Corporate Records & Information Management - Investment
Manager
I. Records Management Department Objectives
Purpose of Records Management Program
- Control costs
- Streamline recordkeeping
- Ensure proper records retention
- Expedite the efficient provision of records & information
Goals & Objectives
- Service
- Space/expense reduction
- Protection/destruction
II. Document Life Cycle
- Creation/receipt
- Distribution
- Protection
- Creation = most important stage of the document life cycle, necessitates
all other stages of the document life cycle
- Active use
- Frequent reference
- Maintained on-site
- Provides current information
- Semi-active/inactive use
- Infrequent reference
- Retained for legal/business reasons
- Off-site storage > records centers
- Disposition
- Expired retention periods
- Legal/business needs no longer applicable
- Completion of cycle
- Destruction
III. 6 Essential Components for a Records Management Program
- Uniform Classification of Documents
- Easy to use
- Produces increased accessibility of information
- Minimizes unnecessary duplication of records
- Application of retention dates
- Create purge schedule
- Forms/Reports Management
- Standardizes forms/reports with corresponding
numbering system
- Analysis of paper & electronic forms/reports
- Establishing ordering/stocking arrangements
- Inactive Files Management
- Provision of an economical, secure storage facility
- Back-up media storage
- Provision of timely records retrieval
- Destruction of records that met retention requirements
Proper indexing is important for storing
inactive records:
- Need specific date ranges
- Avoid the use of abbreviations
- Use appropriate retention periods
- Retention Schedule
- Records are retained for legal, operational and/or historical
purposes
- Invalid records are destroyed
- Minimize requirements for filing equipment and space
Documents are retained to meet:
- Legal requirements - legal, regulatory and agency statutes
- Administrative needs - job performance
- Records Management Training
- Establish clear procedures and provide easy-to-read instructions
- Ongoing component of the records management program
- Training materials should be current to reflect changes in business
- Evaluate progress of training program
- Vital Records - an estimated 2% of records are considered vital
- Essential for business operations
- Emergency Preparedness Plan
- Enables:
- Continuation and/or resumption of operations
- Re-creation of legal & financial status of corporation
- Fulfillment of stockholder & employee obligations in case of disaster
IV. Retention Schedules for Electronic Records
Technical Challenges:
- Specific software/hardware environments
- Upgraded software must be backwards compatible
- Electronic storage media = limited life span
- Some information processing systems cannot maintain record content through time
Operational Challenges:
- Redundancy between electronic & non-electronic formats
- Limited control over creation, maintenance and deletion of electronic records
- Lack of standardized indexing classification of electronic records
- Identifying all copies of an electronic record
Legal Challenges:
- Remaining current with rules & regulations
- Few examples of case law which provide background & guidance
- Storing, retaining and indexing electronic records
V. Developing Retention Schedules for Electronic Records
- Identify business processes
- Identify & profile electronic systems, tools and associated records
- Perform records analysis & legal research
- Produce retention schedule
- Obtain approvals to finalize retention schedule
- Develop policies & procedures
- Implement retention schedule
- Conduct annual reviews
VI. Electronic Records Management - Problems & Issues
- Inadequate attention & consideration is given to the creation of records and organization and identification of electronic records
- Protection & security of electronic records is often overlooked
- Useful life of electronic records is significantly shorter than that of paper and microfilm records
- Unclear ownership status & management responsibility for electronic records
VII. Electronic Records Solutions
- Application of record series concept
- Inventory each computer & electronic imaging system
VIII. Fixed Disks, Directories and Subdirectories
- It is critical that records managers & PC users work closely together to organize PC-based records to facilitate precise & timely retrieval
- This can be achieved by:
- Developing a data dictionary/thesaurus to provide naming file consistency
- Relating file indexes for paper records to corresponding electronic records
- Records managers must work with end-users to organize PC-based records in such a way that will promote implementation of retention policies
IX. Archival Status of Electronic Records
- 3 options for the records manager:
- Preserve electronic records in ASCII format
- Rely on micrographic media for long-term & archival retention purposes
- Retain paper records
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