Paper records – it’s not all over yet
Jinfo Blog

2nd October 2009

By Tim Buckley Owen

Item

If you think your paper records are in a mess then your electronic records are likely to be even worse, according to a new report from AIIM, the global enterprise content management association. Electronic records are twice as likely to be unmanaged as paper, with 26% of the organisations AIIM surveyed admitting that no records management disciplines are applied to the majority of their electronic stuff. Only 56% of organisations have a procedure for placing a freeze on electronic records in the event of pending litigation, compared to 71% for paper records, says Electronic Records Management: still playing catch-up with paper (details at http://digbig.com/5bajnq, report available to download at http://digbig.com/5bajnr – registration required). What’s more, it’s usually IT staff who are expected to manage electronic documents and emails – not the records managers who are actually qualified to do the job. Underwritten by a range of organisations including enterprise search industry leader Autonomy, the findings are based on a survey of 768 members of the AIIM community – which makes them all the more alarming as they reflect practice in organisations that are more, rather than less, likely to appreciate the importance of effective content management. So are things likely to get any better in the future? That probably depends on whether enterprises follow recent advice from IT consultant Gartner. According to its new report Five Steps for E-discovery to Improve Search and Other Processes, by the end of 2012, enterprises that fully document their search processes will save 25% on their collection processes. Enterprises that are likely to face any number of legal actions annually should have a simple set of practices to follow any time they need to embark on an e-discovery process in the near future, Gartner advises. ‘Addressing the ongoing challenge of the IT perspective of litigation management demands both that the technologies be acquired and that procedures for using them be established,’ says the report’s author Whit Andrews (outline at http://digbig.com/5bajnx, purchase details at http://digbig.com/5bajnt). It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination to spot the opportunities for information managers here – both for electronic and paper records. Although 70% of the AIIM respondents reported a rapid increase in their electronic records, the volume of paper also still seems to be increasing in nearly 80% of cases – and 40% admit that they actually print copies of electronic records and file them in drawers. Perhaps we shouldn’t be all that surprised at this. In a recent Information World Review article on online legal reference tools (http://digbig.com/5bajnw), Helen Cleaveland of law firm Denton Wilde Sapte admitted that ‘Even today 90% of legal information professionals prefer hard copies if given a choice’.

« Blog