Having been a long time lurker, occasional poster on the Listserv, the discussions around the CIP is something interesting to me.  I find that there are a lot of people in the field with many certifications except the CRM who are part of successful RM companies/departments; however the CRM seems to be the beginning and end of the RM designations that matter the most.

Some background on my personal experience with ARMA, AIIM and ICRM:

I have the ARMA's Essentials of RIM Certificate, AIIM's ECM Specialist certification and recently wrote ICRM's Part 6 CRM exam.  I can't specifically comment on the CIP, but it will be one of the next certifications that I will pursue (if only because of this debate and to satisfy my curiosity about it).

Of the three, the ICRM is the only body that requires an applicant prove that they have some experience in the RM field.  This allows the ICRM to ensure that there is some level of standardization and arguably knowledge among the candidates (if only to have applicants prove their interest in continuing in the RM field).  The CIP does not, even though it is directed towards an intermediate-advanced practitioner based on its recommended audience.  ARMA's Essentials just covers the basics of RM and it makes sense that no experience would be required.  

I am happy to see that the CIP will not be an open-book exam (unlike the ECM Specialist course) and will be given at a third-party testing facility.  There is just something about being able to do open-book exams in the comfort of your home/office that takes away from the process.  One complaint about the ECM course is that with the amount of time provided to do the exams, it is hard to fail even if you don't study.  With the number of exam attempts that you have, it is easy to do a "challenge" test with the notes and pass.  I digress, but using closed-book third party testing facilities does provide a degree of seriousness surrounding the CIP, akin to the level of seriousness that is required for the CRM.  

I find there is a gap when speaking with IT and RM staff and realizing that they often times do not understand what each other does nor do they realize the impact of their decisions on the other (e-mail policies, back-up policies, network drive management, ECM implementations etc).   How many CRM's can confidently discuss API's, IT architecture and data migrations with an IT professional?  We can talk about metadata until we are blue in the face, but I cannot confidently say that I have 100% agreed about metadata and its usages with folks in IT.

The CIP looks to be aiming at the segment of RM that interacts with IT that does not currently exist.  I found the ICRM topics and exam questions on IT to be outdated and not necessarily reflective of the real working world (the reprographics topic comes to mind, questions like what is spam, etc).  But the CRM itself is not aimed at this area (except for the Technology exam) and is supposed to test generalities because you can only fit so many specific items on a topic with 100 multiple choice questions.  The CIP may not fully address this gap, but I'm not aware of any other certification that does from an RM standpoint.  Whether it does or does not, I do not know, but will find out soon enough.

At the end of the day having education, certifications and designations is just another way to show interest in a field, differentiate yourself from competitors and prove to clients and employers that you have a degree of knowledge in a particular field.   Particularly with certifications and designations in the RM field, they are nice to haves, not need to haves.

There is room for the CIP, however how much traction it gains within the industry will depend on the critical mass of people who get it and what value they give to it.  For the $265 testing fee and giving up some time to study, I think it's positioned in a way that people will take the exam; even if they are just "letter" collectors.

Ryan Ban
________________________________________
Records Management Specialist  |  tel. (416) 497.1585 x. 286 |  www.tab.com



 --Confidentiality Statement---- This message, including attachments, is intended for the exclusive use of the addressee and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please advise the sender immediately by return e-mail and permanently delete the original message and destroy all copies. Thank you for your cooperation.
_    _ . _

List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
Contact [log in to unmask] for assistance
To unsubscribe from this list, click the below link. If not already present, place UNSUBSCRIBE RECMGMT-L or UNSUB RECMGMT-L in the body of the message.
mailto:[log in to unmask]