I'm not sure about after the fact, but the ARMA Ed Foundation put out a
good paper called "RIM Checklist for Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures
and Closures" that talks about getting a handle on what to do with the
records BEFORE the merger. Might be of use for future M&A's. You say
"suddenly take possession," but if RIM were in there from the beginning,
you'd have a heads up and it wouldn't be so "sudden."

Nolene
 
Nolene Sherman | Director of Records Management | Standard Pacific Homes
| 949-450-8583 | [log in to unmask]


-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Llull, Ulises
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 3:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [RM] Defensible approach to destruction of abandoned
information

First, let me say I'm new to the profession, having recently moved from
IT, where I worked on data architecture.   I have found plenty of
synergy between the challenges faced in data architecture and RIM - as
well as lots of opportunity to deliver huge value from close
collaboration between RIM and IT, but I'm sure that's not news to this
group!

 

One thing I'm struggling with is how best handle disposition of
information as part of hardware and/or software decommissioning in a
very dynamic environment (high growth and high turnover from acquisition
integration AND organic growth).  In this environment, you might
suddenly take possession of a number of applications and electronic
information managed by those apps that have basically abandoned - i.e.
they have no clear ownership or recordkeeping associated with it...and
while there may be a 50 year record in there somewhere, the information
is of such high volume, complexity and/or diversity that understanding
it enough to classify it would take a huge amount of work.   And when
you are executing an aggressive acquisition strategy and need to find
out what to do with 1000's of gigs of storage taken up by stuff that no
one cares about, you want to be careful with the amount of overhead you
require.

 

So my question is: What policies and procedures would allow us to
defensibly dispose of this kind of "abandoned" information in this
environment, yet remain practical and cost-effective?  What's enough to
prove good faith?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!  

Thanks and regards,
Ulises Llull 



 


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