I’ve been talking a lot about Information Governance of late. The reason I’ve been doing it is because if it simply becomes a term used in place of Records Management we will have wasted an opportunity. Information Governance is different. It needs to be different.
Records Management failed. We need a new approach. Information Governance has the potential to be that new approach, if we tackle it correctly. If we get lazy, we will be fighting the same battles for another decade.
Welcome to weird, mystical world where we are now permitted to get rid of expired information. I phrase it like that because we live in a world where we are permitted to dispose of information, but never automatically.
How many hours are lost reviewing information in order to determine if it is okay to remove? How much information is kept because we are unsure? Why do we even need to get rid of information?
That last question is easy to answer and not in the way you expect.
Protecting our information is, in many ways, the trickiest concept in making Information Governance profitable. To many people, it is the same as controlling information. After all, how can you protect information if you don’t control it first?
I have a better question. How can you protect information if you don’t capture and organize it? How can you even control something that you aren’t protecting?
The real problem is that too many organizations blend control and protect into one concept or set of rules. They are distinct and need to be treated as such.
I talked last week how the first, and more critical, step of any Content Management System (CMS) is to actually capture information in the system. After it has been captured, information needs to be organized and categorized, which leads to the proper application of Information Governance principles.
The question is, How do we organize and categorize information today?
The simple answer is, Poorly.
This isn’t an indictment against the newer cloud vendors like Box and Google that don’t have a way for people to categorize information outside of tags and a folder hierarchy. The problem goes deeper. This is a problem born from complex metadata schemes and the desire to categorize something into a system that can appear as complex as the Dewey Decimal system.
This is as much about process as technology.
In May, I will be speaking on a panel on The Economics of a Successful ILG Program at the Document Strategy Forum in Connecticut. When Joe Shepley first asked me to speak, I was a little hesitant. Explaining how a successful Information Governance program contributes to the bottom line has been one of the greatest challenges for the industry.
Joe assured me that it would be easy. This is the same Joe that wrote that nobody cares about compliance because it doesn’t pay. I heartily concurred with that assessment. Now I am talking about how it does pay.
What have I done?
I’ve been talking for a while about how we need to mix things up in the space. Records Management as we know it is dead and it has dragged Enterprise Content Management (ECM) down with it. We need to completely change things to get back on track.
While I was attending the ARMA conference, ARMA’s president, Julie Colgan, said that Records Management needed to evolve. I said that it wasn’t enough. Records Managers need to revolt against the system and change things. Julie saw the comment on twitter and promised a response.
Well, today Julie gave a response.
I also believe that RIM needs a revolution, but in order to get there, we first need the professionals in the space to be ready to revolt.
Let’s face it. As much as Records Management, and ECM as a whole, has failed, the needs for proper Information Governance has not changed. Organizations still have the same requirements.
We need to work WITH the Records Management professionals. We need to work together to find a way to meet the requirements of the organization while addressing the central failure point, which is that existing solutions make every employee a Records Manager.
They don’t want to be Records Managers.
I personally welcome ARMA to the battle. The members of ARMA have knowledge that we need. They also have ideas. I saw many speakers at the conference calling for a new approach. We need to learn how to relieve people from the burden of managing records to allow them to focus upon their jobs.
Shall we start a revolution together?
[Note: For a webinar discussion inspired by this post, head over here.]
Next week I will be at the ARMA Conference in Vegas. While I will be there in support of Alfresco, I have a secondary purpose. I want to brainstorm with attendees on how we can make Records Management (RM) simple.
The reason is straightforward. Adoption of RM systems by end-users is horrible. We have spent most of the past two decades forcing non-Records Managers to act and think as Records Managers. It is a failed approach. We need to work on creative ways to shift from a world where success is the exception to where success is the rule.
Yesterday, Joe Shepley wrote an incredible post on the simple fact that No One Cares about Compliance. While an overstatement, it is true. When it comes time to invest the money, organizations don’t care.
Sure, everyone sees the need, but they don’t do it. It is too hard, too expensive, and prone to failure. There are too many project with a better promise of success. If those things weren’t true, everyone would be compliant and conferences like ARMA would be celebrations of success, not spent drowning sorrows in beer.
Yesterday, Joe shared some realities from his time in the field. I’m going to do the same.
I’ve been ranting on and off for a while that Information Management has failed because we haven’t met the needs of the user. This is leaving the market open for the Cloud vendors to try and disrupt the Content Management market.
What I haven’t delved into is that the primary reason we have been failing is also the key to the potential success of the Cloud vendors…Records Management.
In March, I gave a keynote at the annual AIIM Conference. It was based upon my post, Silicon Valley’s War on the Enterprise. I’ve been hoping to share the video with everyone, but that doesn’t seem probable due to some bad luck.
Given that it is a very text-light presentation, I am going to try something new. I’m going to walked you through the whole thing…..
Seriously, it is.
Word of Pie 