Records and Information Management (RIM) is a business component vital to organizational success, yet it is rarely an organization’s top priority. Underpinning RIM practices at an organizational level is imperative to meeting legal requirements for government agencies and businesses in highly regulated industries. Are you doing your annual file plan reviews? If yes, you are in great shape, right? Have you considered that organizations re-organize, information systems become obsolete, others get decommissioned, and regulations change? An annual file plan review alone will never account for all ..read more

The business world is dynamic:  people come and go, laws change, and business requirements change, but having a history of why your organization is retaining or deleting a record after a certain period of time will make it more comprehensible to your users, your management and your successors as records managers. A retention schedule is one of the most fundamental aspects of a records management policy. However, the retention periods can often seem arbitrary or obscure.  Information owners may wonder “Why are we keeping this for X years and that for Y years.”  The answer “Becau ..read more

Is Schroedinger’s cat alive or dead? The answer in quantum mechanics is that both are true.  Is a record subject to retention or disposition? Again, both can be true at once and no more so than when records are existing within event-based periods. It is clear when a record has a defined time-based retention period such as 5, 10, or 20 years.  It becomes more difficult when a disposition is based on an event, such as termination of a contract, termination of employment, end of a patent, etc.  How can an organization manage records when there is uncertainty as to the legal and bu ..read more

In the best circumstances, a well-crafted draft IG policy will sail through an approval process like a ship in warm water with strong breezes. Too often, though, the proposed policy hits an iceberg, which stops it in its tracks. At best, there’s little damage and the approval process can continue; at worst, the ship sinks and you head back to the drawing board. Here are five situations that commonly pose obstacles to quick policy approval, and how to get past them: 1. Too Much Baggage The policy is bloated with non-policy statements. Non-essential material that comes along for the ride unnece ..read more

The legal industry has earned its cautious reputation to “watch and wait” before adopting technology. But forward-looking organizations are increasingly turning to technology to automate processes, streamline operations, enhance customer service and collaboration, increase efficiency, and remain competitive. As technology continues to evolve and become more accessible, law firms need to stay on top of the latest legal tech advancements. In 2023, we see six significant trends that considerably impact the legal industry. These include artificial intelligence (AI), hybrid and remote work collabo ..read more

Why matter mobility management should now be a key competence for law firms Law firms need to get better at matter mobility for two reasons: it’s happening with increased frequency, plus poor matter mobility management can have significant negative impacts on the firm, as Chris Giles explains. Why is there more matter mobility now? Several factors are driving the increase. The first is that ever since 2008, corporate clients are much more cost-conscious and in pursuit of the best available deal. They will now hire and fire external counsel much more frequently. Second, lawyers are choosing to ..read more

Records managers, compliance, finance, information technology, legal, and privacy departments are all concerned with the proper management of information. For records managers, though, their primary focus is the proper management of information. For other functions, proper management of information is a tool used in achieving their objectives, but not necessarily their primary focus. For records managers to work well with compliance, finance, information technology, legal, and privacy departments, the records management department must become an essential tool for those departments. For tools ..read more

“Can anyone share their policy on…?” Hang around the myARMA community long enough and you’ll see this question pop up time and time again. On …retention …data …privacy …security—you name it, and someone has put out feelers to find a policy to use as a template for their own. We all know that even if there is no perfect IG policy, it can be very helpful to look at others’ documents as models for your own. Nevertheless, two points are worth noting. First, policies are reflective of a corporate context. What you find in other organizations’ policies is at best a product of their circumstances an ..read more

Effective project management requires a proactive approach to mitigating risk. Here are some proven strategies for making sure your projects stay on track. When beginning the planning phase of a project, one of the first things to consider is what can go wrong. This might sound pessimistic, but effective project managers know that a proactive approach to risk management is always better than leaving things to chance. Risks include anything that can potentially impact the performance, budget, timeline, or output of your project. This might include digital risks, such as data loss or data breac ..read more

Do information governance principles apply to your organization’s mailroom? Mail has typically been a perfunctory function aligned with other physical office services, but for many organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted mail to a critical—and digital—operation. Mail workflows include sensitive client information, launch new work, and therefore often billable activity. This means matter-centric record creation is starting right from mail delivery, not later from a pile on a desk—even if it is a digital pile on a virtual desk. Protection and integrity of client information have always ..read more