CMS, RMS? Spelling out the right information management solution: organizations sifting through an alphabet soup of information management solutions must understand their specific needs and the strengths and weaknesses of each type of solution to choose the one--or combination of solutions--that will best meet their needs.

• Author: Simons, Neil
• Position: ManagementWise

There is both good news and bad news for records and information management (RIM) professionals struggling to manage their records. Among the good news--today's technology solutions have delivered nearly limitless ways to store, manage, and share information within an organization and beyond.

Unfortunately, that's also the bad news.

RIM professionals are bombarded with information from a range of vendors describing how their products provide a solution to various RIM challenges. The reality, and thus the challenge, is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach.

Different RIM solutions are based on different philosophies and technological underpinnings, and they have different strengths and weaknesses. So the question remains: In such a noisy marketplace, how does an organization avoid spending a fortune and getting more than it needs, less than it needs, or not what is needed at all?

Making the right decision has become more important than ever. Capturing, managing, and protecting both corporate and public records is serious business. New laws, tightening industry regulations, litigation risk, and increased scrutiny have made effective and appropriate RIM policies a necessity.

It's important to understand the differences among records management solutions--and how those differences determine how effectively the solutions manage different types of both electronic and physical business information. The first thing to understand is perhaps the most basic.

The Difference Between 'Content,' 'Records'

Content at its most basic is simply information or data. Some content is electronic, some paper. Some content is transient, some is permanent. Some content is business-critical, some is working content, and much is mere clutter. Some has to be stored and managed according to the strictest compliance and security requirements, other types can be treated casually. Content can exist in multiple forms and multiple stages of completion within its lifecycle. It can be revised and amended according to the needs of users who share it.

Only in its completed form does content become a "matter of record" and require different protection throughout its lifecycle as a record rather than as content More and more content is stored electronically these days, but it's critical to realize that the need to store some information on paper will likely never disappear.

Records, on the other hand, are a very special type of content (see Figure 1). Records represent an organization's "official" version of history. They have different lifecycle requirements than other types of organizational content and may carry different legal and financial consequences if...