Is Recordkeeping improving your Business?  It can….April 2008

Rhonda Healey CRM

Do you know where your key documents and records are?

Today technology can be the answer, but not without good documentation. Too often, we ensure that the information system is robust and performs well, in combination with our policies and guidelines. However, we do not have an understanding of how the client uses it or what are the key documents? Are you satisfied with the results your clients are getting when using the recordkeeping processes for making decisions, or simply providing a service? Often there is no good data analysis on how well it works beyond the system to improve the work itself, or determine how well it performs, and therefore the efficiency of the work itself. Client in this article: is the person engaged in an institution to carry out the business of the organizational mandate by either providing a service to other departments or the Canadian public. Can you easily identify the records that are needed to support the processes and outputs your organization is responsible for? Too often, this is left to systems people or a lead individual rather than a strategic approach. Why not include the business people who are trying to perform the service?

Client service enablement horizontally

Have you ever really thought about what your clients need to perform their work innovatively? Do you really understand their needs? Have you discussed their documentation requirements with them to produce the right information that supports their products and or service that really make the process seamless, quick and reliable? Yes, I am suggesting that we consider what records need to be kept as a result of a business transaction. With the phenomenal growth of electronic records, one of the challenges today, is what to keep and what to dispose? Often, we keep it all because we cannot easily or efficiently decide, what is needed for business purposes.

What kind of records is your organization creating, receiving, and using?  Have you identified the key documents needed by clients to perform well within the framework of their mandate in an innovative approach?  Has your organization had an opportunity to identify risks, and timeliness for the key documents to be created to support the business processes that are required to carry out the work?   Is your business integrated at the desktop?  Meaning, do your clients have access to the information needed from the desktop that is reliable and safeguarded in an electronic environment? Where are the records located that your clients need to do their work? Is it quick, reliable and seamless? If not, why not? If not, you might need a business analyst to review the processes and log what records are needed to support your business activities? Many innovative concepts, views, changes, are simply a repackaging of good ideas to fit today’s paradigm. It means really understanding how to connect the records to the way people providing the service need them. Making that process very painless is another key part of the recordkeeping culture. Do your business entities understand the RK value of an authentic, reliable, seamless audit trail? If not, this is an excellent place to start.

Services that really connect

What is the process today, and can it be improved to support clients and their business partners?   What is the expectation of the organization horizontally?  In other words, are you familiar with the services offered to the client that may not be under your control such as web services, library, electronic services, communications, etc?  Have we really taken a serious look at the end to end service (what it takes to perform the entire service from creation to output) requirements and what records are needed to support decisions which are critical to decision making? We can also review what is created and shared within a department to create the best service.  How is it deployed? Do employees know which records have value to the organization?  Are these records always collected to support decisions and outputs? Why not?

Taking stock

Does your organization realize what it creates, and who uses the information?  Again, is there any room for improvement? I am challenging the senior official and records manager, and business people to engage a business analyst to capture a view of what is created and received. Put this information into a data view that supports the business down to the transaction level. Then, review the business requirements and apply documentation standards to ensure that the key documents are identified, organized, and made available to the people who need them in a format that is authentic, reliable and trusted within the organization.  Also, ensure that all employees understand their role, responsibility and how to use the information to improve their business needs.  Yes, value added to the client and Canadians. Think of it as a complete 360 degree on business satisfaction and innovation.

Improve the service and documentation

Many organizations have records that are stored but certainly not in a way that promotes the business or supports the work being done by the client.  More and more we need to have a client evaluation of what is needed in by the organization to manage the life cycle of records that applies to any business process in the organization for both structured (business applications that receive and have a process) and unstructured records (records are created and sent to electronic repository generally not connected to a process but rather an item).  Then, we can discuss what value the information has and declare it with all mangers and staff.  Once we understand the value of the information and how to manage it by all staff, it becomes a reality.

We really need a horizontal view of organizations to comprehend what information is created, used and provided to clients as an output to the Government of Canada (GC) itself or Canadians.   The GC is one enterprise and it needs to consider standards for processes and provide a common service to Canadians that is efficient, effective and well understood by the GC employees.  Do your clients understand what documentation is needed to support decisions?  What is your reality?

Reality is based on perception and past experience and processes

Key ingredients such as influence; culture; and understanding are often neglected.  Yes, we need to understand what documentation is required to support the end product or service.  We also need to be innovative in finding solutions with partners to ensure that the culture supports what records need to be managed as an asset to the organization.  Senior management and all levels of management within the organization need to be held accountable for ensuring that key tasks and outputs require documentation.   Senior managers need to ask the question: where can I find information to support this project in the organization?

Challenge – Make recordkeeping a reality and value added in your organization

I challenge you, to look beyond traditional views of marketing. Try to find partnerships that enable your clients and services. This really means taking responsibility to enable the organization to be innovative in providing a service or product with excellent documentation.  Imagine being the most innovative, reliable department when it comes to providing excellent documentation to all staff and your clients.  The clients actually understand the value added and believe it too!   You have to imagine it to have the dream come true.  It would be exciting to actually live the dream.