"ARMA and the RIM profession in general really missed the boat with electronic information management..., as a  result IT/IS got the budget dollars and the influence; and the larger salaries; that has been going on for a generation or so now.  IG is NOT a temporary, 'flavor of the month' thing like strategic information management, knowledge management, or content management; to mention just a few.  IG is the real thing; jump on and in or fade away into irrelevancy.... ; it is your prerogative.   ARMA may not have defined nor sold it very well.  Nevertheless.., it is real and it is here.

ARMA hit it right this time by jumping on and adopting IG early; the point of realization of the profession that could not be denied."

Colleagues:

When I first started in RIM about 20 years ago, it was all about the paper.  I managed a Central Records Department for an insurance company and we had over 1 million files in open shelves, boxes in off site storage and more boxes in our own onsite warehouse.  We also ran our own microfiliming operation.  Microfilming!  Those were great times.  As time moved on and so did I to other opportunities, paper has become less and less important (although it is still out there) and the focus has gradually shifted to electronic records management or whatever you want to call it, ECM, CM, KM, etc.  Like all of the other RIM professionals out there I didn't stick my head in the sand and hoped it would go away.  As a professional, I have learned to adapt and I have kept up with new trends.  I began to tackle the explosion of electronic information and now manage records, both paper and electronic, accordingly.  Even more than that, I manage data and information wherever it may try to hide.

We have seen the principles of IG for a long time already.  I have worked for many years developing relationships and understanding the business and getting all of the key players to sit at the same table.  I work closely with Legal, Finance, IA, Data Security/Privacy, Data Analytics, Taxonomy & Systems, digital this and that, electronic this and that, Broadcasting, etc.  You can slap some lipstick on a pig and try to call it something else but it's still a pig.  And the pig I love is Records and Information Management, not IG.  None of us are fading away into irrelevancy.  We are only tackling the same issues we have seen for years.  IG is nothing new.  To me, IG is a part of RIM and not the other way around because it is the RIM professional who has been there all along, who already has the skills and knowledge, and who is sitting at the head of the table.  It is the RIM professional who will lead the industry and profession for decades to come.  And ARMA has missed the boat on that by trying to "sell" IG to the detriment of their constituency, the thousands and thousands of RIM professionals.

Those are my thoughts, again, and respectfully.  And I am no April Fool.

Thanks, Steve

Stephen A. Smith, MLIS, CRM, CEDS, CIP, CDIA+
Manager, Corporate Records
QVC, Inc.  Global Records Management
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