AIIM Knowledge Center Blog

Whose vision is it?

 

Business organizations need visions. Not the kind related certain decades, vision of direction. Visions of where the organization is to be in the future. Visions that indicate what we hope to accomplish as an overarching goal. Increased revenue, expansion into new markets and enhanced products and services are all good visions, but whose vision is it and do the workers know and share in that vision?

Think about this for a moment. When you hear a corporate vision statement do you know where it came from? Is it the CEO or the Executive Board that had the vision? Is the vision being shared across the organization? If you were to ask the employees about the vision of the organization’s future, would they know it and even if they did, would they understand their role in making the vision reality?

In my view, sharing the vision is critical to the success of any organization and reiterating it from time to time is not a bad thing at all. In fact it is a way to keep the workforce on target and focused. Another aspect of this is to identify Critical Success Factors (CSF) tied to the vision along with Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure if the goals have been reached. If part of the vision is a reduction in operating costs and you are working with the legal department, a CSF might be to reduce discovery costs by 50% within a year. The measure in this case could be the dollar figure of say $2M annually spent on discovery. Success in the case is reduction to $1M or less a year after implementation with regular measurements taken and the results published to let the organization know and share in the success.

Having a vision is good but if no one knows what it is, understands their role in achieving the goals of the vision or they do not see the results, it is a hollow vision that will not likely come to fruition. Create a vision. Share the vision. Let the organization know their role in achieving the vision and promote your successes to keep focus and support. It is not a sure fire equation but it does work.  

What say you? How are you sharing the vision and working to reach the goals? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

I will also be in Chicago delivering an ECMp workshop at the Document Strategy Forum on October 6th and 7th. Will you be there?

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

Try it!

Have you ever been in a situation where you know something has to be done yet nothing gets done? You know it is time for a change yet change is not happening? It’s as if the organization has become paralyzed and even though everyone knows something has to happen, nothing does. This is a scenario I have seen played over and over during my career and one that is called organizational paralysis.

Imagine for a moment that your organization is now facing new regulatory constraints mandating a move to a more digital world with enhanced tracking and communications capabilities. While this is a positive step forward for the industry, there may be little guidance as to how you can make it happen. Using healthcare as an example, based on the differing perspectives within your enterprise there may be differences in the definition of what constitutes a complete patient record. Some may view it as MRI, CT, and X-Ray while others may see it as admissions, pharmacy and billing. Fact is they are all part of a patient record. The question now is how do you capture and manage all of this digital information securely?  Even if you do work out a solution, how do you then communicate this information to external organizations authorized to receive it, like the insurance providers? Looking at it from this more holistic view, many organizations never leave the starting gate.

All of these topics can bring about a state of paralysis for some organizations. I used healthcare as the example here, but I have seen it in many other vertical segments as well. In my view, you need to take some steps to move your organization forward. You need to establish a baseline understanding of what a record is and means for your organization. You need to assess what information exists within that definition and how it must be managed in accordance with the regulations for your industry. You need to plan the approach you will use and garner the support of the entire organization. I know I am making it sounds simple, realizing it is not, but I also believe you have to take steps and try it if you are to succeed. Standing still and hoping things work out is not a sound practice and will get you into trouble eventually so go ahead and take the first steps even it is to gain new insight through education. It is better to try something and learn than to sit idle and wonder.

 

What say you? How are you mapping processed? Do you ask why? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

I will also be in Chicago delivering an ECMp workshop at the Document Strategy Forum on October 6th and 7th. Will you be there?

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

Why?

This is perhaps one of the most annoying questions ever, yet in recent years it has become one of my favorites and what I consider to be a most important question when looking at process. I say it is annoying because to me it brings back memories of a time when my children were growing up and when asked to do something, they would always answer with, “why?” I would then say because…. And they would say, “Why?” It always felt like I was being challenged, that my authority or what I believed was authority was being questioned by a 3 year old. Who are they to ask why, they should just do. I am the parent they are the children and they need to do. Yet their curious little minds wanting to absorb and understand kept their mouths in motion asking, “Why?” What does this have to do with process?

When I It is now my favorite role when I am mapping a process, to become toddler like and continue to ask the most annoying question ever, “why?” We need to know where information comes from in a process and where the process begins. We need to know how the process flows through an organization and where it ends. We need to know what activities take place in the process and who performs them but we also need to know why. Why does it happen the way it does? Why do these individuals get this information and why do they do what they do with it? Why did the organization choose this process flow? Was it by design or out of need? Why don’t we do it differently?

In my view, for every question asked and activity uncovered in a process, we should become toddler like and ask the question, “why?” We should not take for granted that this is the way it needs to be and the only way things can get done. In order to improve we must understand the detail of what we do and why we do it the way we do. Are there regulatory reasons for the way process flows and the activities we take on to get the job done or is there a better way to do this more efficiently? Why are there 16 steps to a process when a more natural order might be only 6 steps? Did exception become a rule? Why are we following a serial flow when a parallel process would help streamline the process and shave days or even weeks of processing times?

Unless you understand what the current realities are and the reasons for them, it will be difficult to implement change. So I encourage you to take the time and map your processes, document the activities and actors involved in the process and ask the toughest and most annoying question in history, “Why?” 

 

What say you? How are you mapping processed? Do you ask why? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• Kirkland 09/29/09 - 10/02/09
• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

I will also be in Chicago delivering an ECMp workshop at the Document Strategy Forum on Monday October 6th and 7th. Will you be there?

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

Dude! Just go with the flow

You know the path of least resistance. The natural order of things is the way work should happen. The question is what it the natural order of a process? To many it is the logical way information in this case, moves through an organization. It is the natural process in which transactions and activities should take place. Yet this is not as simple a scenario as one might think. In order to understand natural order and if the natural order or flow is appropriate, we need to take an in-depth look at the process, actors, activities and reasons for the process.

Many processes I have seen and dealt with over the years have come about serendipitously, meaning they happened out of need rather than planning. One way to understand the flow and determine if there is a natural order and if it is in play is to create a detailed map of the process. I know I am making it sound easy and in reality it is a serious and time consuming effort but it is one that is critical to improving your operations. An approach I have used in the past it to take the perspective of following the information trail. This can be done from the starting point or reverse engineered from the end point. In either case we are trying to find out where the information comes from when it enters a process. Who is getting the information and what is the reason the get it? What does this person do with the information and is this step adding value or is it there for no apparent reason? Perhaps it is an approval process and the activity is nothing more than rubber stamping rather than a review. You should also ask why. Why is this step in place and why do we do this? If the step is removed, what impact would there be if any? Finally, where does the information go when it exits the process?

To some this may seem like a lot of effort for nothing and to others it is a logical sequence since fundamentally we cannot improve something if you do not know the current state. Likewise if you are looking for the natural order, you will not find it until you know the outcome or goal of the process. In my view, using simple tools and techniques like flowcharting will help map and document the process as well as communicate your findings for validations. Once you have this documentation in hand, you can analyse your findings and look for a natural order. When you find it, you can then ask if there is a reason the natural order cannot be used such as regulatory constraints dictating certain things must happen as part of the operational process.

Process improvement and enhancement can only occur when you know the desired outcome of the process and what you have in place today. Once you have these, you can determine change and how to implement change as well as measurements to monitor and ensure the changes you have made deliver the anticipated results.

What say you? How are you managing process mapping? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• Kirkland 09/29/09 - 10/02/09
• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

I will also be in Chicago delivering an ECMp workshop at the Document Strategy Forum on Monday October 6th and 7th. Will you be there?

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

 

I didn't know I shouldn't delete those emails!

Well folks, it looks like this is one of those weeks. It is a week of reminders that our content and records management practices and policies are important. Yesterday I pointed out that the Florida AG identified text messages as records that need to be captured and maintained. Today, I will cite email and the example I will use was also in the news. It is a story I read on the TechRepublic blog titled “Think you don’t have to archive your email?” In this story, we are presented with the familiar situation where an employee deleted emails stating lack of awareness this was not proper procedure.

In this case, it is a top aide to Tom Menino the Mayor of Boston who is allegedly at fault. Massachusetts state law requires municipal employees to keep all email for two years. In this case, the destruction of these emails is a clear violation of that law. When the aide was questioned about this, the response was that he thought email was automatically captured by a mechanism in place and maintained at city hall. It was also reported that this is not the first incident of this nature for the Mayor’s office and that while there is now an email archiving solution in place, it only addresses the capture of email after it has been in the user in-box for 90 days.

In my view, this is another example of no clear policy, no means of auditing for enforcement of the policy and a major risk to the organization as a whole since a defense of not knowing is no longer considered acceptable with regard to proper content and records management. This is also a clear example that technology alone will not fix an underlying issue and is not the total solution. Organizations need to look at technology as part of a complete environment. Policies, processes and people are also part of this equation. There must be policies in place to address email and email management. The must be processes in place to support adherence to those policies. People need to be trained on the policies and processes. Technology is applied as the tool to help the people adhere and maintain compliance. Regular audits should be conducted to monitor the environment and ensure adherence. Unless all of these pieces are in place, the organization might be at risk and the unfortunate situation presented here may unfold before your very eyes.

What say you? How are you managing governance of email? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• Kirkland 09/29/09 - 10/02/09
• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

I will also be in Chicago delivering an ECMp workshop at the Document Strategy Forum on Monday October 6th and 7th. Will you be there?

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

Florida AG: Text Messages are records

It is no surprise to me that last week that according to the news media, Bill McCollum Florida’s Attorney General, announced that smart phone text messages from his office will be considered public record going forward. What is surprising is that it took this long to happen and that I have not seen more of this from other government and private organizations. Text messages that are correspondence related to business activity should be treated the same as any other content and record and in government, this perspective should be even more dominant. The only difference between a text message and other types of correspondence is the form it takes. As such, it is the content that should determine the value and need to capture.

 

In my view, Instant Messaging, Audio files, Video files, Email and any other tool used for content creation and communication should be part of an overarching governance plan. Who uses it? How is it used? Is it even allowed? Who is responsible to capture the content and bring it into the corporate repository? There should be no doubt that it is the content that has value and not the device that determines the need to capture. Those authorized to use tools like those discussed here and tools we will see in the future, should be trained in their proper use and held accountable to uphold the governance policies of the organization in relation to their use. The question is whether or not there are policies in place to address them.

 

The unfortunate but also not surprising part of this story is that the actions taken are in response to accusations made that staffers of the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC), the power regulator, had given out private Blackberry access numbers to a Florida Power and Light Company executive. As a result, FPSC is now under investigation for possible improper communication between them and the power company. The reason I say this is unfortunate is that it is a typical driver for an organization; when something happens, address it. The best practice is to be proactive. Address changes in technology and information management as it surfaces. Assess the risk and modify governance policies appropriately, before it is too late. I know this is a lot of work, but isn’t it better to pay $100 now to avoid paying thousands later in fines and litigation costs?

 

What say you? How are you managing governance of smart phones, text messages, Email, and the many other tools available today? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• Kirkland 09/29/09 - 10/02/09
• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

 

Enterprise 2.0 Market Trends

AIIM Enterprise 2.0 Industry Watch presentation

View more presentations from Atle Skjekkeland.

The full report is available from www.aiim.org/research

Signs of economic progress

 

Many of the economic pundits now say there is a light at the end of this economic tunnel. I have even heard them say that the downturn has bottomed and we are now seeing a levelling with even progress in an upward direction. But we know things are still tough out there. We also know that training and travel have been two of the hardest hit budget lines in recent times meaning the training you have sought to attend and knowledge you had hoped to gain may have had to take a back seat. We have also heard from many who wanted to take advantage of our AIIM Educational Stimulus plan but did not have enough time to get through the approval process. Not to worry.

Here at AIIM, your industry association, we are committed to ensuring that our members are continually striving for success and bringing best practices and ROI to their organization. So rather than end our summer offer of 30% off ECM Master Classes we have decided to continue the offer, and add extra classes in other programs to the list. Through 2009 attend any of these 4 day Master Classes in either ECM, ERM or E2.0 at a discounted rate. Why delay?

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) – Learn how to take control of your information assets

 

Sept 29–Oct 2, 2009 - Seattle, WA

Oct 13-16, 2009 - New York City, NY

Oct 27-30, 2009 - Toronto, ON

Nov 10-13, 2009 - San Francisco, CA

Nov 17-20, 2009 - Houston, TX

Dec 1-4, 2009 - San Diego, CA

Dec 8-11, 2009 - Philadelphia, PA

For further information, and the course agenda go to www.aiim.org/ecmtraining

Electronic Records Management (ERM) – Learn how to take control of your electronic records

 

Oct 20-23, 2009 - Phoenix, AZ

Nov 10-13, 2009 - San Diego, CA

Dec 1-4, 2009 - Silver Spring, MD

Dec 15-18, 2009 - Tampa, FL

For further information, and the course agenda go to www.aiim.org/ermtraining

Enterprise 2.0 – Learn how to use Web 2.0 technologies to improve collaboration and innovation across the enterprise

Oct 20-23, 2009 - Silver Spring, MD

For further information, and the course agenda go to www.aiim.org/e20training

Registration prices are $1893.50 for AIIM Members and $2086 for non Members. This includes 6 months access to the online materials, four days classroom tuition (including breakfast and lunch), and access to the exam and case study material to gain your AIIM Master designation.

Registration is simple. You can do this via www.aiim.org/training use the promotional code C6FD5J when registering to apply the discount. Alternatively you can call +1 301 755 2631 or email training@aiim.org and we can process immediately or create an invoice.

 

For more information on any of these classes go to www.aiim.org/training

We look forward to seeing you there.

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

 

Know your Geography

I once asked someone if they know their geography in relation to ECM. The response was “The United States is below Canada and above Mexico. I know my geography, what is the big deal and what does ECM have to do with it?” From a technology perspective, it has little to nothing to do with it but from a regulatory perspective, it has everything to do with it. What may be acceptable here may not be acceptable in other countries and if you have information stored outside the United States, say in Italy, you need to know the regulatory requirements of Italy and establish policy, process and technology that support compliance in Italy. If the laws of Italy state information of certain types are not allowed out of the country, and you access it via a web interface from here in the U.S. there is a strong chance the law or at least the intention of the law has been broken and you could be prosecuted even if the information is still resident on the server in Italy.

Countries aside, there are differences from state to state and county to county so you need to understand what compliance for each. As an example, in one state it might be acceptable to use electronic signature tablets for use in signing contracts, provided the device has certain technological capabilities like biometric recording and encryption to ensure the integrity of the document and validate authenticity. In a neighboring state, this same scenario might not be acceptable and the signature requirement may still be hard copy with wet blue ink. This not only changes the approach you will use to capture that information but also the process to capture and manage it.

In my view, while this may see, like a daunting task, if you address this at the beginning phase of your project and add legal counsel to your team for guidance, it will put you in better position to minimize your risk and establish a solid ECM environment that is compliant, defensible and manageable as the regulatory landscape changes and technology advances.

What say you? How are you managing geographic compliance? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organization are doing.

 

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ECM Certificate course in:

• Kirkland 09/29/09 - 10/02/09
• New York 10/13/09 - 10/16/09
• Toronto 10/27/09 - 10/30/09
• San Francisco 11/10/09 - 11/13/09
• Houston 11/17/09 - 11/20/09
• San Diego 12/01/09 - 12/04/09

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

blarrivee@aiim.org

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.

 

ERM Comes to Switzerland

The following post was submitted by my UK colleague, Alex Visser.

It should not be surprising that a land such as Switzerland, known among other things for its banking industry, would be interested in records management. And let me tell you they are. Last week the first AIIM Electronic Records Management (ERM) course was given and it looks like there will have to be more in the near future, as there were more people wanting to attend then there were places available.

Ludwig Gantner and Jurg Hagmann wanted to offer the members of the VSA the possibility to attend the AIIM course locally in the lovely town of Basel, instead of having to travel to the UK or Netherlands where these courses are regularly given as public courses for anybody who would like to learn more. So on Tuesday morning there was a room full of records managers, IT people and people in other roles that had to deal with information that would have to be stored as a record.

Of course there was the discussion of what is a record? This discussion always takes place and should also take place in the organization when looking at records management. During the discussion it quickly became apparent that everybody wanted to pass the bucket to the next role. IT people were quick to say that they need to get the requirements and specifications but that they, correctly, cannot determine what constitutes records. The legal people said that the law is in this case not descriptive and prescriptive so that they would probably only be able to determine a few information types that need to defined a record. The record managers were then looked at with a look that said: well you have the term record in your title so you should know.  However they also said we can only tell part of the story since many documents are records because of their value to the organization and only the people in the departments can define that value. Off course the business people said but we don’t know anything of records management so how can we determine what are records.

This discussion came back several times over the 4 days and the understanding grew with everybody that this crucial decision, of what is a record, can only be determined by group effort. Everybody has to provide their feedback in this discussion to come to an answer. The team that is created will also continue to work together after this initial discussion has been resolved, since records management is not an one shot thing but rather a programme with a continuing need to take care of the crucial type of information that we call records.

 

So after 4 days of sharing experience and having some strong arguments everybody left happy with more knowledge and the realization that we do not stand alone but need to work on this as a team. A team that can look each other in the eyes and ask tough questions but like the attendees in Basel leave happy, looking forward to continue as friends and colleagues to make sure we can always find that piece of information that we call a record. Or in the words of one person: “We can see the water rising and we will make sure that we are ready in time with the boat called Record Management.”

What say you? What perspective do you have when trying to identify records? Do you have a story to tell? I want to hear from you and learn what you and your organizations are doing.

Looking to increase your level of knowledge? Join us for the ERM Certificate Course

Phoenix, AZ 10/20 – 10/23

San Diego, CA 11/10 – 11/13

Silver Spring, MD 12/01 – 12/04

Tampa, FL 12/15 – 12/18

We look forward to seeing you there.

Bob Larrivee – AIIM

Follow me on twitter – BobLarrivee and remember to visit www.aiim.org/training and www.informationzen.org, AIIM’s free social network created just for you.