Records Management & Compliance: Making the Connection

Information Management Journal, May/Jun 2004 by Kahn, Randolph A

7 Program Improvement

The seventh IMC key is recognizing when the system is not working and doing something about it. When programmatic failures become known, the system may need an overhaul. In one company, for example, instead of having a company-wide method for determining how e-records should be stored and indexed, that responsibility was left to the technology owners' discretion. In the interest of saving some storage space, a technology professional decided to index tens of millions of insurance claims by claim number only. When a regulator asked for all retained claims to be searched by plan name, claimant name, and other criteria, it could not be done. The company had to spend millions to search for the requested e-records. Had a company-wide list of indexing criteria been developed and provided to all system owners, the problem could have been averted. It is bad business and a wasteful investment in technology to capture, store, and migrate company e-records but not be able to access them when needed.

We live in interesting, albeit particularly unforgiving, times, especially as they relate to records mismanagement. When records-related mishaps bring down companies and their executives alike, it is reasonable for a company to ask itself whether its program is really good enough to protect the company. There has never been a better time to take a closer look at just how good a records management program is and seriously consider applying IMC. In the end, if a program is going to be evaluated by compliance principles, it should be built on the IMC principles.

References

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Kahn, Randolph A. and Barclay T. Blair. Information

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