Tim,
It seems to me that it is a Corporate Taxonomy you are looking for (or what
the ISO 15489 standard calls a 'Business Classification Scheme' (BCS). You
are right that 'every business is different', which is why I run a workshop
in London called 'Building & Deploying a Corporate Taxonomy'
(http://www.aslib.com/training/4/06.html) to help people learn the
techniques involved in developing a Corporate Taxonomy for their specific
organization. You have already stated the functions which are common across
most businesses - Finance, HR, Marketing etc. - and in my experience, below
that level, individual businesses tend to do things their own way, so
usually, the only recourse is to do what you say - talk to staff. However,
it's usually useful also to consult corporate level documentation like
business plans, the annual Operational Plan, Mission Statements and the
like, because they give a clue as to what /functions/ the business operates
in order to pursue its business objectives (rather than its structure).
Having said that, there is something called 'Keyword AAA' published in
Australia which covers general business functions, but I understand that it
is strongly biased towards public sector organizations. Perhaps some of the
Ozzie members of this list can provide more information on that? Failing
that, a Google search should do the trick.
It is precisely because of this lack of generic sector-specific taxonomies
that I am starting to run a number of Web-based collaborative taxonomy
development projects, where 'volunteers' from a specific sector work
together to build the top levels of a taxonomy for their sector. I am
hoping thay can agree maybe 2-3 levels before they diverge according to
their individual business models, but it's early days yet.
Best regards,
Bob
>>>>>Bob Bater<<<<<
>>Principal Associate<<
>>InfoPlex Associates<<
>>>>Bristol, UK<<<<
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Tim Powell
Sent: 10 April 2005 06:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Classification systems-Business functions
Hello all,
I am not a records manager. I work in operations for a real estate company
and we have the usual business areas - accounting, HR and personnel,
development, operations , etc. and we want to setup an internal RM program -
I have been on the net for a few days and came across the ARMA website and
then this listserv.
I am looking for info. or publications on business function classification
systems for RM internally in a company. Does anyone know if there are
templates or lists of general business functions or keywords. Obviously
every business is different, but there must be some general classification
or keyword lists out there which could be amended to fit most businesses.
From searching the net it appears that one way to begin is discussions with
staff to find all the business functions relevant to us - however RM is a
specialised area and I don't want to re-invent the wheel nor do I have the
expertise to do so.
Can anyone help?
Tim
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