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February 2011: In This Issue
Dear Records Manager,
Is your shared drive properly structured for ease-of-use and efficiency? If not, your day-to-day business functions may be suffering and you could be creating compliance risks.So to help you optimize your shared drive, we’ve put together a great tips piece and white paper.And don’t forget to take our hybrid environment survey! We’ll be using your input to create the resources you need to manage paper and electronic records. 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! Regards, TAB Canada 1. 4 Tips for Managing Your Shared Drive Organize your drive for better compliance and access  Shared drives are a fact of life for many organizations, and when organized properly they become excellent information management tools. But if you aren’t using RM best practices to manage them, they can morph into massive public folders filled with confusing and unstructured records. These unstructured shared drives can lead to a variety of issues including compliance and legal risks, increased retrieval times, versioning issues and unnecessary duplication of documents.So to help tackle these problems and get the most of your drive, we’ve put together these 4 great tips. Tip 1: Start with a clean up Industry estimates show that 50-70% of the material found on a shared drive consists of records that organizations aren’t legally required to retain such as out-dated data, duplicates and unnecessary versions Purging these files is critical for streamlining and organizing your drive. To start, sort through existing documents to determine what you can get rid of. When reviewing these records, ask yourself questions like:
Tip 2: Design your framework around business functions In order to have an efficient shared drive, it’s important to create a universal framework that is consistent across all departments. This makes it easy for users to navigate through the drive regardless of what business unit they are from. Creating the framework should be a collaborative effort which includes RM, IT and Operational requirements. When developing the framework, it’s vital to incorporate your existing functional classification system into the design. This will ensure that it maps back to your overall records management program and addresses all your major business functions. Tip 3: Keep access permissions and retention schedules in mind when creating the folder structure Once you have the framework in place, you can start creating the folder structure. When doing this, it’s important to keep retention requirements and access permissions in mind. For example, don’t store records with different disposal dates together or mix company-wide policies and procedures documents with confidential employee information. Storing records with different retention rules or disposal dates can lead to a variety of issues including:
Migration is one of the most important steps when organizing your shared drive and this is where getting the right help is critical. It’s imperative that things are stored correctly as staff are moving things to the newly structured drive, and a good RM project manager can help facilitate the process. They’ll make sure employees are storing records correctly and everything is being documented for future reference. Download the full white paper These tips came from our white paper “Managing Your Shared Drive”. If you want to read it in full, please download it here. 2. Creating Better Resources for the Hybrid Environment: Quick Survey Are you finding it difficult to manage both paper and electronic records in the same environment? You’re not alone. The hybrid environment continues to present challenges for RM professionals everywhere and we want to continue to create valuable resources to help you deal with this “two-headed” beast. To do this, we need to get a better idea of where your organization is with respect to the hybrid environment. The information we get will help us produce the content you need to effectively manage your paper and electronic records. Take our quick survey now! 3. Maximize RM Program Efficiencies with Functional Classification Functional classification—it forms the foundation of a successful records management program, but what does it actually mean?Simply put, functional classification allows you to systematically categorize various types of records based on business functions and activities. The benefits are many—from managing risk and compliance to improving access and collaboration as well as reducing unnecessary duplication of documents. But getting the right system in place involves developing a holistic view of your RM program with respect to your business activities and the records, both paper and electronic, that support them. This is often a huge challenge in terms of time and resources. That’s where we come in. TAB’s consultants have extensive experience developing functional classification systems across all industries and verticals. Here’s what a typical engagement with us looks like:
4. A Powerful New TAB FusionRMS 9.2 The new version of TAB FusionRMS 9.2 offers a wide variety of improved features, including seamless integration of TABQUIK label printing, enhanced keyword search capabilities and a new Microsoft Office themed look and feel that makes it more familiar and easier to use. Enhanced search capability allows users to locate files instantly using multiple keywords with “and” and “or” operators, and users can search file types using metadata, file contents or both. Plus, searched words are now highlighted in the results for added convenience.Learn more about TAB FusionRMS on our website. 5. What Your Colleagues are Downloading Want to know what your colleagues are reading?These are some of our most popular recent downloads: Electronic Folder Structure Needs Assessment Designing the right folder structure is vital for successfully managing your electronic records. And with so many rules and business requirements to keep in mind, it’s imperative that organizations use records management best practices when developing folder structures and naming conventions. This needs assessment tool can help your organization design and name electronic folders to comply with laws and find information faster and more reliably. It addresses:
Conversion Readiness Assessment Tool Many organizations are turning to electronic imaging to decrease their records storage expenses. But simply scanning your records doesn't necessarily mean you will be able to destroy all of the original documents. And on a more general level, for conversion to truly benefit your organization, your existing RM program has to be able to support it. Answering the following questions will help you:
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