I was presented with a question the other day over brandy and cigars
(actually pizza and diet Coke) that I said I would seek advice from the
smartest Records Managers in the world ... the listserv members. 

The question was "What would the perfect organization for a company with
no records management program at all look like? 

Now before every one yells get a rope because "IT All DEPENDS on
____________!"  Let me lay out the case study

Company X, has some 20,000 employees in 12 locations or sites across the
country. 

*	All sites are using different vendors for storing records
off-site. 

*	IT is IT, friendly bunch of bits and byte crunchers but not much
interest in this subject, after all their sole purpose is to keep
everything running and adding servers is their life.  

*	No formal records management program exists in this
organization, even the words records management do not mean much to
most. 

*	Everyone through out the organization for the most part is left
to his or her own devices to decide what to do and how to do it
regarding records created, received, and or maintained. 

*	No records retention schedule exist 

*	No records management policy other then a nebulas statement in
some obscure employee handbook about keep what needs keeping and get rid
of everything else (paraphrased). 

It is agreed that their needs to be a single dedicated central records
manager to kick the program off, plus get and keep things rolling. The
questions are:
*	What would a reasonable expectation be from this one person in
say one or two years to get this company where it needs to be where as
the word compliance would mean something.  
*	If this person is expected to be responsible for the managerial
and operational tasks what could be expected from them regarding the
various sites across the country?

Therefore the program questions are: 

How would you staff this records management program? By the way, a cast
of thousands is the wrong answer.  

If your recommendation is form a centrally managed records management
team, what staff roles would you recommend and what would their job
duties be? 

How would you manage and staff the records management programs at the
sites? 

I am looking forward to your responses. 




 





        

Richard E. Smith, CRM 
Director, Records Management 
Express Scripts, Inc.  
(314) 702-7151   
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