I wonder if this brings us full circle. I know that there are consultants
out there that are, if not expert in both IT and RM - and business!, they
are at least comfortable in both. But they, too, are too few and far
between.
So those of you who are consultants, you too need to make sure that you have
applicable experience and expertise in both the processes and technologies
associated with managing information effectively. I would no sooner
recommend an IT consultant than a RM consultant if I didn't have confidence
they at least knew how to spell the other and when it might make sense to
move in that direction.
And those of you looking for consultants, Gary's point is absolutely
correct, but the coin flips both ways. Don't hire a RM consultant who
doesn't know the first thing about technology. That doesn't mean your
consultants need 20 sets of alphabet soup after their names, just as CRM
isn't the only measure of RM expertise (although it's a pretty good one!).
In the ARMA Candidate forum the candidates were challenged to provide a list
of questions they would have asked of AIIM during the AIIM/ARMA meeting this
summer. I'd like to ask all of you - end users, vendors, and consultants -
what questions should RM (we handle paper) and RM (they are the folks in the
basement) neecd to be able to answer in order to demonstrate the value of
their program, their understanding of the business, their understanding of
the business processes, and their sufficient understanding of technology?
Here are a couple I thought of, and in no particular order:
- What does the organization do?
- What does RM do?
- What does IT do?
- How much does RM cost the organization in real dollars?
- How much value does RM provide to the organization, both intangibly and
tangibly?
- How would you go about inventorying electronic records? What data would
you capture?
- How would you go about placing a legal hold on some of your electronic
records? Email? Network shared drives? What would that process look like?
I'm sure you can think of many others....and as we look ahead to the
competencies, hopefully we have most if not all of these questions in them
as well.
My tuppence as I cook dinner in CO,
Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, LIT, ICP, edp, ermm, ecms (confirmed technologist, lotsa fruit salad
:D)
IMERGE Consulting
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(303) 574-1455 office
(303) 484-4142 fax
YIM: jessewilkins8511
Looking for the latest education on electronic records, email, and imaging?
Visit http://www.imergeconsult.com/schedule2.html for a current schedule of
courses.
-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Grieme, Gary L.
Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2006 9:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Interesting Observation
>>>> Please read the confidentiality statement below <<<<
<1. What does it take to get Records Managers (we handle paper) up to the
plate?>
Let's say the management of company A meets to discuss the problems they're
experiencing managing records. Maybe they have an established IT group,
maybe they have an established RM group, maybe both. When they're
brainstorming, chances are the solution that gets the most attention will be
"let's find software to handle this." So they call IT. Or if they decide
to hire a consultant, what's most likely, will the consultant have a strong
IT background or a strong records management background?
This is just one small sliver of the problem. Or should I say opportunity.
The talent needs to bubble up from the bottom as others of you have pointed
out, but when the big companies are ready to fork over $$ to solve a
problem, the world could also use more records management consultants that
are in a position to elbow aside the IT consultants by saying first let's
design a process, then we'll select the tools we need. It's a competitive
marketplace and IT consultants have had the upper hand, but it doesn't need
to remain that way.
Gary L. Grieme
Records Manager
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