Are you confused about what constitutes an electronic record?
Do you find your current processes and systems cumbersome to file records?
Are historical records difficult to find and retrieve?
Is retention of your emails a significant issue?
Triton Federal Solutions believes that most professionals will answer ‘yes’ to these questions. The explosion of electronic content including the recent adoption of social media as a form of business communications makes electronic records management a significant challenge. Furthermore, the risks and costs associated with litigation and regulatory on-compliance are high in today’s business environment.
Records Management Solutions
Creating effective and efficient systems for managing electronic records yields significant benefits through preservation of key information to aid in future decisionmaking along with controlling the risks of litigation and non-compliance.
Effective processes ensure that records management control is in place from the beginning of the records lifecycle rather than at the end, as was frequently the case in the past when records were on paper. Processes based on enterprise policies provide standardized methods for identifying and capturing records into the design, development, and implementation of information systems. Implementing automated business rules to limit the amount of employee intervention required in the records declaration process is the best practice.
Records management tools provide the technologies and mechanisms that support implementation of records management processes. Available tools include electronic records management systems, content management systems, taxonomies, automated workflows, content clasification tools, and many others. Records that are “born digital” (i.e., created in digital form) can now be managed in digital form throughout their lifecycles using automation tools. The promise of the digital age will not be realized as long as organizations are printing out records and filing them into hard copy record-keeping systems. The question
is no longer “What records should be maintained electronically?” The more pertinent question now is “What records should not be maintained electronically?” With virtually all information being created electronically, it makes good business sense to use tools to preserve and manage them in their native digital form.
Sound records management tools support and enable:
- Managerial decision-making by documenting business activities, and developments
- Compliance with regulatory and business requirements
- Protection of the interests of the organization
- Basic availability and retrieval of business information in support of the performance of business activities, both administrative and mission-related
- Organizational protection and support in litigation, including the better management of risks associated with the existence or lack of evidence of organizational activity
- Legal destruction of eligable records in accordance with records retention schedules
- Centralized and controlled management of records as assets and information resources
In short, records management tools enable improved access, security, protection, and preservation of records and take the burden off every staff member to be his/her own records manager.
