Build or Buy?

Like The World Bank, Ford decided to build its own records management application. The company worked with Documentum rather than adopting an off-the-shelf packages, because it wanted to integrate the records management application with the document repository. Adding this capability took a couple of weeks, Scheerhorn says. "It was very straightforward, and it made sense because of our scale."

Companies that haven’t already made big investments in document management or KM may be able to use a commercially available electronic records management system (ERMS). Barry says many do a good job at both document management and records management?which wasn’t the case until recently. "It used to be that you needed two components, one for document management and the other for records management," he explains. "Now, many of the ERMSs do just fine at document management. Companies should satisfy themselves that one system won’t meet their needs before they license two."

A national standard has emerged for ERMSs, thanks to the Department of Defense (DOD). In response to several court cases against the federal government in the 1990s, the DOD created a ERMS standard Records Management Application (RMA) standard. DOD tests records management software for compliance with the standard and certifies products that pass (for more information about the standard and records management, see DOD’s RMA Certification website at jitc.fhu.disa.mil/recmgt).

One weakness of records management systems, Barry warns, is that they don’t work well with ERP systems, but vendors are working on this problem. Meanwhile, linking your ERP systems to a records management system from scratch is difficult, he says.

CIOs Must Lead

With responsibility for record keeping diffused among different departments, most companies need someone to coordinate electronic records management. CIOs are logical leaders.

"Putting together a good plan for electronic records requires the skill of records managers, IT managers and legal counsel, not just one area," says Jessen. Unfortunately, there is often a disconnect between a company’s IT group and its records managers. CIOs can ensure that the right specialists work together and understand their combined objective.

That’s how it works at Procter & Gamble. CIO Steve David cosponsors the company’s records governance team, a committee with members from the legal, patent, information security, IT, operations, human resources and internal audit departments. The company is rolling out a combined document management and records management system similar to Ford’s. Jane Connerton, records manager for P&G, says David made sure the system balanced costs and productivity gains.