Everyone,

If you'll indulge me, I have a quote for you out of an article called "Organizational Information Maintenance Plans, Part II" in the December 1998 issue of the Records and Information Management Report. The article is by Ann Balough, CRM, who is the editor of the RIM Report.

"In most organizations, management responsibility for information differs by the medium and age of the information. As a result, the system is fragmented. We could handle the problem when most information was on paper. Paper is amenable to reorganization and rescue from poor information keeping habits. However, the increase in choices of media means that muddling by with mediocre management of information has greater penalties. First, it becomes harder to know where all the information is. Second, it becomes harder to ensure that complete, accurate, and acceptable records are kept....Third, the responsibility for information can become increasingly fragmented."

What's implied here is that information is an enterprise-wide commodity, an asset, a knowledge resource. Viewed in that light, its value as a resource disappears when it is defined in terms of medium, use, age, or other factors, and controlled by generally mid-level employees who preside over separate enclaves that have little contact with each other or with other activities in the organization. As long ago as 1985, IT was recognized as an organizational asset that had to be managed and controlled on an enterprise-wide basis. It is time that iformation itself, a subset of which is official or business records as identified by statute and accepted practice, be managed in the same way.

The "Intelligence Community (IC)Information Systems Strategic Plan" that I mentioned recently on this forum, a copy of which I provided to Charley and Irv for eventual posting, calls for the establishment in the IC of a "Records Management Council" akin to the statutorily mandated CIO Council. The Strategic Plan says, "An Intelligence Commmunity RM Council is the first essential step in the process toward successful implementation of [an enterprise-wide information and records management program]. The role of the RM Council is to insure that there is a consistant strategy for records management in the IC. The IC RM Council will be the steering committee and planing body that will partner with the...IC Chief Information Officer (CIO) to insure that records management is effectively integrated into the [business] process." (IC Strategic Plan, p. 9)

Here is the key element in a blueprint for the establishment of an RM program that is responsible for an organization's entire knowledge resource, that sets policy, establishes practices and procedures, provides training and oversight, and insures uniform and effective management at every level. If one needed an argument or a business case for the inclusion of RM with IT at the CIO level, this is it.

Dean

-- Anonymous, January 13, 1999