Eight steps to making ISO 15489 a reality

In the process of establishing the ISO 15489 standard, the ISO committee also formulated guidelines to implementing a sustainable records management programme across a broad spectrum of industries, irrespective of their country of origin.

Effective records management is a key function of all organisations, but companies in different countries have their own cultures and regulations defining how they manage their business data. ISO 15489 was designed to ensure companies could adhere to the standard while implementing a programme closely aligned with their strategic and policy objectives.

The result is a set of guidelines that are open and flexible enough to cater for laws and customs in various countries without compromising any of the principles of the standard. Brief outlines of the guidelines are listed below; an in-depth analysis can be found in the 15489 specifications.

The first step in implementing an ISO 15489-compliant records management programme is understanding the organisation`s role, purpose and environment. This research includes the reasons for the company`s being, all current and predicted operational methods and influencing factors, as well as any external aspects that can influence operations in the future, such as economic, political, legal, regulatory and social factors.

This information is needed to ensure each company implements a records management programme suited to its own environment.

The first step in implementing an ISO 15489-compliant records management programme is understanding the organisation`s role, purpose and environment.

Paul Mullon, marketing director, Metrofile

Once the first step is completed, the information gathered needs to be complemented by an additional, more in-depth analysis of the organisation`s structures, functions, processes and activities. The goal of this step is to gain a clear understanding of the company`s records and the relationship between them and the organisational systems that create and use them.

Without this understanding, it is impossible to ensure that records management processes support the objectives of the organisation.

The background information gained in the previous steps provides a foundation for identifying what the influences and determinants are for the creation and maintenance of records in that company. Requirements can vary from one process to another and some may be determined by legislation. All, however, need to be identified and catered for in the overall management programme.

As the programme develops it may become necessary to make a judgement call about to what extent the business will try to meet each requirement. This decision will be based on the information gathered in the first two steps and the assessed costs that will be incurred in meeting the requirements - and the consequences of not meeting them.

It may transpire that certain high-cost, low-risk requirements can be safely ignored, while other high-risk requirements (such as legislated records management procedures) need to be catered for irrespective of cost.

You are unlikely to find a company without some form of records management in place today, even if it is an informal, manual file-and-fetch programme. An assessment of existing systems needs to consider older processes the company uses and how to marry them with new processes that are being created.

Controlling legacy records and smoothly migrating them and the processes involved into the new system is critical to ensuring the company continues functioning efficiently in the transformation process. The assessment process may need to include investigating each department to determine their methods of creating and managing records, as well as examining the physical records stored to find the most efficient migration process - if any is required.

Once all the requirements have been identified, a company-wide strategy needs to be formulated incorporating policies, standards and practices to cater for them all. Of course, one size does not fit all and different areas of the business may only need to implement one, some or all of the strategies.

It`s important to ensure that the strategies chosen accurately reflect the environment, the technical capabilities and even the culture in the organisation. Ensuring staff adapt to new processes and implement all strategies by the book will be tough enough without having to overcome additional skills or cultural barriers.

Only once the strategies have been designed and checked to ensure they meet the needs of the company can the actual process of creating a records management system begin. Apart from taking all the data generated in the previous steps into account, the size of the organisation, its available resources and geographic dispersal also need to be considered when starting the design.

Large organisations may find that different functional areas need to have their own records management system in place and that a company-wide system is unworkable. Of course, common modules or processes should always be used where possible, but of primary importance is that each management system takes the functions and requirements of each business unit`s processes and activities into account.

Here the rubber meets the road. The implementation phase is the culmination of all the previous steps and any shortcomings in the first phases are easy to identify early in the implementation.

In this phase, existing systems may need to be phased out completely, while others may have to be restructured to accommodate the new rules. Whatever the course of action, whenever new systems are introduced, it must be done in stages. Each mini-project needs to have the appropriate pilot and testing phases to ensure they work as expected and are integrated with the organisation`s new and remaining legacy processes.

In addition, the new records management processes are going to have an impact on many of the people who deal with records on a daily basis. A well-planned training programme consisting of external and on-the-job coaching, as appropriate, must also be initiated.

Although electronic records management receives more than its fair share of attention, the first priority for organisations should be to ensure their paper management procedures are in place and working correctly. I generally find that starting on electronic systems before paper processes are verified results in faulty paper and electronic systems.

Common sense in many instances, but when it comes to record management there is a tendency to skip post-implementation reviews in favour of leaving supervisors to "sort it out". Reviewing of the process as a whole as well as its components is critical to measure the success of each step and report back to senior management.

Review, improve and monitor should become a standard part of every records management programme.

During the design of ISO 15489 and the subsequent localisation through a committee chaired by Standards SA, the overriding factor in defining the guidelines to implementing the standard was to ensure compliance while catering for an almost infinite number of divergent social, legislative and cultural factors.

It may be a globalised world, but we are certainly not all operating in a common environment with the same operational influences. A global standard needs to be rigid in what it establishes, but flexible enough to allow companies from across the world to adapt it to their circumstances.