Scenario: you have hired a consultant who has experience in
implementing an ECM software’s records management module. This consultant meets
with various groups and gathers requirements with questions that pertain to the
vendor’s out-of-box solution. The legal department is focused on complying with
current laws and regulations around how long to keep their content. Many weeks
have been spent on creating a folder structure that conforms to how the
software works, that is, if a file is moved to that folder, a retention policy
is applied, and the retention period starts. According to proven waterfall
methodology, a pilot is executed and signed off on. During go live, there are
issues with importing documents and the legal department can’t find their
content.
So, what happened with the frozen situation?
First, just because an ECM suite has a product/module for
sale that is named the buzzword you are trying to implement doesn’t mean that
it actually helps automate the process or simplify the ongoing work involved. In
many cases, the module is an “add-on” originally purchased from another company
to fill in the ECM suite offering. This could mean that the solution solves
issues of the companies who were involved with the pilot or beta of the product.
It definitely is designed to meet many general requirements, but will miss 20%
of yours, guaranteed.
Second, if the implementation analyst is a consultant,
chances are good that something will get screwed up. A good technical assurance
management is required to maintain a more balanced point of view, but most companies
don’t have them. They may have review boards, but this is not the same as a
person on the project who is directly responsible for successful
implementation.
Third, if your company is implementing records management
for the first time, or reviewing the retention policies in place, you might
want to look at healthcare EMRs for reference. Hospitals have been working
under HIPAA regulations for a long time. Their information management systems,
AKA EMR systems, are all about taxonomies, access control, and retention.
Chances are good that they currently keep all electric records indefinitely. This
is not a bad policy because ways of organizing information change over time.
Fourth, as content/info management technology improves, overzealous
records management implementations slow down upgrades, and changes in metadata
and folder hierarchies become major headaches.
Five, personnel changes create havoc around migrating “ownership”
of retained content. Does the system allow you to make user accounts “inactive”?
If the owner is deleted, does the retention period get reset?
Six, as far as the pilot is concerned, it is typical for a consultant to run unit tests as a super user and for a power user to UAT the pilot. The actual Users are not mandatory participants which is the big mistake. They need to make the time during the pilot beyond executing test scripts in order to fully vet the implementation. The should expect many issues, if there aren't, there will be after go-live.
The bottom line is that retention policies are overrated. I believe
the trend will be to simplify these implementations and make it easy to manage
in the future not harder…
