What is at risk?

Organisations that have been in operation for a number of years build up a large volume of records and assets.  Some will be well documented and managed, but others, especially older records, may not.

Yet the organisation may need to access historic records, or prove their authenticity, under the time pressure of a major business initiative or even a litigation case.  The uncertainty over which records and assets are well protected and which aren't risks compromising the organisation.  And depending upon the nature of the situation this risk could be severe, especially if litigation is involved.

To make matters worse, this risk is exponeniated when an organisation operates multi-nationally as different national rules for record storage periods and authenticity apply.

The benefits of taking action

It is easy to see that having a single central database of all records and assets that can track their ownership, whereabouts and changes would eliminate this risk.  However it might seem like a 'Holy Grail' solution, good in theory but couldn't be achieved in practice.

With the advent of super-intelligent software systems it is achievable in practice, no matter how adverse the stating position. As long as you plan and execute the project coherently you can establish the base point of where you are now and implement a management/tracking system to keep that base point accurate.

And with such a system in place your organisation would always have a very high degree of certainty of the location and authenticity of core records and assets.

Eliminating records and asset related risk

The key to eliminating the risks pertaining to record and asset management is the central collation of information related to critical records/assets.  This will allow you to identify and prioritise risk areas and keep an accurate track of future changes/movements.  Bearing in mind that many of the records and assets may not be in electronic format makes this a difficult, but not impossible, task.

d2OPS international's approach is to work with you through an information modelling project which then leads into the setting up a suitable tracking process.

Enterprise Information Modelling

• Identify the critical records and assets (documents and records, physical assets, people, processes, knowledge, relationships, ...) and their location
• Identify interdependencies (how are different records and assets related or dependent upon each other)
• Classify the results in a structured way to ensure current and future consistency and to determine risk priorities
• Determine the permission hierarchy for controlling accountability, access, change and movement of records and assets
• Define business rules for how the records and assets will be managed in future to remove risks

Records and Asset Tracking

• Implement a central records & asset database to systemise the output of the Enterprise Information Modelling project
• Implement electronic processes to track all electronic records, including setting up data vaults for the protection of 'original copies' where required
• Implement physical tracking processes to track all non-electronic assets.  These should be recorded electronically in the central database, and could include automatic systems such as RFID tagging to track physical assets that are mobile.

d2OPS international can work with you to identify software solutions to support the above projects if current systems are not suitable.