Is it worth investing in records management?

Don’t waste your money appraising records 7 th April 2011 | Steve Bailey The surprising implications for records management of measuring our impact

Hands up Who here thinks investing in RM will deliver a positive return on investment for an organisation?

But…
There is comparatively little literature within the records management field relating to the area of benefits and efficiency measurement
Traditionally the majority of benefits used to support business cases for investment in records management are of an intangible nature
There is clearly a strong appetite for empirical data within the UK records management profession
An assessment of the current evidence base demonstrating the benefits of investing in the improvement of records management – a selective literature review, JISC infoNet, August 2009

Does this matter anyway?

2000-10 “The compliance decade” 2010-20 “The efficiency decade?”

RM: Obligation or opportunity?

Do we have the evidence to justify these claims?
“ People waste 6 weeks per year trying to find misfiled documents ” (Coopers & Lybrand, 1998)
“ it costs £80 to find a misplaced file and £150 to replace it ” (Coopers & Lybrand, 1998)
“ Managers spend 6 weeks per year searching for documents ” (RMS Bulletin, Jan 2009)
“ The average information worker creates 22 new documents every working day (RMS Bulletin ”(Jan 2009)

But…
The majority of the available evidence supporting efficiency gains is often of a nebulous nature and is not supported by accessible, independent empirical data
Benefit in relation to records management tend to be documented within the available literature far more than costs
An assessment of the current evidence base demonstrating the benefits of investing in the improvement of records management – a selective literature review, JISC infoNet, August 2009

Decision Time Business case built on contribution to compliance and governance RM becomes a corporate obligation akin to Health & Safety We drop any pretence that RM delivers positive ROI as this cannot be verified Business case built on demonstrable benefit to the operation of the business Compliance and governance still part of ‘the offer’ but as a lower profile ‘given’ We develop the techniques & evidence base to prove the claims we make

Which path should we take? Pros and cons?

Identify processes subject to a change initiative Agree discrete measurable benefits Record process ‘as is’ performance Record actual process performance post change Capture implementation and ongoing costs Compare the measured benefits and costs to calculate impact

2.1 Identified measureable benefits 1. Business Processes “… a new software system will be used to capture, manage, store, preserve and deliver content and documents relating to organisational processes” 1. Reduction in time taken to post case files from Governance Team to schools 2. Reduction in time taken to post case files from Schools to Governance Team 3. Reduction in time taken to post case files from Governance Team to Adjudicators

2.2 Metric data capture Reduction in time taken to post case files to schools Measurements Descriptions Year 1 Benchmark Year 1 Actual Unit of measurement Minutes Area of change Minutes per case file (per year) Performance 17.25 5 Annual multiplier 312 280 Performance change 71% Conversion of unit to £ Salary per minute £0.152 £0.323 Annualised performance (£/pa) £807.30 £448.00 Monetary benefits obtained from the redesigned process £359.30

3. Comparative cost information Costs Implementation costs Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Staff costs £3,383.57 £1,691.78 £845.89 £256.52 £256.52 £256.52 Non staff costs £10,000.00 £2,400.00 £2,880.00 £3,024.00 £3,175.00 £3,334.00 Overall costs £13,383.57 £4,091.78 £3,725.89 £3,280.52 £3,431.52 £3,590.52

4. Monetary impact 4. Non - monetary impact Monetary Measurement Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Monetary benefits £7,800 £7,912 £7,958 £8,066 £8,110 Comparative cost information £17,475 £3,725 £3,280 £3,431 £3,590 Monetary impact - £9,675 £4,186 £4,677 £4,634 £4,519 Cumulative monetary impact - £9,675 - £5,488 - £811 £3,823 £8,343 Unit of non monetary benefit Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Savings in linear metres of storage space 31.68 34.76 37.84 40.92 44

Findings
Caveats:
The sample is small (6 institutions)
The sample is limited (HEIs only)

Finding 1: retrospective appraisal exercises rarely deliver ROI Cardiff University – Monetary Impact Large up front implementation costs due to appraisal & scanning On-going nature of maintenance costs ‘ One off’ nature of benefits (paper reduction) Monetary Measurement Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Monetary benefits £17,546 £3,627 £656 £656 £656 Comparative cost info £83,089 £13,541 £1,680 £1,680 £1,680 Monetary impact - £65,542 - £9,913 - £1,023 - £1,023 - £1,023 Cumulative monetary impact - £65,542 - £75,455 - £76,479 - £77,503 - £78,526

Finding 1: retrospective appraisal exercises rarely deliver ROI (Continued) Kings College London Impressive 96% time saving in retrieving file from accessioned & listed box = £33 saving per retrieval But only c.5 retrievals per year Very similar ongoing appraisal costs to Cardiff Monetary Measurement Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Monetary benefits £1,182 £1,146 £1,110 £1,074 £1,038 Comparative cost info £6,040 £1,120 £1,120 £1,120 £1,120 Monetary impact - £4,857 £26.00 - £9.10 - £45.10 £81.10 Cumulative monetary impact - £4,857 - £4,830 - £4,839 - £4,884 - £4965

Finding 2: Implementing a retention schedule ‘from this point on’ can deliver ongoing cost savings University of Oxford No investment in implementation costs (IT, staff effort etc) Instant (if modest) ROI Reasonable return over 5 years Monetary Measurement Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Monetary benefits £2,429 £2,953 £3,589 £4,357 £5,294 Comparative cost info £1,825 £1,880 £1,974 £2,033 £2,094 Monetary impact £604 £1,073 £1,615 £2,324 £3,200 Cumulative monetary impact £604 £1,677 £3,292 £5,617 £8,817

Finding 3a: Records management is only cost effective above a certain scale of operation (retrieval costs) King’s College London Time taken to retrieve a file from an accession £1,120 costs per year £33 saving per retrieval 34 retrievals required PA to break even Measurements Descriptions Year 1 Benchmark Year 1 Actual Unit of measurement Minutes Area of change Retrieval of file Performance 82 3 Annual multiplier 5 5 Performance change 96% Conversion of unit to £ Salary per minute £0.420 £0.420 Annualised performance (£/pa) £172.20 £6.30 Monetary benefits obtained from the redesigned process £165.90

Finding 3b: Records management is only cost effective above a certain scale of operation (electronic storage costs) University of Nottingham Kings College London Cumulative monetary impact by Year 5 = 85p Cumulative monetary impact by Year 5 = £45,390 Descriptions Year 1 Benchmark Year 1 Actual Descriptions Year 1 Benchmark Year 1 Actual Total MB data stored 66.73 0 Total GB data stored 870 87 Performance change 100% Performance change 90% Server costs per MB £0.003 £0.000 Server costs per GB £10.00 £10.00 Total costs £0.17 £0.00 Total costs £8,700.00 £870.00 Monetary benefit £0.17 Monetary benefit £7,830.00

Finding 4: Investment in better processes and systems is more efficient than increased reliance on cheaper labour University of Nottingham Measurements Descriptions Year 1 Benchmark Year 1 Actual Unit of measurement Minutes Area of change Minutes per case file (per year) Performance 17.25 5 Annual multiplier 312 280 Performance change 71% Conversion of unit to £ Salary per minute £0.152 £0.323 Annualised performance (£/pa) £807.30 £448.00 Monetary benefits obtained from the redesigned process £359.30

Areas for debate How accurate, robust and empirical should we seek to be? Are there dangers to seeking to quantify the benefit of RM? Can we / should we find ways of capturing qualitative benefits? Do records managers have the skills required to undertake this type of activity?

Thank you Questions? [email_address] www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/impact-calculator

Is it worth investing in records management?

by JISC on Jul 11, 2011

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