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Middle East | Global |
The benefits of an improved Records Management system tend to come in the future and with retention periods for some records extending to decades that future can seen very distant indeed.
Sadly this tends to see records management projects placed on the proverbial back burner especially when budget it tight.
This, however, is probably not the wisest decision. Procrastination can be costly. Often when reviewing existing records and implementing a new solution deficiencies are found in the current meta data or record structure. In the most extreme cases a data cleansing exercise is needed and, of course, the problem is growing until addressed.
Take a case management scenario for example. When implementing compliant records management it is often the case that “Rejected” and “Accepted” cases needed to have vastly different retention to meet DP Act requirements. If case status has not been maintained against the system of record because this has not be considered then rework will be required.
For an alternative scenario consider employee records. When implementing compliant records management it is most certainly the case that some records such as pension details will have a very long retention whilst other such as a disciplinary action will be much shorter. If all the records have been stored simply in employee folders when again a restructure is likely required.
The truth of the matter is that until a RM project touches on the detail of requirements versus currently practices your organisation is perhaps unlikely to uncover these deviations between current and best practice.
So it might be time to resurrect that RM project after all.
