From Silo to Assimilation: changing corporate perceptions of records and information management
Presented by Dr Simon Shurville
Until quite recently, records management was considered a fairly boring, if necessary, activity undertaken in dusty back offices. The rash of corporate disasters related to unsatisfactory and inadequate business information management which created headlines around the world between 1995–2005, however, has changed that view of records management forever. New laws, from the US Patriot Act 2001 and the even more sweeping Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002, to a range of European regulations such as Basel II 2004 or IAS 2005, have focused attention on the effective and auditable storage, transmission and access arrangements for electronic documents.
A major challenge for those entering into this brave new world of 21st-century corporate information management is to understand exactly where the boundaries lie. How do we distinguish between: information management, records management, knowledge management, archival management, digital preservation management, document management, enterprise content management; and EDRMS? And who will make the decisions and create the strategies?
This paper will discuss the changing perceptions of managing corporate information: from the 20th century’s silo-based approach, where individual specialists jealously guarded the borders of their own territory – to the 21st century perception that information is the most significant in strategic asset of any organisation. Beginning with a brief survey of the drivers which have changed our perception of information and its management, this paper will review the major issues, enablers and obstacles to achieving a unified and effective approach to managing corporate information across the organisation – whether that be a public sector agency or a private corporation.
