Records Management For Dummies®

Visit www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/recordsmanagement to view this book's cheat sheet.

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Setting the Stage

Part II: Filing Made Simple

Part III: Capturing Records

Part IV: Parking Spaces

Part V: Creating a Plan

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Bonus Content: Appendix

What You’re Not to Read

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Setting the Stage

Chapter 1: Fundamentally Speaking

The Inside Scoop — Terms and Terminologies

What is information?

For the record

Business value

Nonvalue

The information life cycle

Grooving with the records (and the information retention schedule)

Hold on!

Role Playing

The Records and Information Manager

The evolution of the records manager

The big bang!

School is in session

I can associate with that

Let me see your credentials

I’ve got to do what?!

The written word

Professionally speaking

I’m Excited — Why Aren’t You?

Core function junction

Show me the benefits!

Trimming expenses

Improving efficiencies

Increasing staff productivity

Risky business

Creating your support group

Marketing Your Program

Chapter 2: Appraising

Preparing for the Appraisal

Push for the purge

Don’t forget the hard drives

Choosing an Appraisal Method

A method to the madness

The good and the . . . good

Conducting the Appraisal

Capturing appraisal information

Taking inventory

Going through with an interview

Quizzing with a questionnaire

Documenting the appraisal

Processing the appraisal results

Chapter 3: Scheduling

Keeping Your Options Open

Working with the Departmental retention schedule

Scheduling based on function

Bring out the big buckets

Conducting the Investigation

Considering the value

Researching retention periods

Mining your natural resources

Assigning retention periods to nonrecord information

Looking for Approval

Department management

Paying a visit to the Tax department

Legalizing your retention

Creating the Retention Schedule Document

The pieces to the retention schedule puzzle

Sampling retention schedule forms

Implementing the Retention Schedule

Keeping it electronic

Providing direction

Updating the Retention Schedule

Part II: Filing Made Simple

Chapter 4: I Know It’s Here Somewhere

Filing Methods

The alpha file

The numbers don’t lie

Filing alphanumerically

Evaluating Filing Equipment and Supplies

The right equipment makes a difference

File folders under “important”

Selecting a Filing Method

Creating a records profile

Growing, growing — gone!

Evaluating the current state of affairs

Creating a Digital Filing System

Drawing the parallels

Naming folders and files

Chapter 5: Drives Can Drive You Crazy

At-Risk Drivers

Out of sight — out of mind

Driving up the costs

Driving down function lane

Cleaning Up Your Driving Record

Taking time to know your drives

Mapping a course of action

Creating a folder structure

Administering shared drives

Planning the file review

Reviewing files

Cleaning up with software

Maintaining Your Drives

Creating a usage policy

Relying on the administrator

Using software to maintain your drives

Chapter 6: A Message about E-Mail

The Anatomy of an E-Mail

Determining the value of the message

Scheduling time for e-mail

The rising risks of e-mail

Managing quotas

Filing the Message

PSSST! What you need to know about PST folders

MSG can be good for your informational health

Naming e-mail

Using Software to Manage E-Mail

E-mail archiving systems

Optimizing with DM and ECM applications

Part III: Capturing Records

Chapter 7: Watch Out, I’m Backing Up

Creating a Backup Plan

Identifying different types of backups

Finding a place to back up

Distinguishing between backups and archives

The tale of the mystery tape

Managing Backups

Determining what needs to be backed up

Applying retention to backups

Creating a data retention schedule

Deleting backed-up and archived information

Chapter 8: Know When to Hold ’em

Discovering Discovery

Initiating a Legal Hold

The components of a legal hold

Organizing the search party

Searching in the dark

E-mail — the smoking gun

Keying in on keywords

Searching made simple

Preserving what you find

Maintaining the legal hold

We have liftoff

Chapter 9: Imaging Documents

From Paper to Paperless

Understanding the basics of document imaging

Benefiting from an image makeover

To Image, or Not to Image

Conducting an imaging needs assessment

Stepping through the imaging process

Prep school

Scanning documents

Recognizing a good thing when you see it

Applying indexes

Controlling the quality

Determining Your Imaging Approach

What happens in-house stays in-house

Equipping your imaging operation

Gathering Requirements

Conducting a document analysis

End of the beginning

Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI)

Investing in the benefits

Knowing your customer

Valuating the benefits

Evaluating Imaging Hardware and Software

Examining document scanners

The role of document-imaging software

Chapter 10: Software Applications

Examining Software Options

Laying the software foundation

Types of software

Assessing Your Needs

Calculating the return on investment (ROI)

Identifying your “pain points”

Conducting a requirements analysis

Evaluating Vendors

Determining your evaluation approach

Using business-use cases

Detailing the results

It’s not all about functionality

Comparing the results

Guiding You through Implementation

Why implementations fail

How to ensure that your implementation is a success!

Part IV: Parking Spaces

Chapter 11: Storage Locations

Storing Inactive Records Onsite

Protecting your inactive records

Implementing access control procedures

Optimizing your inactive storage

Getting to Know the Record Storage Vendor

Understanding the fee structure

Making sure that your requirements are met

Contracting with the vendor

Chapter 12: Compliant Destruction

Determining the Appropriate Destruction Method

Deciding on Your Shredding Approach

Shredding your own documents

Getting to know the shredders themselves

Outsourcing your shredding

Selecting the Right Shred Vendor

How to ensure that electronic information is unrecoverable

Establishing your shredding requirements

Developing an Information Destruction Policy

If you can’t do it, don’t include it

Elements of an effective destruction policy

Part V: Creating a Plan

Chapter 13: Codifying the Policies

Developing a Records and Information Management Policy

Understanding what a policy is (and isn’t)

The basic characteristics of a good policy

Talking records and information

Making the Policy Available

Distributing the hard copy

Attaching a soft copy

The missing link

Auditing the Policy

Developing an audit plan

Determining what to audit

Communicating the audit

Documenting the audit findings

Chapter 14: Train the Troops

I’m Aware of That!

From the top

What’s in it for me?

Creating a creative awareness campaign

Developing a Training Plan

Deciding on the curriculum

One size doesn’t always fit all

How refreshing

Training the Masses

How much time do I have?

Face-time training

Webinars

Intranet-based training

Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten Simple Management Guidelines

Limiting E-Mail Attachments

Knowing How to Dispose of Information

Structuring Electronic Folders

Naming Files

Managing Active and Inactive Periods

Scheduling Destruction and Deletion

Creating the Proper Filing System

Avoiding the “Keep Everything” Syndrome

Managing Copies

Keeping It Simple

Chapter 16: Ten Emerging Trends

Governing Information

Computing in the Clouds

Big Data

Social Media

Putting Some Structure to It

Let’s Collaborate

Generally Accepted Recordkeeping Principles

Mapping Your Data

Enterprise Searching

Don’t Get Duped

Appendix: Sample Forms and Vendor Listings

Inventory and appraisal forms

Retention schedule forms

Cheat Sheet

Records Management For Dummies®

by Blake Richardson

Records Management For Dummies®

Published by
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2012948917

ISBN 978-1-118-38808-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-38809-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38810-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-38812-9 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Blake Richardson (Surprise, Arizona) is the author of numerous publications on records and information management. Blake is a Certified Information Professional (CIP) and Certified Records Manager (CRM). He has over 15 years of experience in developing comprehensive Records and Information Management programs with several Fortune 500 companies. Blake frequently conducts presentations on a wide range of Records and Information Management topics.

Dedication

To my wife, Kelli, son, Raleigh, and daughter, Molly.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge Dr. Mark Langemo, CRM, for instilling in me the passion for records management, Steve Peterson, CRM, for providing his welcomed insight, and my records and information management colleagues for their professionalism and dedication — thank you all!

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial

Senior Project Editor: Paul Levesque

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr

Copy Editors: Amanda Graham, John Edwards

Technical Editor: Steven Petersen

Editorial Manager: Leah Michael

Editorial Assistant: Leslie Saxman

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cover Photo: © iStockphoto.com/CTRdesignLLC (background image)

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Jennifer Creasey, Timothy C. Detrick, Corrie Niehaus

Proofreader: Bonnie Mikkelson

Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Kathleen Nebenhaus, Vice President and Executive Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

Records and information management isn’t a new concept or discipline. From the moment one cave person grunted to another or scrawled the first picture on the inside of a cave wall, information and recordkeeping was born. That first cave person probably had not been assigned the title of “Records and Information manager” or official scribe for the cave community, but nonetheless felt a need to communicate and keep what we know today to be records.

Over millions of years, the information grunt has grown — not only into structured languages that are spoken, but also into an exponential increase in the documentation and transmission of information. Most of this increase has occurred at a staggering rate over the past 15 years — you guessed it, we have computers, e-mail, and the Internet to thank for our information overload. The reality is that information is a good thing. However, if not managed appropriately, you may never realize its true value, and someday find yourself in a corner curled up in the fetal position mumbling “Delete”!

About This Book

Hold onto to your seat; you’re about to enter the riveting world of Records and Information management. Okay, may be embellishing a bit, but the truth is whether you’re a small-business owner or work for a global corporation, you deal with information on a daily basis — you receive it, you send it, you determine what’s relevant, and you make decisions, whether consciously or subconsciously, as to what information to retain. This book is not about information technology (IT); this book is about information management. The goal of the book is to assist you and all companies, regardless of size, number of employees, or annual revenue, in making this entire process more manageable and compliant with applicable laws and regulations.

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!

Lesen Sie weiter in der vollständigen Ausgabe!