AIIM research indicates that statutory and industry compliance combine to be the strongest drivers for records management systems, ahead of reduced storage costs. Sharing and exploiting knowledge comes next.
AIIM research suggests that legal costs could be reduced by a quarter through deployment of electronic records management technologies. Most respondents feel that audit costs, legal costs, court costs, fines and damages could be reduced by 25% with best practice records management.
Unfortunately, most organizations have yet to address this threat. Key policies are not in place: Only 16% of organizations have a documented and effective information management strategy. A further 15% have such a policy but it is largely unreferenced. Less than half of even the largest organizations have a risk management plan that includes records management.
Of course, in addition to increased direct legal costs, poor records practices can severely harm your reputation: 28% of those surveyed by AIIM have had their records management and security practices criticized or exposed by an auditor in the last three years. 6% have been criticized by a regulator, 5% by lawyers and 4% (1 in 25) in the press.
Don't even think of proceeding without executive support -- at the highest level. Lack of commitment at board-level or C-level is the biggest reason for non-adoption of ERM systems, and the difficulty of securing agreement across departments is also frequently cited.
Get these great (and free) how-to guides:
How to Achieve Best Practices: Records Management
Automating Electronic Records Management with SharePoint
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