Reducing Risk of Revenue Loss (and More) with Records Management

When proper attention isn’t given to records and information management (RIM), the entire organization is at risk of revenue loss, serious financial sanctions, business process inefficiencies, and improper destruction of important records.

An effective records and information management program provides storage of information that is safe from environmental (or building) disasters, legal compliance, is defensible and is an enormous asset to any organization. It provides a higher level of protection from sanctions by lowering relevant risks and increasing efficiencies, which invariably reduce operating costs.

Data Breaches: How do They Happen?

All businesses are vulnerable to data breaches. Credit card information, client lists, and confidential company information are a few examples of the kinds of data that can wreak havoc when in the wrong hands.

Since 2008, the number of data breaches that involve personally identifiable information (P.I.I), has continued to drop. With over 800 incidents reported in 2008, the number dropped in 2010 to about 350 (according to DataLoss db). This shows us that awareness and protection is working, but is it working fast enough; and is our sensitive data being protected as well as it could be? These are great questions that are not easily answered.

The information below provides insight into the causes of data breaches, and can inform decisions on how to better protect company information.

The Paperless Office – The Paperless Business World

Why Not?

 For over twenty years, probably more, there has been an ongoing discussion about the paperless office, or business world; and while we appear to be making some headway, there are those who maintain that we are losing the battle. One would think that with the proliferation of technology and the hand-held device that essentially presents any and all types of electronic documents that we need and use in a paper format, why in the world do we continue our use of paper? Great question, isn’t it, and oh so difficult to effectively answer? Below are some thoughts as to why we are so slow to sever our paper dependency.

The Perfect Partnership: RIM (Records & Information Management) and BCP (Business Continuity Planning)

Not many elements of business have the eroding impact as does having to restart a process, a division, a location, or an entire company from the beginning; and absolutely nothing will hinder that process like not having the necessary information (records) where and when they are needed.

The statistics are staggering. Companies suffer enormous loss when operations are interrupted for any reason. Even if the interruption is scheduled, organizations work hard to minimize the negative impact of the down-time.

So, the question looms large: why don’t all companies allocate proper resources to developing adequate plans for business continuity that are fundamentally reliant on its records and information management program? 

GARP – Are We There Yet?

Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles (the GARP Maturity Model for Information Governance), published by ARMA International, has quickly become one of the more powerful guidelines for information governance in the contemporary business environment.  This publication is intended to “assist an organization in conducting a preliminary evaluation of its recordkeeping programs and practices.” This maturity model “will be most useful for leaders who wish to achieve the maximum benefit from their information governance practices.”

There are eight GARP principles: 1) Accountability, 2) Transparency, 3) Integrity, 4) Protection, 5) Compliance, 6) Availability, 7) Retention and 8) Disposition.  Each principle can then be associated with specific characteristics. These characteristics are grouped into five levels: 1) Sub-standard, 2) In Development, 3) Essential, 4) Proactive and 5) Transformational.

Finding a RIM Professional for Your Organization

Your organization has determined that it needs someone, a point of contact, a person most responsible for overseeing what it perceives as its records management operation, or program. It is likely that the organization does not yet have a formal records management operation or program; but it now believes a real need exists to identify, interview, select and hire the person most appropriate to manage what operations and processes do exist. And, in the event that a records management program truly does not exist, to then develop and implement such a program.

Backup Strategies and Philosophies – to Backup or not to Backup, this is the Question

This is our first blog commentary on backup strategies and philosophies so for this one we’ll keep it short by simply introducing some of the more prevalent thoughts. Backups are viewed as simple copies of data. There are various reasons for making data copies and most companies would probably agree that backing up data is a great idea. The unfortunate truth is that many companies continue to devote too little resource to this issue.

Data loss statistics can be frightening and leaves one to wonder why organizations are so slow to jump on the let’s make sure our backup process is solid bandwagon. This initial commentary asks this very question. Why avoid, overlook, or otherwise fail to insure the existence and quality of organizational data?