6 Ways Document Management and Records Management Differ

With the growing importance of compliance and eDiscovery issues for many companies, it might be time to consider deploying a records management system. Chances are that your company already uses some kind of document management system. The question is, will your document management system also support records management?

At the core of this question is what is the differences between document management and records management. Let's examine six differences.

1. Documents v Records
What are documents?

Documents consist of information or data that can be structured or unstructured and accessed by people in an organization.
What are records?

Records provide evidence of the activities of a given organization’s functioning and policies. Records often have strict compliance requirements regarding their retention, access and destruction, and generally have to be kept unchanged. There are often very stiff penalties for not doing so.

By some estimates, and depending on the company, 90% or more of all documents are records (meaning a portion of them are not!). Conversely, all records are documents.

2. DMS v RMS
Document Management Software (DMS)

Document management software was developed to make it easier for users with a shared purpose, usually within an enterprise, to access and manage documents. Another important ability is that it also allows them collaborate on those documents.

Common access to the documents is enabled by existence of a library and/or a repository within the system.
Records Management Software (RMS)

RMS software is more concerned with identifying, storing, maintaining and managing data that is used to describe events in an organization’s work cycle that are related to statutory, regulatory, fiscal or operational activities within the organization.

Unlike document management systems, record management repositories are generally focused on keeping only what is necessary for a specified length of time.

3. Storage

One of the critical differences between document and records management relates to the reason and approach each takes to storing documents.
Document Management And Storage

The principal reason for storing the documents in a document management system is so users who need to access the information stored in those documents can do so quickly and easily.

In general, these generalized electronic document repositories provide for the checking-in and out of documents that can be revised and unlocked for future revision, with version tracking and histories.
Records Management And Storage

Records management requires that records be kept in their original format in case they are needed for compliance or legal reasons.

Good records management needs to place records in their proper context so that generally they are kept in series, or in indexes determined not by internal, enterprise-dictated rules, but by external rules.

In fact, record keeping has become such an issue that in addition to on-site records storage, many organizations operate an off-site records center too.

4. Automated processes

While all companies in the regulatory or compliance zone have to spend a lot of time ensuring that their records and document management do exactly what they’re supposed to do, many of the processes involved are now automated.
Document Management

Automated processes are one of the elements that make document management attractive to companies whether that means the mass capture of documents and placement of that information in the repository, or its placement in a records management system.

In fact, automated process are a core function of these systems controlling the document’s life cycle, security access controls and other key features like version control and short-term storage.

These processes automate workflows so that the right actions are carried out on the right documents by the right people at the right time.
Records Management

Records management uses automated processes to manage records in a consistent manner no matter what format those records happen to be in.

Electronic record keeping systems must be able to preserve not only the content of those records, but also the context and structure they came from and often for long period of times. The final records should be auditable in their original form long after they have been put in the records repository.

5. Security

There is no getting away from the security and integrity of documents in either system. The difference between the two, though, is that with document management software security is desirable, with records management essential.
Document Management

With document management, security has to be placed in the context of document accessibility for users. Authorized users have to have quick access to information with comprehensive document management security controlling access to the repository.

While all systems will have means of tracking who has been using a document, when it was checked it out and when they put it back in the repository, and any changes that were made to the document — including new versions — the security standards are not necessarily as stringent as those required for keeping records.
Records Management

At the moment, the standard to which records security and records security within records management software is judged is the US Department of Defense 5015.2 regulations.

If a system is compliant with the DoD 5015.2 standard or equivalent it sets the standard for management of records that will be eventually transferred to the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

These include government personnel records, manuals, standards, directives and documents that are scheduled for declassification or redacted items. In Europe, MoReq 2 is the standard applied across the entire EU as a standard.

6. Disposal
Document Management

The disposal of documents in a document management system occurs when the life cycle of the document has been complete and is no longer needed in the business process. While this can mean destruction it can also means turning them into records.

The decision to turn a document into a record depends on the need of the company and whether there are legal requirements to hold onto the documents.
Records Management

The destruction of records is generally regulated by law with strict procedures so that the information contained in them will not be disclosed. Records management software plays a significant role in this by implementing retention and destruction schedules that are compliant with regulations.

However, with public bodies, the records will not be physically destroyed, but converted into a format that is acceptable to U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), or National Archives of the country you reside in.
Final Thoughts

Document management software was created to make it easier to use store, manage and collaborate on electronic information. Records management software was designed to manage the life cycle of records so that organizations can easily comply with regulations and support the eDiscovery process.

It's very likely that you require both document and records management capabilities within your organization. Depending on your needs, a document management system may be able to support most of your requirements. Understanding the difference between document and records management and the software that supports each, should help you decide your next steps.

Source: - http://www.cmswire.com/cms/document-management/6-ways-document-management-and-records-management-differ-006454.php

Document management is one of the top ten technology priorities for CIOs in 2010 says Gartner

Document management and data storage is one of the top ten technology strategies for CIOs in 2010, says analyst Gartner.

A Gartner survey of 1,600 CIOs around the world reveals the top ten business and technology strategies for the CIO this year, with cloud computing and virtualisation heading the technology priorities.

The analyst says IT budgets will essentially be flat in 2010, increasing by a weighted global average of 1.3%, when compared with 2009 levels when IT budgets declined 8.1%. Gartner said this year CIOs are basically working with the same level of resources as they were in 2005.

“Last year was the most challenging year for CIOs in the corporate and public sectors as they faced multiple budget cuts, delayed spending and increased demand for services with reduced resources,” said Gartner analyst Mark McDonald. “This is set to change in 2010, as the economy turns from recession to recovery and enterprises transition their strategies from cost-cutting efficiency to value-creating productivity.”

McDonald said that while technologies are transitioning from “heavy” owner-operated solutions to “lighter-weight” services (like cloud computing), CIOs are, in turn, transitioning IT beyond merely managing resources to taking responsibility for managing results.

“Transition gives the enterprise and IT the opportunity to reposition themselves and exploit the tough corrective actions taken during the recession,” he said.
Gartner's Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2010

Top 10 Business Priorities Ranking

1. Business process improvement
2. Reducing enterprise costs
3. Increasing the use of information/analytics
4. Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness
5. Attracting and retaining new customers
6. Managing change initiatives
7. Creating new products or services (innovation)
8. Targeting customers and markets more effectively
9. Consolidating business operations
10. Expanding current customer relationships

Top 10 Technology Priorities Ranking

1. Virtualisation
2. Cloud computing
3. Web 2.0
4. Networking, voice and data communications
5. Business Intelligence
6. Mobile technologies
7. Data/document management and storage
8. Service-oriented applications and architecture
9. Security technologies
10. IT Management


Source: - http://www.documentmanagementnews.com/the-news/general-news/41-general-news/330-document-management-is-one-of-the-top-ten-technology-priorities-for-cios-in-2010-says-gartner.html

Businesses wasting time looking for documents?

You probably can't read too much into a survey of just 60 "information governance professionals", if only because a majority of Australian businesses are unlikely to employ that kind of specialist.

After all, the most recent figures provided by the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research state that 96 percent of all Australian businesses are small businesses, ie those with fewer than 20 employees.

So a study where only one-third of respondents work in organisations with fewer than 200 employees is hardly representative.

It seems plausible that very small businesses are likely to to a better job of document management, if only because just one or two people are likely to be responsible for storing and using the business documents and therefore can keep track of them relatively easily.

As more people get involved, there are more opportunities for documents to go astray.

Despite my implied criticism, that's actually consistent with the results of a recent survey of information governance professionals conducted for EMC Australia.

The headline finding was that Australian businesses spend more than 20 hours per week on average looking for difficult-to-find records, and that mid-sized organisations spend almost twice this amount of time.

Presumably small businesses probably don't have so much of a problem in the first place as they have fewer documents to manage and fewer people to misplace them, while larger businesses can afford to employ specialist staff and the systems needed to keep things under control.

But Hydrasight, the company that analysed the results [corrected 19/01/10] for EMC, thinks respondents are likely to be underestimating the effort needed to locate difficult-to-find or misplaced records inside their own organisations because they have a narrow view of business records and are confident of their own classification and retrieval capabilities.

Furthermore, John Brand, Research Director at Hydrasight, said "organisations may also be underestimating the potential impact that remote and mobile computing may be having on their information governance policies and practices."

Even though more than 50% of documents are created or saved electronically by the organisations surveyed, only 10% of respondents were very confident that documents related to commitments and obligations made by themselves and their staff were recorded, complete and retrievable.

Source: - http://www.itwire.com/content/view/30548/1151/