Embrace the Cloud, big data to take control of the digital deluge: highlights of the Forrester Research and ARMA International RM Survey, 2015.

AuthorMcKinnon, Cheryl
PositionRecords and information management - Survey

2015 marks the seventh year that ARMA International and Forrester Research have surveyed records and information management (RIM) decision-makers in an effort to track the profession's key trends and challenges. In June, more than 500 respondents from around the world shared their perspectives through their survey answers. Here are some quick results of particular interest:

* North American representation was once again dominant: 69% of the respondents are from the United States and 24% are from Canada.

* 33% of the respondents work in government, topping all vertical industries.

* 31% of the respondents work in large enterprises that have more than a billion dollars in annual revenue.

* 20% of RIM programs report to IT, compared to 15% from last year's survey; 16% report to legal, 16% to a corporate services group, 11% to compliance, 9% to a line of business, and 24% to "other."

* The most frequently used vendors were Microsoft (for electronic records solutions) and Iron Mountain (for offsite storage of physical records).

The Pivot to IG Has Begun

RIM professionals are instigating change inside their organizations, as shown by their response to this new question in the 2015 survey: "Have you restructured or re-organized your RIM and/or IT programs to support an information governance [IG] strategy?" Nearly a third of survey respondents (32%) said they have (see Figure 1), and 34% said they plan to make this change over the next 12 months.

But there is still work to be done, particularly in the following three critical areas for IG success.

Stakeholder Alignment

Forrester notes a slight rise in the number of RIM programs aligned to IT--an indication that an alignment of policies and priorities may be on the horizon. This needs to continue, as evidenced by what respondents noted as two of their top three challenges: 29% said it is the lack of stakeholder alignment among IT, legal, compliance, and business decision-makers, and 29% identified it as lack of staffing or in-house expertise development (see Figure 2).

According to the survey, 59% of surveyed RIM professionals are included in their company's IT strategic planning, which involves such activities as requirements definition and vendor selection. This figure has remained relatively consistent over the seven years of the Forrester-ARMA survey, regardless of where RIM reports.

Governance Structure

Governance structures for RIM programs also remain in flux. While 28% of respondents said they have "a steering committee of senior stakeholders" to guide decisions, 24% said they have no formal governance at all. Other responses include "multiple, coordinated, cross-role committees" (11%), "a center of excellence or dedicated program team" (11%), and "multiple, disjointed cross-role committees" (9%). Just 4% rely on legal to make decisions, while 3% let IT run the show.

Executive Sponsorship

Executive sponsorship for RIM programs continues to be influenced by legal: 41% report that the general counsel or the senior legal decisionmaker is the key executive sponsor, particularly in the private sector. Of government respondents, 42% identify the CIO or the most senior technical decision-maker as the executive sponsor.

Digital Content...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT