Several years ago, I put together a functional list for software to
automate some of our manual RIM processes (very similar to the ones you
list).  Our IT folks said "we can design you a process using MS Access.
No problem!"  It never worked correctly and the attempt caused a great
deal of animosity and frustration.  MS Access is a database program but
it is not designed to track and accommodate transactional functionality
- which is what our RIM processes require.  It really is cheaper (and
helps retain friendly working relationships with IT) to get something
off-the-shelf.  There are several simple products on the market that
have been mentioned before on the list.  I think one is called "Simple
Records Manager" and I know that Zasio has easy to use products.


Ginny Jones
(Virginia A. Jones, CRM)
Records Manager
Information Technology Division
Newport News Dept. of Public Utilities
Newport News, VA
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Tim Barnard
Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 10:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RM storage software - in-house v. commercial vendor?

I know a similar topic came up a couple of months ago, but it didn't
really answer this aspect of the question.

Our own offsite facility is on indefinite hold, but I need some way to
better manage my inventory of records.  We handwrite our box labels, use
a Word template for transmittal forms, have an Access database for
in-house storage (a few hundred boxes) and we get inventory reports from
our offsite vendor in Excel.  Finding which records are eligible for
disposal is generally done by manually scanning lists for disposal
dates.  We have about 20,000 boxes offsite under nearly 50 departments.


I need some kind of single program that can do all these features and
can be available to other offices on our Intranet.  I contacted several
vendors for essentially a box-management program and got replies from
three, with products ranging from basic programs to ones that can also
manage electronic records.  When I went to our IT people, they said they
could design what I needed themselves.  Here is their rationale:

A)  Why pay for a pre-packaged software product with several features
we'd never use?
B)  Why pay anything when they could design one in-house?  They get paid
the same salary regardless.

My concerns with this approach are these:

A)  I have never used one of these programs before.  How do I know which
features I really need and which ones I'll never need?
B)  An analogy:  I could go to the "help yourself" junkyard and get
enough parts to build my own car, or I could buy one already built and
tested from a car dealer.  Wouldn't a packaged program - from someone
who already knows how to design one - be smarter?

Opinions?

Tim Barnard, Records Management Clerk
Harrison County, Mississippi
[log in to unmask]
Phone (228) 865-4121 Fax (228) 865-4140

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