Wow, this email really touched me and I had to sit back and think about
this one.  It is a tough situation to be in.  

Some records managers are in a situation where the IT department owns
the hardware, but feels very little sense of ownership in the
information asset that is being managed.  Others are in a situation
where IT feels they own everything and that records managers should be
seen and not heard (they should just feed paper through scanners and
label boxes).

Regardless of the situation, you have two conflicting sets of priorities
and both departments are probably short-handed, overwhelmed, and both of
you need to get on with your daily tasks.  Both parties are likely
feeling unappreciated, overworked, misunderstood, and frustrated.  You
are the business owner of the information systems and they are your
information technology business partners.  You want to solve a problem
here, not win a point at the cost of political suicide.  The goal here
should be to work towards a mutually respectful working relationship if
at all possible and only bring in legal, internal audit, risk
management, or other players as a last option.  IT can be your best
friend or your worst enemy (and key to your future success and
viability), so consider a new approach if your current business
relationship strategy isn't working.

First, understand that your organization does not exist merely to manage
organization records.  Therefore, any records management system is not
going to be the number one priority in IT.  I am not saying that it is
not important, but anything that directly supports the bottom line
mission is going to get first priority.  In retail, the point-of-sale
cash register software and inventory systems are going to take
precedence over my Records Center management software.  I can grind my
teeth and complain to someone high up or graciously embrace that fact
and then offer to assist in any way possible or be so that they can get
back to me faster or offer to be more flexible in terms of availability
and support so that I can do some of the work myself and use minimal
resources.

First, sit down with your IT department and tell them that you want to
recognize that what they do is important and that, ultimately, you are
both striving towards the same goal from different points of view and
with different priorities.  But, you recognize that both of you are
business partners in the mission of managing information assets and
those are very strategic to the company because every business process
generally creates information to be handled in some format.  Ask them
how they prioritize support and maintenance work and then let them talk
while you do nothing but LISTEN.  Ask them about their staffing levels
and how they manage projects.  Ask them how you can review their
projects and help contribute to their effort in identifying retention
guidelines, regulatory requirements, business process issues,
information usage patterns, typical user periods, technology issues,
media storage issues, etc.  You are an enterprise-wide business partner,
so use your connections to become a liaison between IT and your customer
departments.  Become involved in their project management meetings if at
all possible.  Join their forums and brown bags.  Be their support and
you may find, as in my own case, that you become a valued partner and
suddenly your role has changed.  Study their language and learn their
concerns.  I've even obtained some of their certifications.  You will
benefit from the exchange of knowledge and carve out a new role in your
organization.  And, you will find that empathy and support go much
further than recrimination and criticism.  A concerned, nurturing,
intelligent approach is likely to be more successful than gathering a
"posse" to make your point.  You may have to do a lot of homework to
wrap your strategic goals around those of IT, but the effort is worth it
and you will grow as a professional.

Of course, not every scenario has a happy ending.  In that case, advise
your Internal Audit or Legal department that you have a control failure
that is of utmost concern to you and request them to do an audit.
Better if the bad news comes from someone else.  If there are serious
issues at stake, you may want to involve Loss Prevention, Corporate
Compliance, IT Governance, or Risk Management, but understand that
dragging in other people with "oversight" responsibilities is not going
to help you win friends and influence people.  In fact, that approach
can eventually cost you your job if you are not a "team" player.  

Real life is nothing like the perfect world published in text books and
white papers.  It is about hammering out working relationships and
learning to give and take.  You either "get it" or you don't...and
suffer the consequences.  You either add value to the bottom line and
have IT lined up to be part of your success or you simply wait for
things to happen to you.  Frankly, I'd much rather have a hand in my own
destiny that have it handed to me signed and sealed.

Been there, done that.  Call me if you want to talk.

Angie Fares
817.415.4925

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