Bsi bip 0025 1 2002

Effective Records Management Part 1 A management guide to the value of BS ISO 1 5489 1 Effective records management — Part 1 A management guide to the value of BS ISO 1 5489 1 David Best Ref BIP 0025[.]

Par 1: A management guide to the value of BS ISO 15489-1

Part 1: A management guide t o

t he v alue of BS ISO 1 5489- 1

Dav id Best

la i ty fo any lo s o damag e caus d , arising d ir ectly o in ir ctly in c n e tion with r lanc on

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BIP 0 2 - 1 ISBN 0 5 0 3 0 7 1

Foreword i

2 Be efits of a stan ard -driv en ap roac h t o rec ord man g me t 5

3 Rec ord ma a eme t a d k now le g ma a ement 9

4 Th role of rec ord ma ag me t in c orporat e gov ern nc e 13

5 How t o d v elo a rec ord man g me t st rat egy : s c t or spec ific ex ample 19

Bibl ogra hy / Referenc s 2

Figure 1 Th rec ord ma a eme t lfe c y c le 3

Ta le 1 Relat ion hip b t w ee rec ord ma ag me t a d k now le g

All busine s s, whethe priv ate o publc s ctor , r ely on infor mation an r c r ds to c nd uct their

afair in a sy stematic an leg aly c mplant way The strateg ic manag ement of r ec rds an

info mation is e s ntial to this pr c s an nev er mo e s than in an ag e of e-c mme c an

e-g ov er nment W ith a ra id ly chang ing an d ev eloping busine s c ntext the e ar c nsid era le

o g anizational benefits to ad opting a c nsistent an stan ard iz d a pr ach to the manag ement

of r c rd s an info mation

In Octobe 2 01 the fir t inte national stand ard fo the manag ement of r c rd s, was lau ched in

Montr al, Canad a The two-p rt publcation of Stand ard an Te h ical R epo t, implemented in

the United King dom as BS ISO 15 8 -1:2 01 an PD ISO/TR 15 8 -2:2 01 wer e the culmination

of thr e y ear ’ wo k b a g roup of inte national ex pe ts to sy nthe iz be t pr actic fr m ar u d

the wo ld in the strateg ic manag ement of r c r ds This Stand ard an Te h ical Repor t ar

a plca le to multinational c mp nie an smal ente pris s alke an pr ov id e an e s ntial to l

fo the manag ement of r c rd s an info mation

The Stand ard pr v id es a framewo k within which the ne e sary manag ement of r c rd s an

info mation can take plac This publcation is the fir t in a s rie of publcations on r c rds

manag ement sup o ted b BSI an is intend ed to c mplement the Stan ard an Te h ical

Repor t an help plac them in c ntex t fo the us r The publcations ex pan on the framewo k

that the Stand ard cr eate an pr v id e both inte pr tation an i ustration of g ood practic Each

v olume has be n writ en pr d ominantly fr m the United King d om per spe tiv e b lead ing United

King d om practitione s, who hav e fir st hand , practical ex e ienc of, an insig ht into, the is ue

facing United King d om o g anizations today

I can wholeheartedly r c mmen this info mativ e s rie to the r ad er, which pr v ide insig ht

into the a plcation of both BS ISO 15 8 -1:2 01 an PD ISO/TR 15 8 -2:2 01

The othe bo ks in this s rie ar :

— BIP 0 2 -2:2 0 , Ef ct ve r ec r d s ma na gement — Pa rt 2: Pr a ct ca l implementa tion o

1.1 The standard

BS ISO 15 8 -1 is the fir t s and ard on records manag ement and has it ro t in the

fir t ever Aus ralan national s and rd on records manag ement, AS 4 9 -1/6 I is

ac omp nied b a Tech ical Repor , PD ISO/TR 15 8 -2, which provides fur her detais

an ex planation tog ether with a method olog y for implementing the s and rd Both

publcations are implementations of ISO d ocument PD ISO/TR 15 8 -2 is an

implementation g uid e for record s manag ement profes ionals ( and other ) who hav e

be n as ig ned responsibi ty for manag ing their org anization’s records

This bo k summariz s the case for implementing records manag ement at an

a propriate lev el in mos if not al org anizations

1.2 W hat does rec ords management hav e t o do w it h me?

W hether y our org anization is in the publc or priv te sec or, records manag ement is of

vital impor ance I wi l and do s afec almos ev ery area of corporate afair The

a pl cation of the new s and rd, BS ISO 15 8 -1, is not merely more red ta e I is the

fir t comprehensive atempt for some year to bring the relev nce of records

manag ement to the awarenes of manag ement in g eneral, rather than jus to the

special s record s manag er I do s this b a comprehensiv e an rea a le des ription of

what makes up a proper and profes ional records manag ement sys em, comprising

polcies, proced ures, s and ards and tech olog ies

There are many wel publciz d ev ent and subjec s where records manag ement has

had a sig nificant role in either the dis ov ery of problems and/or the recov ery fom those

event in the las few y ear , in b nking , indus ry, commer e and the media

In each of these cases, the presence ( or in some cases a sence) of g ood record s

manag ement ha a material imp c on the out ome There are many more that are not

in the publ c domain In some cases these record s were phy sical, in some cases dig ital,

1.3 W hat does t his guide c ov er?

In e ac h sec tio n, where po ssible , c ase studie s have be e n use d to info rm or illu m inate the te xt

The key point of this publ cation are as folows

• Proper recording of the t ansac ions of the org anization is es ential, not jus in the

areas of finance and prod uc ion but also in al the org anization’s ac ivities This

remains t ue ind ependent of sec or , thoug h some sec or diferences are hig hl g hted,

for ex mple betwe n reg ulated and unreg ulated an publc and priv ate sec or

busines es

• Records prov ide the raw material for the ex ploitation of information a out:

– intelec ual proper y;

– the cus omer;

– a rang e of sup l er information; and

– how to s reamlne cos or enhance produc iv ity in:

• The p y back on the implementation cos can be ra id, but the s rateg y for achiev ing

such result should be set out in a v nce and should be clear and ag re d b al

senior manag ement interes s

• An u der tanding of the b sic is ues of records manag ement b senior manag er is

therefore very impor ant and in some cases forms p r of g ood corporate g ov ernance

• The benefit ( which are also des ribed in BS ISO 15 8 -1) f om the point of v iew of

a prac ising senior manag er are as folows

– cus omer and sup ler manag ement can be car ied out in a demons ra ly

consis ent and eq uita le wa – the s and rds and polcies to ac omplsh this are

p r of the records famework;

– leg islative and aud it or reg ulatory compl ance is les of an efor and inspec ions

or inquiries are more easi y ac ommod ted at lower cos because the record s and

document (elec ronic or p per b sed) are there and av ai a le as a mat er of

routine;

– the corporate k owledg e b se is more ac es ible and les incomplete with an

efec iv e records manag ement sy stem in place;

– busines contin ity and the t aining and dev elopment of key s af is les complex

because of the a ai a i ty of information in an ac es ible and s and rd form

Fig ure 1 d es ribes the l fe cycle of al information in the org anization whether in p per

or in elec ronic form Usualy when problems arise in the proces es or ac ou ta i ty of

the busines , it is found that some p r of this cy cle has not be n properly atended to

Either the records polcies on how to c eate a record, or the index ing and ret iev al

is ues hav e not be n a dres ed

Fig re 1 Th re ords ma a eme t lfe c cle

This lea s to cases where decisions can ot be recaled because the document are

incomplete, or a series of ev ent can ot be recons ruc ed because the integ rity of the

record has be n compromised

These ev ent s oc ur whet he th e r ecord is held in p pe form or on el ect r onic med i a They

are problematic because of the inc eased sp n of cont ol in modern flat org anizations,

an because the inc eased d emand s for t ansp rency and ac ounta i ity in corporate

an publc afair ha e not be n consis ently reflec ed in the wa s that org anizations

an manag ement deal with the cy cle, pic ured so deceptively simply a ove

BS ISO 15 8 -1 recog niz s an ad dres es the is ues inherent in manag ing each s ag e

of this cy cle in an a pr opriate wa and in a wa desig ned to promote excel ence and

bes prac ice to the benefit of those org anizations a ply ing it

Cre tion of the record

Final disp sal

of the c cle ar e p s ib le

approac h to rec ords management

2.1 Int roduc t ion

The major q ues ion for any senior manag er of an org anization confonted with the

chaleng e to implement BS ISO 15 8 -1 is ‘W hy should we d o this and what is the

benefit to my org anization?’

I the answer to this q ues ion is ambig uous or unclear, the d etermination and efor

behind any implementation is lkely to be les , and in some cases the implementation

ma fai

The is ue of benefit ma be lo ked at in two p r s

• W hat benefit do s a s and ards-b sed a proach hav e in g eneral?

• How do s this afec the use of a s and ard in records manag ement in p r icular

2.2 Benefits of standards in general

2.2.1 Common approac h

The ex is ence of a s and rd means that s af t ained in it a pl cation and use ha e

only to be t ained once and kept up to d te The ski ls they learn are therefore

t ans era le f om one employer to another

The prac ice of a method or a proach b cked b a s and rd is audita le independently

of the org anizational set ing in which it is prac ised The down side to this of cour e is

that althoug h a s and rd wi ensure that something is done in the rig ht wa it wi l of

it elf not ensure that the rig ht thing is being done! This req uires manag ement

inves ment an ov er ig ht

2.2.2 Consist enc y

The presence of a s and rd in driv ing the wa cer ain ac ivities or proces es are car ied

out ensures that there is consis ency at leas at the lev el of ‘what’ should be done Of

cour e it is nev er pos ible to use a s and ard to ensure that the ‘how’ of thing s is alway s

done in the same wa but at leas the ov erar hing presence of a s and rd ensures that

t h e t ou ch st on e ofgood pr a ct i ce i s a l wa ys t h er e In t h i s r ega r d t h er e i s a bo k , BIP0 2 -2,

which g iv es ex celent information on the implementation of BSISO 15 8 -1

2.2.3 Best prac t ic e

BS ISO 15 8 -1 is of it elf a repository of g ood prac ice in the specification of the

excelence that records manag ement sys ems should reach In it elf thoug h, it d oes not

aim to prov ide a g ood prac ice g uide W hat is ofen the case is that the ex is ence of a

s and rd helps to promote bes prac ice b set ing a hurdle to reach Ex mples of this

hav e be n se n mos clearly in the area of consumer afair where in car safety the

dev elopment of ev er g reater s and rds hav e led to competition among man fac urer to

a ver ise the safety of their v ehicles in the areas of seat , air b g s, p s eng er cag es,

and so on

2.2.4 Ac c umulat ion of a body of k now ledge

Because of the s ruc ure of a s and ard, the information and k owled g e it contains is

col ated into a sys ematic cod e of material I therefore becomes sig nificantly easier to

ac umulate k owledg e arou d the prac ice for ex ample in records retention or in the

definition of records (se below)

2.3 Benefits ofstandards as appl ed t o rec ords management

2.3.1 Av aiabi t y of ex pert i e

The ex is ence of records manag ement s and rds is almos cer ain to result in the

dev elopment of a g reater bod of ski led prac itioner The reason for this is that as the

prop g ation of a s and ard g et u d er wa , and as it is inc easing ly a opted, then the

demand for ski ed s af to car y out these implementations inc eases and hence the

incentive to become ski led inc eases also

W e are also se ing a converg ence in the t ad itional ski s of the ar hiv is , the records

manag er, the information manag er and the k owledg e oficer From the role of the

ar hivis , who has conv entional y manag ed records at the en of their ac iv e usag e

when they are entering the retention and disposal s ag es of the records manag ement

lfe cy cle ( se Fig ure 1), to that of the record s and k owledg e oficer , who hav e usualy

be n inv olved in the ac ive period of the lfe cy cle, there is a g rowing awarenes ,

fos ered b initiativ es l ke the dev elopment of BS ISO 15 8 -1, that al hav e a v ital

role to pla in the ‘information health’ of the org anization Se for ex ample C Holtham,

Towa rd s the new inf r ma tion pr ofe siona l inThe Fourth R esour ce — Inf r ma tion a nd

is ma na gement[ 2]

As a consequence there is a g rowing bod of ski ed pe ple and an improving care r

p th for those who wish to spend their care r in this area

2.3.2 Abi t y t o c omp re or benc hmark c osts

As BS ISO 15 8 -1 is more widely implemented there wi l be a cor esponding interes

in the relativ e u it cos s of implementation betwe n diferent org anizations W his it

wi l be some time before we can hope to se a Gar ner ty e mag ic q uad rant

clas ification emerg ing for org anizations in records manag ement ( se BIP 0 2 -2 for

useful insig ht in this area), there is a rang e ofmet ic which the implementation of

BS ISO 15 8 -1 wi help to encourag e use of S ch measures as the u it lfe cy cle cos

of records, the s orag e cos of ac iv e record s, ar hiv e cos s an ret iev al eficiencies are

al useful in comp ring the cos s of records manag ement betwe n org anizations

2.3.3 R educ t ion in t he numbers of rec ords under management

Para ox icaly , the implementation of BS ISO 15 8 -1 wi l on the whole red uce the

volume of records kept b org anizations a plying it The reasons for this are that it

a pl cation req uires that org anizations dev elop retention polcies for each ty e or clas

of records as p r of the ov eral set of records pol cies W hen you turn your at ention to

these pol cies, y ou wi l find that the mos ex traordinary lev el of s orag e of information

ma be ing rained in the busines For ex ample, during an inves ig ation of the ra id

es alation of disk s orag e req uirement in a blue chip environment, the mos

ext aordinary duplcation ofs orag e of record s b a n mber of dep r ment and

individ uals was dis overed No one k ew whose responsibi ty it was to ac as cus odian

of v arious set of document The resulting s orag e in the sep rate corporate d irec ories

on the v arious shared disk driv es was a bonanza for the IT sup ler an a cons ant

head ache for the IT manag er W hen the records manag er (formerly lmited in their role

to lo king afer p per records) was alowed to dev elop and a ply some sensible pol cies

on s orag e and retention, the problem v nished within thre months

In a second ex ample of benefit real zation a records s rateg y and implementation plan

was dev eloped for a lea ing hospital On analysis, the lea ing cause of cancel ed or

dela ed a pointment was the una ai a i ty of p tient records at the clnic in time for

the p tient to be se n So even when a p tient turned up on time, betwe n a fifh and a

q uar er of a pointment were afec ed b lack of records In some cases p tient were

se n without notes and had to g iv e their his ory ag ain In other cases they were sent

home u ti the notes could be prov ided to the specials In this case it is easy to se

that the benefit arising f om using sys ems that ensure the notes and p tient coincid e,

easi y ex ce d the cos of prov iding it

I is impos ible to put a fig ure on the g eneral level of benefit fom a ply ing a s and rds

b sed a proach to record s manag ement Howev er, in the majority of cases the benefit

are wel in ex ces of the cos of implementation, and f eq uently it has be n t ue that

some busines purpose or ac iv ity emerg es as pos ible which was not prev iously

feasible at an economic cos before

k nowledge management

W hereas fiv e y ear ag o the concept of k owledg e manag ement was much spoken a out

but rarely prac ised, now mos org anizations p y at leas lp service to the idea of

manag ing the k owledg e which has bui t up over many y ear in the form ofrecords,

d ta ases, cus omer fies an the l ke Ind eed one of the major problems conf onting

many cus omer and /or sup ler facing a plcations is that of ensuring that the content

of these sys ems is ac urate, relev ant and timely

BS ISO 15 8 -1 recog niz s the vital role that records pla in the manag ement of

k owled g e in the org anization W hat mig ht a few y ear ag o ha e be n recog niz d as a

tedious s atutory or g ov ernance is ue is now clearly se n as hav ing a fu d mental

busines impor ance

• Records are repositories of the org anization’s ac umulated k owledg e a out it elf,

it sup l er an it cus omer

• Properly manag ed, records can be mined as a rich vein of information, which can

al ow v alue to be a ded to relationships with third p r ies

• Over time, records colec ions or series come to contain mas es of information a out

t end s throug h time, whether arou d proces es, t ansac ions or pe ple They

therefore prov ide manag ement with predic iv e pos ibi ties for ext a olation which

were not prev iously pos ible or were previously to ex pensiv e

This sec ion des ribes the relationship betwe n the implementation of g ood prac ice in

record s manag ement and the efec ive use of k owledg e manag ement within

busines es

From the previous sec ion it should be obv ious that g ood records prac ice is ex tremely

impor ant, and this means an implementation of BS ISO 15 8 -1 at a lev el a propriate

to the busines contex t

One of the princip l reasons for this bel ef is that records are the raw material of

k owled g e in mos busines es W hether we are dis us ing cus omer cor espondence,

sup ler inv oices, tech ical eng ine ring fi es, clent p per or any other form of record ,

Ta le 1 Relatio ship b twe n re ords ma a eme t a d k owledg ma a eme t

Ta le 1 makes it clear that althoug h hav ing g ood record s manag ement do s not ensure

any form of k owledg e manag ement ca a i ty , the a sence of g ood corporate s and ards

in records manag ement wi l more or les preclude k owledg e manag ement

Knowled g e manag ement req uires several fu d mentals to be in place:

• sy stematicaly s ored information;

• ac es routes to this information, which ma take the form of indexes, ls s of

document or n mbered volumes or edg e marked shelv es or, of cour e, n merous

computer a plcations, ac es ing a corporate dep r mental or busines u it d ta

warehouse or d ta ase;

• clear s atement of the purposes that the k owledg e is req uired to serv e

I is fairly clear that a records sy stem properly implemented fulfis these req uirement

A case s ud wi l make this point clear Some year ag o a v ide prod uc ion comp ny,

long since defu c , ha boug ht a news re l ar hive, a l brary of fi m sp n ing the

period f om the late 19th century to the mid le of the 2 th century

These shor fi ms were prod uced as the earles v er ion of what are now the news

chan els Two extensive, hand-writen index es used to ac es the ar hives were p r of

the col ec ion These indexes alowed the owner to produce al sor s of k owled g e

produc s fom the ar hiv e

W hen rig ht to the ar hive were let to a J p nese org anization they asked to be

prov ided with a CD ROM b sed ver ion of the ind ex as a condition of p y ing the asking

price The point is, thoug h, that without those orig inal records of the content , the

v lue of the ar hive would hav e be n v ery much reduced The t ansition f om

information to usa le and ex ploita le k owled g e reled upon g ood records prac ices

R ecord t ype or c t egory K nowle g ma a eme t c t egory

Cust omer c oresp n e c e Prefere c es, or c ases of c omplaint , k now le g of

c ust omer t re ds, future t re ds et c

Su pler inv oic es K now le g useful for n g t iat in b lk a re me ts,

mast er serv ic e a re me ts

Cle t ies (Self ex pla at ory )

Tec hnic al e gin erin fies Rese rc h a d d v elo me t re-uses; p t ent sift in ;

proc es improv eme t , ma a eme t of d sig or

pro uc t io t ec hn lo y

Ma a eme t pla s a d p p rs Gov ern nc e, c ompla c e, etc

The role of records manag ement in this set ing (i.e k owledg e manag ement) therefore

is to:

• identify the k owledg e requirement of the org anization an to what ex tent those

can be met f om information contained in the records;

• provide a sy stem which ena les the records of an org anization to be:

– log g ed;

– indexed ;

– maintained ;

– ac es ed as ne ded;

– re-fi ed an protec ed f om d mag e in the environment

The purpose of the ind exing sy stem within an overal records famework is that the

index should al ow the records themselves or a propriate information a out the record s

to be ac es ed b who ver has ne d of them for a leg itimate purpose

A fur her ex mple of this ty pe of v lue in the record, rather than in the item it elf can

be se n fom the automation of the ind exes of the National Sou d Archiv e at the

British Library These record s were also handwrit en or ty ed over many year and

des ribed the wealth of the colec ions f om reg ional ac ent of the British I les to

orig inal recording s of the g reat ar is s and ac or of the 19th and 2 th centuries The

automation ofthese has alowed the indexes to be put onto the world wide web, so that

much of the information they contain and ultimately the recording s themselv es wi be

a le to be ac es ed, reg ardles of the location of the l s ener