Monday 17 September 2012

What does RIM offer?



I took a call from a friend of mine this morning who is still struggling with selling records management internally.  Someone asked him in a workshop the other day
" ok, so thats a nice presentation but seriously, Records Management – why should I care?"

Now most organisations will immediately scream compliance of course!  But this really isn’t the answer.  As organisations; either public or private sector we have to comply with lots of legislation and regulations; health & safety, financial, employment relations related etc. and we do this not because we have to, but because it makes good business sense.

Taking care of our people, our finances, our buildings, is a core part of being an effective and sustainable business, and so is the need to take care of the one thing that permeates all of our activities; our information and records.  The days of making business decisions on “gut feel” are largely over, and while instincts play a part in our processes, we now look to the myriad of information sources we have to help us make the right, most effective decision for our business.  Helping us maximise future opportunities and stopping us from repeating the mistakes of the past.

I can hear many of you saying, yes but that’s information it’s not records.  Really…is it?  Is there a difference?


If you ignore the argument between information and records for a moment, why are we still finding it difficult to answer this question?  What are the benefits of records (and information) management and how do you sell that to your organisations.

I'll start you off:

 - Risk Management and Mitigation
 - Business efficiency
 - Increased organisational knowledge
 - Increased availability of information
 - Reduced cost and time spent in rework
 - Reduced risk of knowledge loss
 - Cost reduction
 - Compliance


  Over to you guys, and lets have some fun with this.