Records Management Service Implementation

We were engaged by our client to help define, launch and establish records management across all business units, including the development of procedures and storage models, evaluating offsite storage provision, development of a communication, launch and roll-out strategy, and helping to move records management from a pure project mode to an ongoing service.

Background

The drive for corporate compliance, enterprise alignment and organisational efficiencies has caused our client to introduce significant changes to the way in which records are managed within the organisation.

In liaison with the corporate records manager Venture helped define, launch and establish a new records management service within their Northwest Europe offices across four countries, to be followed by other overseas operational offices through 2008.

Outcome

Preliminary projects were created and run to establish an interim service through:

• Developing provisional procedures, records classification scheme and storage & retrieval models
• Evaluating secondary (offsite) storage provision suitable to provide a full records management service, including issuing RFQ’s, evaluating responses, running subsequent interview presentations and recommending supplier

Once the interim records management service was operational the scope and objectives for the full service were defined and documented. A ‘tool kit’ of applications and practices were then developed and a communication strategy established in order to launch and roll-out the service to each business unit and help move records management from a project mode to an ongoing service.

Benefits

As a result of the implementation, records management will be established as an organisational competency, with:

• Assurance that records management processes and practices comply with external and internal regulatory requirements
• Confidence that records are properly cared for and readily available
• Knowledge that out-of-date information is properly disposed of
• Easier user searching and access to corporate records
• A reliable audit trail of records management activities.