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May 2011: In This Issue

Four Tips for Managing Your Electronic Records »
Hybrid Survey Results: The Hybrid Environment is Now the Norm »
Datafile On-Site RM Training Available Now! »
Five Tips for Selecting and Implementing RM Software in the Hybrid RM Environment »
What your Colleagues are Downloading »

This month we’ve got the highlights of a Hybrid Environment Survey from our North American parent company TAB. What really stood out from the results was that organisations are using e-records in even larger numbers, and because of this, hybrid records management environments are now the norm. So if you find yourself managing paper and electronic records at the same time, you aren’t alone!

To help you get your hybrid environment in order, we’ve got a great whitepaper on managing your records in an electronic environment.

We value your feedback. If you have any questions, or want to discuss any of the issues raised in this newsletter, please get in touch.

1. Four Tips for Managing Your Electronic Records

Successfully Manage Your Records in an Electronic Environment

Organisations everywhere are now generating large volumes of electronic records thanks to the automation of everyday business activities such as financial transactions, engineering processes and basic communication. But this doesn’t mean that paper records collections are shrinking. In fact, organisations still need to retain physical copies of documents and files thanks to administrative and legal requirements. Add storage and technological restraints to the mix and you are faced with a complex RM challenge.

So to help you successfully manage your electronic records, we’ve put together these 4 tips.

1. Correctly identify your business records
Correctly identifying your electronic records can be tricky in an environment where information is constantly being copied, printed, emailed and scanned. Start by developing an RM policy which clearly outlines your organisation’s definition of an official record and apply that to all of your physical and electronic records. You’ll then need to set standards across your organisation and work with IT and staff to apply the criteria to day-to-day business activities.

2. Develop and implement a records retention program
This is critical for controlling records growth and staying compliant. You’ll need to research the relevant legal and regulatory requirements, determine how long you need to keep records and understand your internal retention needs. You can then create a retention schedule based on the information you’ve gathered.

3. Leverage RM software for storage and retrieval
RM software solutions are a great way to effectively manage both your paper and electronic records in a hybrid environment. These systems make retention and disposal easy because they automatically let users know when records need to be destroyed. They also enable users to retrieve information quickly thanks to sophisticated search functionalities.

4. Plan for long-term retention requirements
Every organisation generates records that need to be retained for long periods of time in order to meet legal and operational requirements. The challenge lies in finding a secure and cost-effective method for storing this information. Paper records are prone to environmental degeneration while hardware and software are constantly being replaced by new technologies.

In order to address these issues, you need to look at the financial and practical challenges associated with long-term retention. This will help you decide what medium is best for storing your valuable and sensitive records for years to come.

Download our full whitepaper!
For a more detailed look at these and other tips as well as practical “how-to” information on managing electronic records, download our whitepaper.

2. Hybrid Survey Results: The Hybrid Environment is Now the Norm

How are organisations handling the mix of paper and electronic records?

It’s a big question for many of our readers, so earlier this year we created a survey to get an updated picture of a new records management reality: the hybrid environment.

Our goal was to benchmark the data against a similar survey we conducted two years ago. And when we began to analyse the results, we identified some very interesting developments and trends.

E-records enter the mainstream
When more than half of our respondents said they had replaced at least 20% of their paper records with electronic versions, it became clear that e-record adoption has strong momentum. In fact, 14% of people reported that 80% of their records collection are now electronic!

Compare this to our June 2008 survey results where over 50% of our respondents said that more than 80% of their record were still paper-based, and it isn’t hard to see that e-records are making huge inroads in the file room.

Hybrid is now the norm
Even as e-records adoption increases, it’s clear that paper records aren’t going away any time soon. None of our respondents said their organisation was 100% electronic, and the vast majority of organisations are still using a significant mix of paper in their collections. Most significantly, almost 18% of respondents reported that 100% of their collection included both paper and electronic formats. Where two years ago the hybrid environment was a fairly new concept for many organisations, it is now clearly an everyday records management reality.

The drivers: efficiency, collaboration, retention and compliance
The efficiency and collaborative benefits associated with electronic records are clearly big factors driving organisations to adopt the format. Accounting and operational documents are by far the most popular targets for conversion, but there is also a wide array of other business functions that are starting to move to e-records. These numbers are in line with our last survey, indicating that workflow efficiencies are a big reason for conversions.

Most interestingly, over 20% of our respondents indicated that easier records retention was also a factor in moving to electronic records, with around half that number citing the need to meet compliance requirements as a driver.

Old challenges, new challenges
When it comes to implementing a hybrid environment, the survey data closely mirrored our earlier results. The biggest challenges are still:

Applying retention schedules to e-records
Rolling out e-records across the entire organisation

This is hardly surprising as both are legacy records management challenges.

A new emerging challenge, identified by over 50% of our respondents, is applying records management best practices to shared drives within an organisation. As the amount of electronic records proliferates, and increasing numbers of people within an organisation store them on a central drive, the potential for a disorganised collection is very real.

If these challenges sound familiar, download our whitepaper on managing your shared drive.

Handling the new hybrid reality
The survey results support what we see and hear every day when we work with our clients: mixed records collections are a normal part of records management in today’s business environment.

So what’s the best way to handle the hybrid environment?

At Datafile, we think that the answers to these challenges lie in education and training of individual personnel in combination with the development of comprehensive records management programs designed to address electronic and paper content equally.

If you’d like to find out how we can help you manage the hybrid environment, please get in touch.

3. Datafile On-Site RM Training Available Now!

Today the call for qualified and trained records management personnel is unprecedented. Companies are generating more information than ever before, and the legal pressure to properly store, process and retrieve it is increasing. We’ve answered this call by creating our on-site corporate training program.

The Training Comes to You
New issues and challenges are continually emerging in the records management field, and without the right resources it isn’t always possible to keep up with the skills and learning required to address them. Created from Datafile’s deep experience and knowledge, our corporate training services will bring your RM staff to where they need to be. Our experts will come to your organisation and deliver a comprehensive program that will help you manage your records the right way to reduce risk, leaving you with more time and energy to focus on your core business.

Customised Learning
Datafile’s experts can hold on-site classes and teach your staff about the methodologies and industry best practices they need to handle virtually any records management situation. From computer basics and refreshing existing skill sets to designing an RM program and handling electronic documents, our intensive courses cover everything you need to know about:

Records management principles
Daily file room operations
RM program implementation
Privacy impact assessments
Identifying vital records
Disaster recovery planning
Electronic records management

Our program is designed to work in today’s corporate training environment. And because every business is different, we can tailor the content of our offerings to fit your organisation’s processes.

Learn How Our Program Can Work for You
With the right training, records management professionals become an invaluable asset to any operation. Our program will arm your staff with the skills they need to:

Gain a competitive advantage
Become leaders in RM
Support business processes better
Document knowledge and experience
Enhance professionalism

With the latest information and tactics, your team can maximise its performance in order to meet daily challenges. If you’d like to learn more about our on-site training program, contact us.

4. Five Tips for Selecting and Implementing RM Software in the Hybrid RM Environment

When you’re managing paper and electronic records in the same environment, a software solution may be the answer. A comprehensive and fully customisable system, such as our TAB FusionRMS, is an excellent way to track and store all of your information regardless of its form.

However, simply choosing the right solution for your organisation isn’t enough—you also need to apply sound RM methodologies and principles to that program.

So to help you select and implement software in your hybrid environment, we’ve put together this whitepaper. In it you’ll get tips on:

Establishing RM requirements up front
Building RM requirements into the electronic system
Creating one-stop information access
Responding to the unique needs of paper records
Developing electronic support for real world records retention

Read the full whitepaper to get more useful information.

5. What Your Colleagues are Downloading

Want to know what your colleagues are reading? These are some of our most popular recent downloads:

RM Training: A Needs Assessment Tool

How to you design and deliver the right records management training program? The key is to start with a needs assessment.

This tool provides a starting point for cutting through the complications and contradictions that cloud your organisation’s training objectives, putting you well on the road to addressing records management challenges, big and small.

In it we’ll cover:

Determining organisational objectives
Identifying who should participate
What content you’ll need for different participants
What training methods to use

Get this great resource here!

Demonstrating Return-on-Investment for Records Management Initiatives

Need to show the ROI on your RM Program? This guide will tell you how to do that!

We'll give you a strategy for demonstrating records management's ROI based on hard and soft dollar revenue flows, reduced risk and improved long-term returns.

A recent survey of OnRecord readers identified three main sources of hard and soft dollar return on investment for records management initiatives:

Savings on physical storage space
Staff productivity gains
Reduced risk exposure

We'll examine these three objectives in light of basic ROI principles, focusing on those records management approaches which can help optimise that investment over time.

Download this invaluable resource here!

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