April 2018 Events

AIIM 2018 – San Antonio, Texas, April 11-13, 2018

We’ll be attending this event and hope to see you there. Look me up on the Conference mobile app if you would like to meet up.

ARMA Orlando Chapter – location tbd, April 17, 2018, 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

I will presenting Part One of RM Procedures. This is a 2-hour session that will be completed at the May Chapter meeting. We will present a RM procedure frame work and examples of how to realistically implement procedures such as retention, circulation and disposition.

April 2017 Events

ARMA Gulf Coast Chapter

March 30-31, 2017

Bytes, Basics and Beyond (May the Records Force Be With You) 

Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, Florida (near Tampa / Clearwater)

Okay this is in March but in case you missed the earlier announcement there is still time to register for this. I will be presenting the keynote session at this well regarded education event and discussing the evolving ECM marketplace. 

For more details see their website. Florida Gulf Coast ARMA chapter 

The agenda is below.

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CAPSERVE 17 presented by HSA Inc.

Service Provider Capture Summit

April 5-6, 2017

Hilton Washington Dulles Airport

The next generation service provider forum is hosted by IMAGAZ and HSA. I will be moderating a panel with representatives from ABBYY, IBM, and OpenText.  The topic is How to Select And Manage Cloud Services – Which Traditional ECM and Capture Vendor’s Cloud Services Should You Use?

Information about the conference can be found at CAPSERVE 17.

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Workshop on Developing & Managing Electronic Records in Corporate Records Management Systems

Conducted by Priscilla Emery for Lorson Resources

April 25-26, 2017

Trinidad

For more information about attending this class please contact Emerson Bryan at ebryan@lorsonresources.com

The initial program outline is presented below but please note that this is revised depending on changing market and geographic developments.

 

March 2017 Events

AIIM Conference 2017 

March 13-16, 2017

Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida

I’m not presenting at the conference this year but I will be attending and look forward to meeting up with the AIIM tribe. I’ve attended every AIIM conference since 1988 and I’m not about to break the streak yet.

If you are attending, I strongly recommend downloading the AIIM Conference app (my understanding is that the latest version should be available on Feb 28) to really connect with and enjoy the event. Feel free to link up with me in Orlando and we can discuss the industry issues of the day. And, since Orlando is my home base and I’m familiar with the dining, shopping and museums in the area feel free to ask me about my present hometown.

For more information about the conference check out the AIIM site. AIIM 2017

ARMA Gulf Coast Chapter

March 30-31, 2017

Bytes, Basics and Beyond (May the Records Force Be With You) 

Safety Harbor Resort and Spa, Florida

I will be presenting the keynote session at this well regarded education event and discussing the evolving ECM marketplace. 

For more details see their website. Florida ARMA Gulf Coast Chapter

Oops! They Did It Again! InfoGov Isn’t Just For The Big Guys

About a month ago I tweeted a link to a story that keeps cropping up.  The link to the local #WFTV story is in the title (Personal documents, SS numbers found in dumpster behind Orlando law firms). These stories keep on landing on the local news but this one seemed to have more finger pointing than most. Lawyers pointing to the landlord, the landlord pointing to cleaning staff and then circling back to the lawyers. It’s like a bad reenactment of the old Abbott and Costello routine of “Who’s on First.” We all know that records with Personally Identifiable Information (PII) should be disposed of securely  – so why does this kind of thing keep happening? Are small practitioners such as medical offices, law firms and CPAs that out of touch with records and information practices?

What all this actually points to is a lack of information governance and, in particular, a lack of accountability, which should have been defined by the law firm on the outset. Information governance isn’t just a challenge for large organizations and corporations. Any and all business and professional entities should be concerned about who is responsible for the proper destruction of documents and have a defined process for doing so.

Throwing records into the trash is a recipe for trouble.

Throwing records into the trash is a recipe for trouble.

Pointing to the cleaning crew as the problem does not make sense. Most cleaning crews don’t just take records and documents off of people’s desks and throw them out. These records should never have been located in an area where they could be mistaken for trash. So here’s the question? Who in your organization is ultimately accountable for making sure that policies and procedures for the protection, retention and eventual disposal of the organization’s information have been developed? This doesn’t say they have to create the procedures but someone has to take responsibility for making sure that information governance is addressed. That’s what accountability is about and it isn’t just reserved for the giants among us. And, if you are in a large organization you might start taking a serious look at your field offices and see if they are in the same league. Do you really want to be another local news story?

June 2015 Events

AIIM Florida Chapter Meeting

Join me and Take the Terminlogy Challenge and Win! at the next AIIM Florida Chapter meeting on Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 11:30 AM EDT being held at Idatix Corp in Clearwater, Florida, 1499 Gulf to Bay Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33755.

As an ECM professional it is important to understand the terminology associated with the both new technologies and business practices that impact your implementation initiatives. Using a game show format, this fun session will cover terminology coming from social media, cloud computing, security, privacy, e-discovery, business practice, and more. The session will prepare you to be more conversant with other departments in your organization and stay on the forefront of business and technology trends.

Why You Should Come

  • Learn how to be up to date on ECM information to share across your organization
  • Gain insights into the key terminology and trends in ECM
  • Understand technology trends that impact your ECM Implementation 

Please RSVP to Pamela Yemma pamelayemma@yarnall.com by Tuesday, June 9th, 6 PM EDT for an accurate food count. Fee is $15.

ARMA Central Florida Chapter Meeting, June 19, 2015

The IT Mind and Its Tribulations: A Records Manager’s Look presented by Mauricio Perry, CRM

Mauricio is a Certified Records Manager, a Certified e-Discovery Specialist, and a Certified Quality Engineer. He has more than 18 years of experience managing records for a multi-national company. He is the webmaster for the Palm Beach Treasure Coast Chapter of ARMA.

  • 4Rivers is being catered in for this June seminar/luncheon!
  • Parking will be provided!!
  • LOCATION: Orange County 109 Church Street Building – 4th floor conference room
  • FEE: $20.00
  • Contact Brian Lefils to reserve a spot at the meeting. bryan.lefils@occompt.com

Migrating Electronic Records: More than Just a Data-Mapping Exercise

Over the last couple of years I’ve been helping with the implementation of a variety of tools meant to support various aspects of the information governance process, most especially migrating document / records repositories from one system to another. This includes implementing electronic records management (ERM) systems, document repositories that are used as research resources, physical records management tracking and e-mail archives, just to name a few.

What I have found to be unnerving in almost all these cases is the lack of advanced planning for the actual implementation on the part of the user organization.  They requested and put out an RFP for a tool to help them support a list of functional and technical requirements so the tools they end up implementing are in the realm of what they asked for and for the price they expected to pay.  Except they didn’t plan for the changes that would need to be made in the organization of their documents / records in order for the tool(s) to work effectively. Retention plans weren’t optimized to use the new system. Classifications and taxonomies weren’t sorted out to prevent confusion and redundancy within the system. They just made the assumption that they would migrate their previous repositories in whatever state they were in right into the new system.

It doesn’t work that way folks. Yes, data mapping is required but that just one aspect of the project process. If this just happened once I would dismiss it as a one-off occurrence. Unfortunately, I’ve seen many situations like this and they aren’t pretty. In fact, it results in the user paying licensing fees for software they won’t truly be able to use for several months to several years down the road. Not a wise use of funds.

It’s akin to moving from one house to another without taking account the new floor plan, the square footage of the new abode and the neighborhood you are moving into.

  • Taking all your belongings into a downsized residence doesn’t make sense.  Do you really need to migrate with every book you’ve owned since college? Maybe, but highly doubtful.
    • Get rid of the Redundant, Outdated and the Trash, i.e. ROT, and redefine your retention plan, if necessary.
  • If you move to a warmer climate, do you still plan to use your cross-country skis every week? Again, highly doubtful.
    • Are you still using records procedures developed for manual systems in an electronic world? Update procedures to use the new system effectively and get rid of archaic language.
  • When you pack you winnow down what you have, and you categorize what you are packing by room and by object type so you can eventually find it at your new destination.
    • Having folders with the exact same names that mean two different things will cause confusion. Sort out file plans and naming conventions before hand.
  • When you make the actual move you are provided a bill of lading after everything is put on the truck so that you can track what is being moved and make sure it all gets to the final destination in the same way.
    • Yes data mapping is still required so having an old schema is as important as creating a new one.

Of course, organizations shouldn’t even be thinking of migrations unless they have thoroughly prioritized their information governance efforts and assessed their present program’s health.  Doing an info gov benchmark generally costs less money than a migration and can help identify whether that migration project is really the priority you think it is and, if so, what you need to do beforehand to prepare for a cost-effective implementation.

May 2015 Events

ECM Scope (i.e., Priscilla Emery) will be presenting at the following events this month:

  • The Document Strategy Forum #DSF2015 from May 12-14, 2015 in Greenwich, CT at the Hyatt Greenwich.  She will be presenting a case study on the Destruction of Paper vs Electronic Records. Many organizations think they can use the same destruction process they have defined in their paper-focused retention schedules. Unfortunately, that approach is not prudent.
  • The Florida Records Management Association (FRMA) will be conducting its annual conference from May 19-22, 2015 at the The Shores Resort and Spa, Daytona Beach Shores, FL. Priscilla will be conducting a half day session on Social Media and RM on the afternoon of the 19th and the game show format session, Taking the Technology Terminology Challenge on the afternoon of the 20th.

Other Information Governance events this month include:

The MER Conference will be taking place at the Westin Michigan Avenue in Chicago from May 18-20.  This is an excellent event but we can’t be in two places at once.