What Are Records?

What are records?

Records are the evidence of what the organization does. They capture its business activities and transactions, such as contract negotiations, business correspondence, personnel files, and financial statements, just to name a few.

Records come in many formats:
- physical paper in our files
- electronic messages
- content on the website, as well as documents residing on PDA's, flash drives, desktops, servers
- information captured on various databases

When there's a lawsuit, all of these, including copies that individuals have retained or deleted, may be identified as a discoverable.

What Are The Components of a Corporate RIM (Records Information Management) Program

A comprehensive corporate program for systematic management of recorded information includes the following components:

• Written policy directives that define corporate records, emphasize their value as corporate assets, affirm corporate ownership of recorded information associated with a company's business operations, and articulate the purpose and scope RIM initiatives
• Standard operating procedures for storage, retrieval, dissemination, protection, preservation, and destruction of recorded information associated with all business operations
• Systematically developed retention guidelines that specify how long records are to be kept and fully address a company's legal, fiscal, regulatory, and administrative requirements, as determined through consultation and collaboration with corporate legal, tax and finance departments as well as knowledgeable personnel in other business units
• Procedures for the timely, secure destruction of corporate records when their prescribed retention periods elapse, including provisions for suspending the destruction of records if warranted by litigation
• Design and implementation of manual and computerized methods for convenient retrieval and dissemination of recorded information when needed
• Cost-effective arrangements for storing inactive records that need to be retained for legal, fiscal, regulatory, or administrative reasons
• Policies and procedures for identifying and protecting records deemed essential for continuity of mission-critical business operations
• Training plans and programs for company employees regarding the above
  

How Does Record Information Management Save Money?

1. By ensuring compliance with recordkeeping requirements contained in legal statues and government regulations, thereby avoiding costly fines or other penalties, including criminal penalties to which executives may be subject.

2. By minimizing storage requirements (office space, equipment, and supplies) for recorded information.

3. By reducing the time and effort required to reconstruct mission-critical information in the event of a disaster, theft, or loss.

4. By reducing the labor requirements for organization, retrieval, and dissemination of recorded information.

5. By reducing the risks and burdens of pre-trial discovery in civil litigation and government investigations.