with ERM.
Additional Intangible Benefi ts
Enhanced professionalism, corporate memory retention, and support for better decision making are important intangible benefits of ERM. Enhanced professionalism, preservation of company memory, support for better decision making and protection of vital documents are important intangible benefits of ERM.
Notes
Electronic records management (ERM) includes the management of electronic and non-electronic records, such as paper and other physical records. Practicing good IG is the essential foundation for building a legally defensible records management program; it provides the basis for consistent, reliable methods for managing documents and records.
First, Better Policies; Then, Better Technology for Better Enforcement
Defi ning Information Governance
Blair explains that IG is "a relatively new term whose exact meaning is still being shaped by the market and those who promote its use." 6.
Stakeholder Consultation Is Key
Accountability Is Key
Why IG Is Good Business
Impact of a Successful IG Program
Critical Factors in an IG Program
An IG approach should be comprehensive in its scope, covering structured data and unstructured content. In most cases, the most difficult aspect of IM [and information governance] can be stated very simply: most organizations are trying to fix decades of "bad behavior." The actual condition is often unknown, even at the architectural or model level.
Who Should Determine IG Policies?
Information Governance Framework, "Adventures in Records Management, posted November 12, 2007, http://adventuresinrecordsmanagement.blogspot.com/2007/11/information-governance-framework. Blair, "8 Reasons Why Information Governance ( IG) makes sense," posted June 29, 2009, http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/2009/06/8-arsyet-why-information-governance-ig-makes -sense.
The Principles
As shown in Table 3.1, the Generally Accepted Principles of Recordkeeping Maturity Model links the characteristics that are typical of five levels of recordkeeping capabilities ranging from 1 (substandard) to 5 (transformative). An audit process should be developed to cover all aspects of RM in the organization.
Assessment and Improvement Roadmap
It is difficult to obtain timely information about the organization or its administration. A retention schedule is available, but it does not include all documents, has not gone through official review, and is not well known within the organization.
Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles ® Benchmarks
- Company 3 had a robust records program for physical records, but when the company was split apart in the late 1990s the records group transferred to the divested
- is a financial institution in the United States. The new records man- ager needed assistance in developing a records retention schedule and classification
- Company 5 is a large manufacturer with divisions in four states and Canada
- is a large city in the United States. The IT department recognized the need for a functional classification after attempts to apply the records retention
- is a large provincial agency in Canada with a strong records man- agement program for physical records. The RM department uses the ECM as the
- is an association with an existing ECM that was being used by staff for inactive records only. The ECM functionality for capturing records at receipt or cre-
The state records retention schedule was used, but the division needed a file plan for the ECM. ARMA International and the Generally Accepted Principles of Recordkeeping: ARMA International (www.arma.org) is a non-profit professional association and the authority on records and information management.
Enterprise Content Management
Document imaging began as an electronic filing cabinet of sorts — a very expensive one — and the technology really took off in the 1990s, when workflow capabilities were added to move folders and documents through work steps in an automated manner, capture statistics en route. But imaging and workflow software didn't manage other types of e-documents yet, just images, so a market for document management products soon emerged and those companies were soon swallowed up by the major document imaging players such as Wang, FileNet, and IBM.
Document Management Principles
Information governance (IG) measures and additional technology are needed to find those misplaced electronic documents that are scattered across the enterprise. Additionally, electronic documents and other content are no longer secure once they are accessed by authorized users, so protections must be added directly to electronic documents to maintain continued security wherever they are directed.
Electronic Document Management Systems
What policies should be applied to documents so that actions related to documents are audited, documents are stored or disposed of properly, and content important to the organization is protected. How are [electronic] documents treated as corporate records, which must be maintained according to legal requirements and corporate guidelines.5.
Electronic Records Management
How documents are converted as they move from one stage to another during their life cycle. These erroneous, unregistered or misregistered records can be easily found using modern business search and data mapping tools.
Records Management Principles
ERM Principles in Detail
This is all part of the LTDP process, which should be governed by strong IG policies. E-records can be migrated to newer technology platforms so that they remain legible, but this strategy must be carefully planned and documented to ensure the authenticity of the records.
PART TWO
The record statement is the basis for developing a records retention plan that specifies how long different types of records will be kept and how they will be archived or disposed of at the end of their life cycle. A sound records management program will keep records accurate and up-to-date.
The Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles ®
Document management is something everyone wants done, but no one wants to do (although they will have an opinion on how to do it). The people who work in business units are sensitive to their records and it will take some effort to gain confidence in a new approach to records management.
E‐Records Inventory Challenges
4 These knowledge workers are your best resource and can be your greatest ally or greatest enemy when it comes to gathering accurate inventory data, developing a workable file plan, and making the records disclosure, retention, and disposition process function efficiently. Electronic records present challenges beyond those of paper or microfilmed records, due to their (electronic) nature: (1) You cannot see or touch them without searching online, as opposed to simply browsing through a filing cabinet or flipping through a roll of microfilm; (2) they do not reside in a central file room, but rather they may be distributed on servers, shared network drives, or on storage connected to mainframe or minicomputers; (3) they have metadata attached to them that can differentiate records that look very similar; and (4) additional “shadow” copies of the e‐records may exist and it is difficult to determine the true or original copy.7.
Records Inventory Purposes
Provide the basis for a written records management plan by establishing priorities and levels of action to ensure continuous improvement of records management practices.”
Records Inventorying Steps
Learn where the agency’s [or business’] fi les are located , both phys- ically and organizationally
The scope of the inventory must be appropriate for the business goals and objectives it is targeting. When was the system created and what is the date range of the information in the system.
UK Approach to the Records Inventorying Process
- Creating a Project Schedule and Plan
- Tailoring the Records Inventory Survey
- Inventory Form Fulfillment
- Records Inventory Tabulation and Documentation
- Ongoing Inventorying Program Requirements
Participants should be clear about the deadline and how to contact the data inventory team leader or lead consultant with any questions or problems. The data inventory team can create a table or database to record and compile responses.
Appraising the Value of Records
Administrative value or the usefulness of the records to carry out the present and future work of [an enterprise or] an agency and to document the development and operation of that agency over time. Fiscal value or usefulness of the records for the administration of [a business or] an agency's current financial obligations and for documenting the development and operation of that agency over time.
Ensuring Adoption and Compliance of RM Policy
According to the study, "The High Cost of Not Finding Information," an IDC report, "knowledge workers spend at least 15 to 25 percent of their workday searching for information. According to the Montague Institute, "The way your company organizes information (ie, its taxonomy) is critical to its future.
Importance of Navigation and Classifi cation
Usability is measured in part by how easily content can be found,” says the Montague Institute.
When Is a New Taxonomy Needed?
And if your organization has experienced delays, fines, or unnecessary costs in producing documentation to meet compliance requests or legal requirements, your organization needs to work on a new taxonomy.
Taxonomies Improve Search Results
Text mining can be performed on documents on an ongoing basis to learn about new potential taxonomy terms. And with more advanced tools like neural computing and artificial intelligence (AI), concepts, not just keywords, can be discovered and used to improve search quality for users.
Records Grouping Rationale
This rule can be applied to many situations to determine if a new category is needed.18. For example, documents used in financial processes can be sensitive and access should be restricted to only those users who have the role in the company and need to know.
Business Classification Scheme, File Plans, and Taxonomy
For example, the word "article" may refer to a newspaper article, an item or object, or a portion of a legal document. These people can be called the "splitters". Those who group things together are "clumpers". But there may be clear rules for when to lump versus split.
Classification and Taxonomy
BCS is required by ISO 15489, an international standard for records management, and together with the folders and records it contains, comprises what in the paper environment was simply called a "file plan". BCS is therefore a complete presentation of the organization's operations.
Metadata and Taxonomy
The resulting "expense report" is classified in the Finance/Accounting/Travel Expense node of the taxonomy. For ERM systems that do not provide the functionality of a multifaceted taxonomy, metadata is used to provide the connection between the nodes in the taxonomy (see Figure 6.2).
Prebuilt versus Custom Taxonomies
The File Plan will provide the data needed to link the taxonomy to the document via legacy metadata. 26 Machine-generated taxonomies look like they were created by machines – which means they're not very usable by humans.
Controlled Vocabularies and Hierarchical Taxonomies
Trying to adapt a pre-built taxonomy can end up taking longer than building one from scratch, if it's not good at all, so best practices dictate that organizations use pre-built taxonomies where practical and custom taxonomies where necessary. And even when two organizations are doing the exact same thing in the exact same industry, there will be differences in their culture, process, and content that will require taxonomy adaptation and adjustment.
Thesaurus Use in Taxonomies
Often, synonyms should be used in controlled dictionaries so that similar terms to describe the same series of records are included so that search results are more complete and accurate.
Taxonomy Types
Since there are no topics titled "eyeglasses," the person consults the Yellow Pages index, finds the term eyeglasses, and it provides a list of preferred terms or "see also" that refers the person to "Optical—Retail" for a list of glasses businesses (see Figure 6.5. The lowest level in the hierarchy consists of the records created as a result of the activity (a.k.a. the transactions.
Which Taxonomy Type Should You Use?
Gain an understanding of your organization and how the business units function and interact. Business Unit Known to users (mimicking most existing paper filing systems) organizational changes require maintenance of the taxonomy.
Taxonomy Project Planning
Leveraging Subject Matter Experts
Explain their role in the project and give them an expectation of the time needed to participate. They lose sight of the fact that the purpose of the taxonomy is to support particular functionality, not to be theoretically complete.
Gather Existing Information Sources
Hold educational sessions to explain what it is and how the organization plans to use it. A challenge in leveraging SMEs is that they sometimes lose sight of the purpose of the taxonomy and the systems that support their taxonomy.
Document Inventory
Business Process Analysis
For example, if the department is Human Resources, the department's functional areas might include: Applicant Processing, Classification, Training, and Personnel File Management. These second interviews are likely to last between one and two hours each, depending on the complexity of the process.
Construct the Taxonomy
One goal of process analysis is to develop taxonomy facets that can be used to surface information for particular steps in the process. Reference is made to the travel application form and travel expense report in the process chart titled “Travel Expense Process” in Figure 6.12.
What to Do with Items That Do Not Neatly Fit
Therefore, we have added a category (activity) under creditors for which these documents must be classified as shown in Figure 6.13. Complete travel request form Receive travel request Approve travel request Data loads approved trips into the accounting system.
Taxonomy Testing: A Necessary Step
Uncategorized otherwise allows the user to consider the fact that there are no categories for this content today, but may not be the case in the future. Then bring in a sample of users and ask them to put the notes or cards into the appropriate category.
Taxonomy Maintenance
Software is available to perform this card sorting in a more high-tech manner and more sophisticated software to aid in development and testing efforts and to assist in updating and maintaining the taxonomy. For values at the highest level in the hierarchy, the relationship between parents and children (functions and activities) is always “a type.
Taxonomy Management Tools for Continued Maintenance
Document type values should not reflect the underlying technology used to capture the content, and should not directly reflect the format of the content.
Social Tagging and Folksonomies
Delphi Group, “Taxonomy and Content Classification: Market Milestone Report,” 2002, www.delphi-group.com/whitepapers/pdf/WP_2002_TAXONOMY.PDF (geraadpleegd op 25 april 2012). Rebecca Allen, "Subject Matter Experts and Taxonomy Development", 19 september 2008, www.earley.com/blog/subject-matter-experts-and-taxonomy-development.
What Is a Records Retention Schedule?
Benefi ts of a Retention Schedule
Because a coordinated IG program standardizes and enforces uniformity and control, the entire organization benefits in terms of productivity, reduced risk, and improved compliance and e-discovery processes. This means that the IG's effort is visible and that adequate budgetary resources in terms of money and staff time are provided to achieve the goals.
General Principles of Retention Scheduling
These overarching goals and benefits must be championed in word and deed by senior management. Senior management should be able to easily review retention schedules, policy documentation, and audit information to ensure users are following the retention schedule.
Developing a Records Retention Schedule
Office responsible for holding the document (usually the office of origin by default). Determine the disposition results for the documents when their lifecycle is complete, including destruction, archiving, or transfer.
What Records Do You Have to Schedule?
Define how to calculate the disposition date and the start date to use for the calculation.
Inventory and Classification
A storage plan developed in this way will have a shorter service life than one based on an information map. After a data inventory or survey is completed, building a data storage plan begins with grouping or classifying the data.
Rationale for Records Groupings
However, the type of document often refers to the format of the record (e.g. presentation, minutes of a meeting).
Records Series Identifi cation and Classifi cation
Retention plans require record series to be defined by business function and activity, not by record format or display type. Records such as those on the development of relevant laws and statutes, policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), education and training have "long-term reference value" and should be retained until they are no longer relevant or are superseded by more current and relevant records.
Retention of E‐Mail Records
The email documents or provides support for a business activity related to internal corporate governance policies or compliance with externally imposed regulations. The e-mail document documents other business activities that may be subject to litigation in the future, whether they end up in litigation or not (that is, most business disputes are actually resolved without litigation, provided evidence of the position of your organization can be shown). .
How Long Should You Keep Old E‐Mail?
For example, your supplier may dispute the discount you're taking that was offered in an email message, and once you've forwarded the email thread to them, they accept. Although the importance of email in civil litigation cannot be underestimated (it is the leading piece of evidence sought in civil litigation today), a third of IT managers state that they would be unable to locate and retrieve emails that are more than a year old, according to Osterman Research.
Destruction Retention of E‐mail
Highly regulated industries including energy, technology, communications and real estate favor archiving for a year or more, according to Fulbright and Jaworski's research. The most common retention period for email has traditionally been five to seven years; however, some organizations take a hard line and say that emails will only be kept for 90 days or six months unless declared as a record, classified and identified with a classification/retention category and tagged. or moved to a repository where the integrity of the record is protected (ie, the record cannot be changed and an audit trail of the record's usage history is maintained).
Records Appraisal: Value Assessment and Prioritization
Inactive records that have historical value or are essential to the preservation of corporate memory should be kept the longest. Although not necessary for current operations, they still have some value to the organization and should be preserved.
Legal Requirements and Compliance Research
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) annual edition is the codification of the general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the departments and agencies of the federal government. There is an updated version that is not yet part of the official CFR, but is updated daily, the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR).
Event‐Based Retention Scheduling for Disposition of E‐Records
Until the ACFR grants it official status, the e‐CFR editorial compilation does not provide legal notice to the public or judicial notice to the courts. This causes many organizations to simply "retain" and keep the records definitively, or until disk storage is full, which means keeping those records for an incorrect and legally indefensible amount of time, which is too long or possibly too long. short, but always inconsistent.
Prerequisites for Event‐Based Disposition
Automated capture of agreed‐on trigger events must be performed and sent to the ERM. It is easy to know when an employee termination date is
In other cases, the organization simply does not have the electronic records management (ERM) functionality it needs to manage event-based triggers. The only prudent and defensible approach is to implement appropriate IG policies to manage and control the implementation of event-based provisions.
Final Disposition and Closure Criteria
In order for the hold to properly start and run to final disposition, this tracking feature must be an inherent feature of the software. If destruction is the final disposition, the system must be able to perform a deletion of the record (as long as there is no preservation or legal holding) without a trace to allow its reconstruction, and this process must be verifiable.
Retaining Transitory Records
There may be some important, historical or other critical records that, in the best interest of the organization, must be retained permanently. If certain electronic records are to be retained indefinitely or permanently, long-term digital preservation (LODP) policies and techniques must be used (see Chapter 17, Long-term digital preservation, for more details).40.
Implementation of the Retention Schedule and Disposal of Records
If some electronic records are to be retained indefinitely or permanently, Long-Term Digital Preservation (LTDP) policies and techniques should be used (see Chapter 17, Long-Term Digital Preservation for more details).40. do so by pressing the simple "delete" key. A procedure must be in place to verify the complete destruction of all copies of the record.
Ongoing Maintenance of the Retention Schedule
Therefore, ERM systems typically require that these approvals be issued by someone higher than the system administrator. ERM systems can be configured to maintain an audit trail and prove that destruction has occurred.
Audit to Manage Compliance with the Retention Schedule
Government of Alberta, “Developing Retention and Disposition Schedules,” July 2004, www.rimp.gov.ab.ca/publications/pdf/SchedulingGuide.pdf. National Archives, “Disposition of Federal Records: A Records Management Handbook,” 2000, www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/publications/disposition-of-federal-records/chapter-2.html (accessed July 30, 2012).
Defi ning Vital Records
Vital records include records that maintain and protect the rights of stakeholders 2 and are necessary to continue or restart operations in the event of a disaster or other business interruption. In any case, the preservation and retrieval (or re-generation) of vital records must be the most important factor.
Types of Vital Records
Not all records are actually vital; typically, an organization's vital records are about 1 to 7 percent (estimates vary) of all records, for most organizations. Vital records are not determined by their medium or status (eg, active or inactive; in use, idle, or in transit).
Impact of Losing Vital Records
Aldo, official copies of vital records should be tested for pensions as required. Have an emergency backup access plan – and practice it.
Creating, Implementing, and Maintaining a Vital Records Program
S. National Archives Approach to Identify Vital Records
A review of the available literature suggests that 1 to 7 percent of an agency's records may be vital records. The frequency with which the records must be circled (updated).8 Critical Identifiers for Vital Records.
Implementing Protective Procedures
This can be as basic as disk mirroring (replicating data to two or more disks simultaneously) or using RAID (redundant array of independent disks), which writes all data across an array of disks, with built-in backup and recovery capabilities. In the event of a business interruption, the IT and electronic vital records operations can be switched over automatically, providing uninterrupted service.
Cloud Computing Offers a New Option
This can be achieved through a remote unit of the same organization, a sister organization, or a third-party data center. The site can be shared between multiple business units, or even organizations, to spread the cost.
Auditing the Vital Records Program
Additional Resources
Do we improve the overall business process and see how that affects e‐records or do we focus on the data and see how the business process improves. The answer depends on your specific business goals, but in most cases, efforts to simplify and improve a business process should be addressed before changing the way data is managed or before implementing an ERM system.
Improving Processes, Improving Quality
In the aftermath of World War II, the word quality became the focal point for a number of organizations and would help shape process improvement efforts for decades. Total Quality Management" has often been replaced with quality assurance or quality management in connection with process improvement.
Six Sigma
After the first year of GE's breakeven Six Sigma effort, payback accelerated. According to one of the Six Sigma experts at Motorola, Motorola did not invent these techniques.
Learning from the Failures of the Past
Typical Components When Improving a Business Process
Any business process improvement project should consider pre-understanding and addressing 'change' before conducting discussions, interviews, announcements or other discovery work. Changing a business process requires active involvement, support and vision from stakeholders, from the early stages of a project through to completion and beyond.
Business Process and E‐Records Link
Documenting Business Processes
Why are you doing it?" (Answer: "Because we've always done it that way!") Although there are different approaches to documenting existing business processes, two of the most commonly used techniques include developing a process narrative and creating a flowchart of the targeted process, as described later in this chapter.
First Steps in Documenting a Process: Information Gathering
Creating a Process Narrative
The process narrative allows additional descriptors to be included in the text that might not otherwise be included. Creating a process narrative helps articulate the steps needed to execute the process and can facilitate the development of a flowchart that describes the process.
Flowcharting
Descriptions of work environments (dim lighting, cramped workplaces, lack of storage space, noise levels, etc.) and the quality of tools used (PCs with older operating systems and applications, manual forms, office equipment, etc.) and available spaces (work and document filing areas) are best communicated using a process narrative.
Process Analysis
Workfl ow
Additional follow-up conversations and "what if" discussions with SMEs and senior management may further uncover opportunities to streamline processes. Modeling can also be used to further refine and streamline processes (ie test a proposed process) without actually implementing the changes or affecting the people involved and the work in the process.
E‐Records Are Very Personal to People
Typically, workflow systems can be implemented without any programming skills, using graphical interfaces and drag-and-drop functions that can be built on basic templates often included in common business process software such as accounts payable, expense reports. processing, new hire processing and more. Changing a process, such as how and where these individual creations are stored, how they are managed and accessed, can be personal.
Change Management
Even though these files are owned by the organization, personal pride clouds the author's perception (as well as the policies set by the organization) - right or wrong. Often the perceived resistance is not due to the age of the employee, but has more to do with the fact that he feels comfortable with a current process.
Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
Often, various reasons can arise as to why it is important to stay with the current mobile platform, regardless of whether it is valid or not. Perhaps the real reason for the resistance has nothing to do with the business app, but more to do with the new mobile platform being incompatible with their personal music or video library.
Find the Source; Avoid the Cycle
Most managers would be amazed at how often similar cycles—from paper to electronic to paper and then back to electronic format—occur. Balancing the efforts required to achieve the desired result with the perceived benefits to the organization and each functional group must occur.
Avoid Scope-creep: Defining “The Project” and Its Scope
Somewhere along the process, a functional group or manager, say VP. of Human Resources, gets frustrated with the volume of paper and wants to transfer data to electronic records. If management sends an initial e-mail announcing a project (thus showing support for the project), only to never hear back—except to criticize the project's results—is not an example of top management support.
Changing Processes Gets Personal
Earlier in this chapter we discussed the importance of consistent and clear communication throughout a project. Trial stories can get tedious and depend on the writing skills of the interviewer.
Workfl ow Software
3 Rarely is pure workflow used throughout the company unless it is very small. There are different types of workflow software: some control and coordinate human tasks, while others direct and manage documents, scanned images, and records (unstructured and semi-structured content).
Business Process Management Suites
The obvious candidate is the process - the way you do things - the backbone of your organization's operations. It's at the process level where systems and people collide—that's where "the rubber meets the road," so to speak (see Figure 10-1).
