Unfortunately the session on RM training and education we hoped to get to this afternoon wasn’t available. It’s too bad because another very common talking point at this conference has been about what a big challenge it is to get individuals in any organization to buy into and follow RM programs, so we were hoping to get a fresh perspective on it.
If other members of the team managed to get another seminar on it, we’ll report back.
We went instead to What’s Electric About Electronic Discovery? with Don Swanson and Scott Carlson. Pretty informative stuff. They walked us through the Electronic Discovery Reference model, demonstrating and emphasizing the role RM has to play in minimizing the impact of litigation on organizations.
Interestingly, Carlson asked the group (about 200 people) how many of their organizations had been involved in litigation in the last five years, and easily 90% of the room raised their hands!
The basic message was that the less unnecessary information an organization keeps, and the better organized what they do keep is, the less the cost of any discovery will be.
Both presenters worked outside the RM industry, and they both commented on how they have seen the value proposition of RM explode in the last 5 years. Good news!
They did leave us with an interesting question to ponder: in the event of discovery (or similar event) when copies of your records go “outside your for walls”, what happens to it? How do you ensure that they are being managed properly?
If you’ve got any thoughts or experience on this, let us know.
