The Problem Of Enterprise Records Management

Not so long ago, corporate record-keeping was a conceptually simple affair. Paper documents were organized in files and folders. Files that needed to be retained were catalogued and managed by professional records administrators. Voluminous files were microfilmed to save storage space, and important records were often stored offsite for safekeeping.

But that world must seem far away to business and IT managers now when they think about records management. Today, the information that needs to be retained and secured is mostly not in paper form, but in a hodgepodge of digital formats including electronic documents, scanned images, and email. Increasingly, even text messages, discussion threads, web pages, data, and code are considered "records" that must be preserved – as evidence in civil litigation, for compliance with statutes and regulations, for use in audits, to enforce contractual agreements and intellectual property rights, and for a whole host of other purposes far removed from the traditional "records room." New Federal Rules of Civil Procedure adopted in December 2006 firmly establish the need to manage all forms of digital information as records discoverable by litigating parties.

The newspapers are full of examples where the inability to find and produce these records on demand has had a devastating business impact, from legal sanctions to defeat in civil litigation to shockingly large costs for auditors and forensic IT services. It's no wonder that "compliance" and records management have become top of mind for corporate executives.