Principles for gaining control of electronic information.

• Author: Logan, Debra

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There are numerous sources of records management advice organizations can follow. ARMA International's are among the best. Its new Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles[SM] (GARP[SM]) are an effort to bring standardization to the world of records management, much as the generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) have brought standardization to financial accounting in the United States.

There is no one right way to implement GARP[SM], nor can automation or software solve an organization's electronic records management challenges. Bringing electronic information under records management control take a combination of principles like GARP[SM], a specific retention schedule, matching information assets to that schedule, and a good deal of intellectual effort. It also requires specific technology, most of it customized for the organization.

Enterprises should not underestimate the difficulty of the task of electronic recordkeeping. That difficulty, however, cannot be used as an excuse not to undertake the project, even though it will take many months or, more likely, years to complete.

The two main problems most organizations have with implementing any records management system are both technological and organizational:

1. Lack of strong leadership that spans IT, legal, and business functions, which leads to a lack of accountability or assignment of responsibility around recordkeeping tasks

2. Difficulty in mapping principles, or even specific retention schedules, to the data that exists in the enterprise

Using GARP[SM] to Address Leadership, Governance, Integrity Issues

Without leadership and executive sponsorship, records management is doomed to fail. Often, in Gartner's experience, this leadership is there, but there is no follow through that reaches down to lower levels of the organization.

It is one thing for the executives of a company to declare they support proper records management, but they are not the ones who will need to do the work. Governance and responsibility must be taken down to the departmental--but not the individual--level. This is an important distinction and one worth discussing.

Records Management Success Demands Accountability

One of the tacit assumptions of electronic information systems and media is that the information created with them somehow will be easier to organize and share than information that is in another form, namely paper. There are, of course, big central IT systems, but they are not what most users rely on day to day. Instead, the stuff of business is created with word processing programs and spreadsheets, passed around in e-mail, and stored on desktops or file servers with no common structure.

In effect, all employees have become information managers--but not very good ones. While some would argue individual users should be responsible for what they create, most users do not have the time, inclination, or training in information classification and records management to do what needs to be done to make business information into a business record.

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