The Danish physicist Niels Bohr was right when he said,"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future." Perhaps at no time
in the history of records management has that been more appropriate than today.
Records management has been marked by slow, somewhat predictable, advances over
the last 9,000 years. Stone etchings gave way to clay tablets, followed by
animal skins, then paper and, finally, today's modern digital world. However,
today's world is changing at an unprecedented rate — making it difficult for professionals
to keep up and manage information effectively. Here are six predictions to help
you be prepared.
1. Privacy is the new driver
The last few months
have seen the US begin to take privacy seriously. From Google and Facebook being
squarely placed in politicians' sights, as these tech companies collect more
information than has even been possible, to information and security lapses,
ranging from Sony to financial services firms, privacy is becoming increasingly
important. Look for it to become even more important as politicians insist on
new rules. In Europe, the rules regarding privacy are complex and serious. Furthermore,
in February, the White House released a draft set of Internet privacy
regulations. We are only at the beginning of one of the most fundamental changes in how and
why we manage content.
2. Regulations increase
As if HIPAA and Sarbanes—Oxley weren't
enough, new records-related regulations continue to increase. Some, like the "Volcker Rule," designed to reduce
insider trading, will provide little usefulness but are effective at getting
supporters re-elected, as well as keeping records managers employed. Regulations
are second only to campaign promises for politicians: easy to say, and they
don't have to follow them.
3. The cloud
The "cloud" is already
here but is beginning to accelerate when it comes to content and records
management. Enterprise content management (ECM) cloud-based companies, like
Box.net, Dropbox and SpringCM, continue to gain customers at a rapid rate. Google
has indicated they will be getting into the space. Additionally, Microsoft is
adding functionality with their Office 365 program to complement their Azure
hosting services with SharePoint. As organizations look to reduce the size of
their data centers, they are increasingly learning that the cloud and
virtualization are vital.
4. SharePoint evolves
Ok, so SharePoint
doesn't provide 5015.2 records management functions out of the box, but a lot
of organizations are finding that they don't need it or turning to third-party
packages such as OmniRIM. SharePoint is one of the fastest-growing business
units at Microsoft, and it is replacing vast amounts of infrastructure,
including ECM and portals at many organizations. The move to the cloud
complicates SharePoint because most cloud implementations do not easily support
customizations. However, customizations have been what drive a lot of
SharePoint to date. Microsoft is pushing their new "Metro" interface for much
of their offerings, and it isn't clear whether future versions of SharePoint
will adopt Metro. SharePoint, thus, becomes the awkward teenager unsure of
where the product will go.
5. Some give up on records management
Google executives
famously suggested that organizations just keep everything and not worry about
records management (RM). However, smart organizations realized that liability
and other costs outweighed the policy of "keep everything." Yet, with the high
costs of implementing records management, a few organizations are beginning to
rethink the idea, veering to the ideology of "producing nothing" or "keeping
everything." For example, one huge French technology company banned email, and
some applauded them for it. Others have quietly changed corporate policies to just
begin keeping everything. While this approach is wrong for most, in a few cases,
the economic return on investment actually supports this approach. Look for
organizations to openly question "why" they do RM and why it costs so much.
6. Shared drive cleanup
Even organizations
that abandon traditional records management still want to control their storage
costs. Shared drive cleanup programs eliminate duplicates and "e-trash,"
resulting in significant cost savings. Payback
periods of less than a year are not uncommon. The savings aren't just from
storage: There are corresponding savings from backups, e-discovery and more. Organizations
looking to migrate from old ECM systems to new platforms can realize
significant savings by first doing the cleanup. The next few years will be
white-hot for these services.
At the end of the day,
it is difficult to predict the exact pace of these changes, but the forces
behind them continue to accelerate. Smart managers will begin planning while
cautiously anticipating the pace of change to only accelerate.
DAN
ELAM is one of the
nation's best-known experts on content and records management technology. He is
an AIIM Fellow, former US technical expert to the International Organization
for Standardization (ISO) and has presented on ECM to the Virginia Commission
on Government Reform and Restructuring. Mr. Elam has founded various companies
in the industry and serves as chief operating officer for New York City-based
RSC Solutions. For more, email delam@rscsolutions.com.
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