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Records Management: The Electronic and Paper Divide
Old habits are hard to break and new ones are hard to make. Processes that have been in place for managing paper records in enterprises continue to be enforced better than processes around management of electronic records. AIIM reported in a recent survey that electronic documents are twice as likely to be unmanaged as paper records, and 26 percent of organizations say they have no policies in place for managing electronic documents.
Processes around electronic documents just have not yet reached the same level as processes for paper documents. For example, while 56 percent of organizations say that they can place a freeze on electronic documents in the event of pending litigation, 71 percent are able to do that with paper documents.
Everyone agrees that the volume of electronic documents being created is increasing in their organizations. Attempts to get that information under control are following a sort of one-step-forward and two-step-back reality. Two statistics that counter the effect of each other are that over half of organizations are now scanning the paper documents that they receive, but 40 percent of companies continue to print a growing number electronic documents so that they can be filed as paper records.
Interestingly, the report found that many organizations focus their staff on managing paper records, but when faced with an e-Discover project, those same organizations bring in their IT staff to do an electronic search.
John Mancini, President of AIIM, said that “I’m concerned that management of electronic records is still not being taken as seriously as that of paper records. We found that over a third of organizations, if challenged, would not be confident that their electronic records had not been changed, deleted or inappropriately accessed. For organizations of over 5,000 employees it rises to 43%. These companies would be at a major disadvantage in any legal action – defending or prosecuting.”
