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.