In this session, delivered virtually on November 19, 2021, we briefly reviewed the traditional approach and messaging around records management. We looked at how we can change the focus from compliance and risk to enabling the organization to meet its goals and objectives. We brainstormed, and discussed, some specific ways to position records and information management as a way to create real business value for the organization.

1. Harnessing Your
Information to Create
Business Value
ARMA Austin
Jesse Wilkins
President and Principal Consultant
Athro Consulting
November 19, 2021

2. Jesse Wilkins, CIP, CIPP/US, CRM, IGP, CIGO
• Principal Consultant, Athro Consulting
• 25+ years experience as end user, vendor,
consultant, and trainer
• Background in electronic records
management, email management, ECM,
and social technologies
• Lead developer, AIIM Certified Information
Professional (CIP) certification

3. Agenda
• We’ve Always Talked About Records
Management That Way
• Changing the Conversation
• Harnessing Your Information to Create
Business Value

4. The Perception of RIM

5. The People Who
Say, “NO!”
• Image source: Monty Python’s Holy Grail

6. The Purpose
of Records
Management
• To implement a cost-effective
Department-wide program that provides
for adequate and proper documentation
of Department activities…and promotes
economy and efficiency in the program.
• To ensure compliance with the
implementing regulations for Records
Management….
-- Source: NARA records management
toolkit, excerpt from U.S. Department of
Energy procurement document

7. Main Drivers for Records
Management
Source: AIIM ERM Practitioner course, 2009

8. Keeping the CEO Out of
Jail…
• Or the records manager…!
• What if the CEO should go to jail?
• When does ANYONE go to jail for
failure to comply with recordkeeping
requirements?

9. It’s a Brave New World of Technology
Email
1971
Personal computers
1981
Compact discs
1982
World Wide Web
1989
Microsoft Office
1990
Smart phones
1992
Social media
1997
Internet of Things
2002
Blockchain (via
Bitcoin)
2009

10. …So What?
We failed to recognize their business impact
We told business users not to use them for business
Instead of enabling the business, we actively interfered in it

11. The Bottom
Line
• Companies don’t care about
compliance*
*Well….
• Companies care about the bottom
line
• We have to shift the conversation
from compliance to cash!

12. Agenda
• We’ve Always Talked About Records
Management That Way
• Changing the Conversation
• Harnessing Your Information to Create
Business Value

13. The Business of the
Business
• The business is in the business
of the business

14. The Business of the
Business
• The business is in the business
of the business
• Information has to drive
business value

15. The Business of the
Business
• The business is in the business
of the business
• Information has to drive
business value
• Information management has
to drive business value

16. We Need to Drive
Those Conversations
• If not us, who?
• If not now, when?

18. “Information is an Asset”
• Great – how about treating it
like one?
• What if companies treated
their money like they treat
their information?
• https://www.bytebacklaw.com
/2016/01/what-if-companies-
treated-their-money-like-their-
information/

19. Agenda
• We’ve Always Talked About Records
Management That Way
• Changing the Conversation
• Harnessing Your Information to
Create Business Value

20. Drive Business Value. Good information
management practices directly benefit the
bottom line of the organization.

21. Drive Business Value. Good information
management practices directly benefit the
bottom line of the organization.
The reverse is also true.

22. Understand the Compliance Issues - privacy,
legal, etc. – but position them as drivers of
business value.

23. Aviation Charts - Before Aviation Charts - Now
Digitize
Everything
That
Moves

24. Let’s Talk Turkey!

25. YOUR Thoughts!
• Bring products to market faster
• Improve constituency responsiveness, get people housed more
quickly
• Destroying records stored in offsite storage ends that ongoing
cost (and onsite, too!)
• Asking questions that are not otherwise being asked – for
example from a data loss and data minimization perspective,
who has/should have access, etc.  be more productive and
consistent in providing services

26. Additional
Resources
• Infonomics, Douglas B. Laney
• Making Enterprise Information
Management Work for Business,
John Ladley
• Selling Information Governance to
the Business, Sunil Soares

28. For More
Information
Jesse Wilkins
Principal Consultant, Athro Consulting
https://www.athroconsulting.com
jesse.wilkins@athroconsulting.com
Twitter: @jessewilkins
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewilkins