Adventures in Records Management

Functional classification works when you have a st...

2009-09-29T19:37:37.827+01:00

Functional classification works when you have a strong buy-in (management commitment), skilled Records Management implementation staff and good IT partnership

Thanks for writing this.

2008-11-11T13:51:00.000Z

Thanks for writing this.

Wonderful, thought provoking and very helpful blog...

2008-04-02T14:16:00.000+01:00

Wonderful, thought provoking and very helpful blog site ( especially for newbies)I came accross while searching for articles on File Plan, it really helped me, its great, keep it up Mr. Red

Tahir

Aw shucks. Many thanks for the kind words, David. ...

2008-02-10T08:39:00.000Z

Aw shucks. Many thanks for the kind words, David.

I've put a link to your blog on my blogroll. Keep up the good work.

Dear Red Kite, Your blog is blooming wonderful! A...

2008-02-09T22:16:00.000Z

Dear Red Kite, Your blog is blooming wonderful! All the latest changes have worked magnificently and it is a records management treaure trove.

I've just launched a little blog on records classification at
http://recordsclassification.blogspot.com

Blogging is a good tool to publish propositions and by publishing them, to fully develop them.

It is a helpful but not exhaustive list. I am a bi...

2007-11-25T10:20:00.000Z

It is a helpful but not exhaustive list. I am a bit concerned that there was not one mention of managing evidence or of risk analysis skills

I agree, Records Managers roles are changing a gre...

2007-11-20T14:26:00.000Z

I agree, Records Managers roles are changing a great deal. This is a good job description.

Records Managers certainly cannot be shrinking violets. They will always struggle to become centre stage in an organisation because it is not seen as the main function of the organisation. They need to though, watch what is developing and changing in an organisation and ensure, particularly if you have an ERM system, that systems are joined up and work together. If an organisation develops new systems and the ERM system does not integrate with them then it could gradually be eased out.

One of the main jobs of a records manager who is working on an ERM system is as a change manager . You have to be able to work with people who are resistant to change , alay their fears, examine business practices and where necessary help them change. You also have to be a diplomat and work between what is best for the IT department and what is best for the user as they can sometimes differ.

I am a librarian who has moved into records management and have found the skills transferrable e.g. taxonomy and searching. You need to be able to teach your users how to search, even though a lot of them think they can search as they search Google.

What is harder than herding cats? Getting informat...

2007-11-17T23:35:00.000Z

What is harder than herding cats? Getting information into folders.
So much of the information we create is already tagged, for example, all the files in my organisation have a "State Water" tag, and then are tagged by the division creating them, the date, the author, the subject, the document title and possibly more, automatically. I mean that "just happens" because they are created on our computer system. Now, why would I then insist that the corporate records system requires the users to assign terms from the BCS? If my BCS worked, wouldn't those terms appear in the title, perhaps? If not, couldn't I have a folder at a macro level with the best BCS terms predicted for that information? If its the engineers, then "facilities and assets maintenance" seems pretty close. If I insist they also include the name of the structure they are working on, then along with the automatically created metadata referred to earlier, that might be sufficient structure. And the user only had to select one high level term aqnd ensure the name of the main structure appeared somewhere. So what if they get 1000 hits on "Wyangala Dam" - its the largest structure we control, and either browsing or searching can reveal "plans" "invoices" "valves" or whatever, from "browse within results". Isn't that simple?

Thanks...that's a great video. I've linked it to a...

2007-11-17T16:08:00.000Z

Thanks...that's a great video. I've linked it to a new post.

There is an excellent video explaining Everything ...

2007-11-17T14:05:00.000Z

There is an excellent video explaining Everything is MIscellaneous at on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM

What a fantastic post and I can relate to all of i...

2007-07-22T23:20:00.000+01:00

What a fantastic post and I can relate to all of it!

It certainly is an interesting process to go through and you have hit the nail on the head with all of the main points.

Isn't it funny that it does not matter what side of the world you are on or the type of organisation implementing an ERM that the same points are relevant!

really useful article. your comments on functiona...

2007-07-13T12:46:00.000+01:00

really useful article. your comments on functional based filing systems not standing up to the enemy rang very true :)

well said.If we continue to sit with our head in t...

2007-05-31T13:52:00.000+01:00

well said.
If we continue to sit with our head in the sand, the information explosion will cause business failure. By the way I understand Microsoft do use records management via SAP.

All truth, I reckon steve is trying to gee up that the records management does have a place in society, otherwise redundancy looms steve.

Really? They must surely be subject to SOX and all...

2007-05-31T08:16:00.000+01:00

Really? They must surely be subject to SOX and all other corporate law in the US. Equally their offices around the world must be subject to the laws of their host country. They also know from bitter (and expensive) experience that the EU and various competition agencies are watching their every move. I would have thought there are far more eyes watching MS and willing them to fail then there are watching the average public authority in the UK...

Lol...but I think we exist in a more regulatory wo...

2007-05-30T21:12:00.000+01:00

Lol...but I think we exist in a more regulatory world than certain global software houses.

I've asked this question before and I'll probably...

2007-05-30T16:11:00.000+01:00

I've asked this question before and I'll probably ask it again,

"How does Microsoft manage its own records?"

Perhaps this should serve as a warning to us all. If MS (pretty much the biggest and most successful company in history) has achieved all this without records management as we know it, where does that leave our well-worn arguments about how indispensible it is to our organisations...

I would be tempted to add just a bit more.... Not ...

2007-05-09T04:04:00.000+01:00

I would be tempted to add just a bit more.... Not only federated searching, but I would also have a desire for the choice between a "product suite" that incorporated all of the capabilities, OR..... fully interoperable components, should I desire to make use of "best of breed" components.

Red Kite,Keep posting - you provide great assistan...

2007-05-08T22:25:00.000+01:00

Red Kite,
Keep posting - you provide great assistance to those of us who are less able to articulate what needs to be done and need to look for models and examples provided by others.

I find much to agree with in your vision of an intelligent office. I try not to despair when I realize what a high hill must be climbed in order to make any progress on the huge mountain of electronic records that have been amassed.

I am curious to know what retention you put on the archived email. Also what type of high level management support you got for the initiative. Finally would you ever be willing to share an example of your policy?