SUSTAINABLE RECORDS MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE
Conni Christensen, founding partner and director of Synercon Management
Consulting, and Lori Ashley, senior consultant with Cohasset Associates, Inc., were
the featured speakers at the ARMA Madison Chapter Spring Seminar held on April
16, 2008, at The Fluno Center on the UW-Madison campus. Conni and Lori gave an
overview of trends and developments in records management (RM) based on their
experiences as consultants. Because they work with a variety of clients, their
experience covers a broad range of RM systems or lack thereof.
They explored the architectural elements of an RM system. Through their guidance
and examples, attendees learned about retention schedules, policies and procedures,
classification schemes, and workflows.
Conni lives in Australia, which has been a leader in developing standards for RM.
DIRKS (Developing and Implementing Recordkeeping System) is the methodology
introduced in the International Standard for Records and Information Management
International Standards Organization (ISO) 15489. This standard evolved from
AS4390 (1996), the Australian standard for RM. This became a mandated
methodology for Australian government agencies. This put all agencies on the same
page, which is an important building block for RM.
By developing RM policies, an organization is setting the boundaries by which the
organization does business. These policies should never have to change excessively
and should be designed to embrace all new systems and technologies. They need to
be communicated, enforceable, and enforced. Publishing them to the company Web
site does not make a policy enforceable. There need to be consequences if a policy is
not followed.
So what should be included in the RM policy? Policies should define terms and
address the scope of the records. Who owns the record? Is it the company or the
individual? Has the authority for the records been assigned? The systems that hold
the records need to be determined. What controls are associated with the
recordkeeping? Is there a regulatory agency that has to be consulted? How will the
record be created, captured, and registered, classified, accessed, tracked, stored and
preserved, and disposed? These questions have to be answered when creating an RM
policy.
DIRKS is the DNA of information management systems. A major source for
recordkeeping requirements is the unique industry the record belongs to and may
determine whether the record is retained or disposed. Time-based information or
function-based information may be the trigger. The organization needs to design an
appropriate model that will reflect its needs.