Sue,

I'm answering your question on the discussion forum because I think the answer will be of interest to the group. Currently, neither TRW (one of the DoE RM contractors) nor EPA have inplemented RMA's. EPA has an RMA working group to review and perhaps modify the 5015.2 standard to meet EPA RM requirements. The group is also evaluating the RMA's that have certified. A friend of mine (John Hoppe, an RM contractor with EPA) tells me that they are at least two years away from implementing. The story is the same at TRW. They use DM and groupware tools but have not installed an RMA.

Both EPA and TRW recognize that desktop RMA's don't work as advertised unless users have some knowledge of basic records management and understand why it's necessary to keep good records. So both have established training programs. TRW has an RM totorial that is distributed to every employee via e-mail. All employees have to take the tutorial and notify the records manager's office when they have completed it. At EPA, a two-day RM seminar is offered and all employees are strongly encouraged to take it.

I think there's a lesson here. Organizations who are contemplating automating the RM process with a desktop application need to provide end-users with basic RM training up front. In the NRL HRO (where they are trying to implement E.power), that didn't happen. At the last training I did here, all but one of the attendees was from HRO. All the HRO attendees now have Documentrix on their desktops, all are about to be handed ForeMost, and all had discovered that they needed to know how to manage records.

Dean

Dean

-- Anonymous, November 20, 1998

Answers

Dean,

I agree with your response. While I have not experienced trying to implement a RMA, I have sensed this was going to be a problem. Too many of us are hoping that the RMA will be the answer to our needs. Whether it will or not remains to be seen. What is becoming clear is that there is much work to be done to implement automated solutions. What is clear is that emphasis on records management is becoming more necessary if organizations hope to gain control of the information explosion. There is a real challenge ahead of us!

Henry

-- Anonymous, November 20, 1998