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
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.
Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!
Posted by: Dissertation Ideas | October 23, 2009 at 02:32 AM