Chris Marchiafava <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I am new to records management and must make a software purchase almost
immediately. I am looking at three vendors for records management
software and would like to know if anyone has any advice or information
that may be useful to me in making my selection. The vendors are Zasio,
Smead and Tower.


This is the classic lose/lose situation. The last thing ANY organization should do is throw a tool at a problem and then ask it to fix itself.

You first need to analyze your existing practices, policies, processes and procedures and determine if things are being done in a manner that's adequate to meet your information asset management needs.  If not, determine what improvements are needed to establish systems that are appropriate for what you are attempting to accomplish.  If they are adequate, then determine which systems available meet those needs and allow you to match your existing policies, practices, processes and procedures to the manner in which they do things.

You also need to determine the volume of information you'll be managing (today and into the future) the user population and training needs, the geographical distribution of the user population and the ability of existing communications systems to work with a tool you select, the ability to scale the system to meet your needs (today and into the future), the level of support required (and if it exists internally, or will need to be contracted for), the cost to deploy the system (hardware and software) and the cost to maintain the system.

If you don't go through these types of analyses, whichever choice you make is like the classic "Alice in Wonderland" conversation with the Cheshire Cat:

"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire Cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."


Larry

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