>>you can contribute to the bottom line, and serve a larger good. <<

Well said. I have long agreed with Dwight that the tactic of selling RM
via fear is ultimately self defeating.  For many organizations,
litigation, one of our big sticks, is a cost of doing business.  If they
haven't been there before, they don't worry about it, if they have, the
company thinks it knows what to expect.  If it is one of the high
profile cases we have a tendency to talk about, the litigation is so
large the company is doomed anyway, why spend the money in the first
place.

The same is true with compliance.  Other than a few well documented
cases in a specific industry, when was the last time you heard of a
major fine or penalty for not keeping appropriate records.  And even the
fines that have been levied against securities firms are minimal
compared to their bottom line.  Ten million to the Morgan Stanley
probably has less impact on their financial statement than a Wisconsin
speeding ticket does on my checkbook.

On the other hand, everyone is doing more with less.  Needing workers to
be more productive, facing ever growing piles of unmanaged,
inaccessible, unused content.  Show them how you can impact the bottom
line through productivity increases, elimination of unnecessary
duplicate or outdated information and you have their attention and their
support.  Show them specifically where the benefits come from and they
will finance it in a minute.

Records management is about providing access to information.  Compliance
and reduction in litigation risk are subsidiary benefits.  The biggest
bang for the buck is reducing the cost of doing business on a daily
basis.  And the best way I know of to improve finding the needle in a
haystack is to make smaller and fewer haystacks.

Bill R

Bill Roach, CRM
Enterprise EDMS Coordinator
State of North Dakota
ITD/Records Management
701-328-3589

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