Records management forces you to think about how you create, process, capture, and manage information. This requires a review of your business activities from an information-centric point of view, which in itself can highlight process inefficiencies. Once a records management system is in place you end up with a well defined set of structures that map your information and give your organization the power to navigate its corporate memory and to know what information it has and where it is stored. Some of the benefits arising from this are:
- Reduction of information to be analyzed in e-discovery cases
- Increased employee productivity due to faster information retrieval
- Improved customer service through better information sharing
- Reduced duplication of work through better visibility of existing assets
- Better decision making by better informed managers
Retention management is an important feature of records management. It brings the additional benefit of making sure that you do not inadvertently destroy evidence, which could lead to severe fines and charges. It also sees that you don't keep information for too long, which not only takes up storage, but can also increase the risks and costs in litigation.
