Records Management: Traditional vs. Digital

The concept of organizing and keeping track of business documents and records has always carried a fairly negative stigma with it. 

A request to locate important information inside those documents could feel cumbersome — you’d imagine endless piles of paper stowed away in a back room, nestled inside towers of unlabeled banker boxes. Finding said information was equivalent to the age-old “needle in a haystack” idea.

And so the idea of record management became a task that almost no one wanted, leaving literal tons of value and revenue untouched inside all those boxes.

Yet the introduction of digital content to the masses has not been wholeheartedly met with approval by all businesses. Certain attributes of digital record management are considered by some as unappealing for one reason or another, but it’s important for businesses to examine all the incredible benefits of such document organization before rejecting the idea.

Steps Behind Record Management

Wikipedia defines records management by looking across several different disciplines and capabilities: identifying, classifying, storing, securing, retrieving, tracking, and destroying. These different areas more or less identify the lifecycle of a business document and detail the necessary steps to take while managing the document.

The different areas of records management:

1. Identifying: A document needs to be examined and assessed to determine where it should be placed amongst other documents. Its content will also establish whether it needs to be authenticated, certified, or reviewed by a forensic expert.
2. Classifying: The document must then be categorized to aid in future retrieval, for whatever reason.
3. Storing: To properly store the document it must be positioned in a way that protects it from outside forces such as environmental factors and persons outside your business.
4. Securing: Similar to storing, securing a document equates to maintaining its safety. Storing refers to the physical nature of the document while securing has more to do with the access privileges related to it.
5. Retrieving: This step entails the process involved with accessing the document; who in the office is allowed to view it, and what needs to be done in the case of an audit, or damage.
6. Tracking: Any movement of the document away from its typical storage space should be documented to ensure its safety and return.
7. Destroying: The term "destroy" can be a bit harsh for the end of a document’s life for a business, and it might feel more appropriate to refer to its "disposal," instead. This is the step that permanently removes the document from the business.

Managed appropriately, these different areas can safeguard a document for as long as a business is in need of it. Outside forces will inevitably play a role in the lifecycle of the document, however, bringing to light the question of protecting it traditionally or digitally to the forefront.

A Side-by-Side Comparison

Critics of digital transformation suggest there’s little to be gained by it. In his opening keynote at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2017, Gartner Senior VP, Val Sribar, spoke of how it was “nearing a period of intense scrutiny.”

“Four years into the digital shift, we find ourselves at the ‘peak of inflated expectations’, and if the Gartner Hype Cycle teaches us anything, a trough is coming. Disillusionment always follows a period of extreme hype.”

While digitization has continued to flourish since then, skepticism remains. Opponents should consider the following capabilities when deciding whether to manage documents the traditional way or take a more modern approach to records management with digitization.

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