Managing Electronic Records: Methods, Best Practices, and Technologies

CHAPTER 19

E–Records Project Planning and Program Management Issues

Robert Smallwood; edited by Monica Crocker, CRM, PMP

Implementing technology for technology's sake is never a good idea. To be successful, projects focused on managing electronic records, like all projects, must have some compelling business driver in a crucial area that makes it imperative for the organization to tackle and solve a problem.

This business driver should align with one or more of the organization's business objectives. Implementing technology to achieve business objectives and move the organization forward and improve its competitive posture is good business.

The primary business driver for an electronic records management (ERM) project or program could be one of several things. Here are a few examples:

• A new regulation or law can be met only by automating records management in a target area.
• The loss of a legal case due to the lack of formal, defensible records management policies, or the inability to produce electronic records in a timely and cost–effective manner to meet e–discovery requirements.
• Compliance sanctions are suffered by the organization and it must improve its ability to maintain, preserve, and produce e–records.
• Major productivity gains and possibly a competitive advantage can be gained by automating a key business area or by extending the business process outside the walls of the organization.
• Auditors find that information governance (IG) and records management policies are undeveloped, ...