Technical certification for the information professional: the CDIA+: for those RIM professionals seeking additional credibility in the digital domain, earning the CDIA+ certification may be the best approach.

• Author: Cunningham, Raymond K., Jr.
• Position: CareerPath

Records and information management (RIM) professionals have had an uphill fight against those who view records managers as relegated to the paper records domain. In a recent interview, one records manager met with a chief executive officer (CEO) seeking a records manager to manage the three records centers filled with legacy paper the corporation had inherited in a merger. When asked about imaging applications and electronic records, the CEO shrugged and replied that the IT department took care of those records.

Managing a variety of information formats is increasingly routine in most records management programs. Today, document imaging is bridging paper and electronic environments, and every RIM professional is confronted with technologies such as copiers featuring network scanning and faxing. How do RIM professionals leverage themselves in the workplace to solidify credibility in the electronic records realm? How do they gain credibility with IT?

One way is to do what thousands of IT employees routinely do: gain a technical certification. The Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA+) certification, which is closely allied with records management and contains principles familiar to the RIM professional, is the one technical certification that offers RIM professionals a foothold within the IT realm. The successor to the Certified Document Imaging Architect (CDIA) certification, the CDIA+ is the globally recognized standard of competency in document imaging and document management. It validates expertise in the best practices used to plan, design, and implement a document imaging system.

The Evolution of CDIA to CDIA+

The CDIA was originally developed in 1995 by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), a consortium of vendors, and the initial focus of the certification was on the consortium members' technical sales staff. But it soon became popular among vendors offering imaging systems and imaging consulting services. Between 2001 and 2003, the number of those who had earned the certification grew by 63 percent. In 2002, CompTIA--which is a vendor-neutral organization that sponsors a number of computer certifications, including the A+ computer hardware certification held by more than 120,000 technicians--re-branded the certification as the "CDIA+," overhauling the exam objectives to better suit the needs of the document imaging industry. In 2005, CompTIA further updated the exam to more accurately reflect the realities of today's imaging and document management environment. The exam's emphasis has shifted over time from the purely technical to include management skills. AIIM International recognizes the CDIA+, as well as the Certified Records Manager (CRM) certification, as points toward attaining its Master of...