Today? I'd say as an electronic document, preferably in an ERMS, else an
EDMS. One of the tenets of recordkeeping is the idea that the record is
caught as early and as close to the source as possible. With a Word
document, that means grabbing electronically so we can do things like
versioning, check-out/check-in, enforcing audit trails and security, much
more readily than can be done with paper. We can also provide simultaneous
access of the copy of record, and in many instances, prevent its
unauthorized reproduction, at least by the casual user.
This is easier to debate with Word documents because they are designed to be
analogous to printed pages. What about web sites? Spreadsheets? Databases?
CAD drawings? Compound documents? The content contained in content
management systems? None of these readily lends themselves to analog storage
because too much information is lost in the transformation. I argue the same
is true for email, particularly as email gets richer. It is also
increasingly difficult to print because of the volumes involved: not the
printing itself, but the filing time and storage space required and the time
required to retrieve the desired document.
As I think came up earlier in the thread, printing an email and filing it is
better than doing nothing, but only just. Studies from e.g. Radicati,
Gartner, Ferris, and IDC all claim c. 50 email messages per person per day.
For a 1,000 user organization that equates to 1 million messages per month
that must be sifted through to determine record status, and if even only 10%
meet the definition that's 100,000 messages (many of which will be more than
one page) that have to be stored and maintained. Plus attachments. There
just isn't justification for paper filing in my view over more than the very
short term.
Cheers,
Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, LIT, EDP, ICP
IMERGE Consulting
(303) 574-1455 office
(303) 484-4142 fax
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http://www.imergeconsult.com
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