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On May 4, 2010 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Ms. Denise Simons who has been involved with RIM since 1983. She is President of Haystack Associates, Incorporated: which is an information management and consulting firm. Her experience in the RIM field includes analysis, design and project management during the implementation of programs for security, privacy, retention, plus the destruction of electronic and paper-based records and information systems.
Ms. Simons’ presentation focused on privacy and security regulations that have an impact on RIM programs and operations. She began this presentation by indicating that regulations on financial consumer information pertaining to the banking industry have been around since the 1970s. Ms. Simons then indicated that since that time the advent of many privacy and security laws has occurred and that each year more laws are passed which restrict how information may be collected and how personally identifiable information is required to be managed.
The first piece of major legislation that Ms. Simons covered was the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA. As her presentation indicated this was legislation that affected the privacy of patient information which health care providers, insurance companies, self ensured companies and anyone retaining medical information on someone. She also stated that the privacy of this law extends to Doctor (Dr.) information, Dr. notes, workers compensation, family leave requests and any subcontract work that is outsourced by organizations: in both electronic (e-) and paper formats. Additionally, Ms. Simons indicated that organizations should incorporate policies and procedures for operations that document work activity, the secure RIM storage measures and limited access procedures that are implemented along with the training of staff, the enforcement of these procedures and the monitoring of these operations for compliance to this law.
The next major piece of legislation Ms. Simons covered was the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the subsequent Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) that came into being. She informed the audience that this legislation is for the protection of consumer information and affects financial institutions, mortgage brokers, insurance companies, employers, government agencies, attorneys, landlords, car dealers, private investigators, home employment (nanny, housekeepers, butlers, etc.). Ms. Simons also briefed the audience with the consumer rights on methods of correcting inaccurate information, of employer requirements to notify applicants on their use of this information for hiring practices so that consumers were in a position to correct any misinformation the prospective employer may be using for its hiring practices. As is the case with HIPAA, Ms. Simons indicated that many of the same tasks as well as the training of staff were crucial for the implementation of operations that are compliant to the law.
Ms. Simons continued her presentation by indicating that while Payment Card Information (PCI) was not a law, that standards for handling payment card information exist and that non compliance with these standards could result in fines and the withdrawal of the card payment option. Here too, compliance with the standards required prudent policies and procedures along with secure RIM operations and staff training for compliance to the standards.
Ms. Simmons concluded her presentation on state privacy and security laws. She astutely surmised with respect to this issue, that any organization conducting business in all 50 states would be responsible for adhering to all of the laws in place from: the most lenient to the most stringent.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On April 26, 2010 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. H. John Isaza, Esquire (Esq). Mr. Isaza is a California based attorney and partner of Howett Isaza Law Group, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP): which is an international Records and Information Management (RIM) practicing law firm. He has more than a decade of experience as a trial lawyer specializing in business, environmental contamination, products liability and construction defects law. Mr. Isaza is the 2008 recipient of the prestigious Britt Literary Award of ARMA, International and is an active speaker in the ARMA and Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), International circuits.
Mr. Isaza, along with John Jabonski, Esq. who co-facilitated this presentation are co-authors of Seven Steps For Implementing Legal Holds. Which, as the noted, is a publication one may purchase from the ARMA, International Bookstore.
They began their presentation by focusing on common events that may require an organization to suspend its normal records retention policy for the destruction of its obsolete hardcover and electronic records. This was accomplished through defining what a hold policy is and reviewing recent case law on RIM spoliation from organizations’ failure to conduct legal holds and the sanctions that resulted from the courts due to such negligence.
They then outlined the seven steps for implementing legal holds which their publication was based upon. These seven steps, for which their presentation contained a flow chart were founded upon 1) the Trigger Event, 2) an Analysis of the Duty to Preserve information for litigation, 3) Definition on the Scope of information to be preserved, 4) the Implementation of Legal Hold operations, 5) the Enforcement and Examination of the legal hold operations, 6) the Modification of legal hold policy operations for compliance to litigation laws, and 7) Monitoring and Removal of legal hold operations.
As they astutely noted any event that occurs for which litigation may occur should begin the process of preserving information. This could be anything from an accident that occurred on their premises or from an injury from a product, to a letter received by an attorney for an invitation to conduct a compromise to a threatening lawsuit or the notice of a retainer for counsel and experts in a suit to be litigated in court.
The subsequent steps after the Trigger Event occurs were based upon the duty to analyze operations that needed to be conducted to preserve the information, the scope of the preservation operations (that resided on the locations that the information exists and type of information to be preserved) and the implementation of the legal hold operations. During all of these processes they also stressed that meticulous communications with the Information Technology (IT), legal and any other staff of the organization determined to be involved with the impending litigation needed to be conducted.
They also indicated in their presentation that steps should be taken to ensure that information was being preserved and examinations upon the operations should be conducted to perform this task. Furthermore, as their presentation indicated, modifications to policies and operational procedures should be conducted when needed to comply with any changes to the law and for unique scenarios that might arise for the preservation and capture of the information that the courts expected of organizations for litigation (change of personnel, the location of the equipment they were using that could be housing pertinent information, etc., etc., etc.).
Mr. Isaza and Mr. Jabonski concluded their presentation by indicating that monitoring of these legal hold operations should be conducted until the litigation ended or until such time as it could be determined that there was no immanent threat of litigation. With respect to the latter, they presented information on a case in which a plaintiff to pending litigation had waited about eight years to file a lawsuit and that once the opposition did file not all the information was available due to a release of a legal hold by the defendant after about a five year period, for which the court did not sanction the defendant due to reasonable actions on the part of the defendant due to the amount of time that it took the plaintiff to file the lawsuit. Finally, they ended their presentation by stating that when the Legal Hold operations had been lifted, that everyone involved with the Legal Hold be notified so that regular RIM destruction operations could be resumed.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On April 15, 2010 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. H. Larry Eiring. Mr. Eiring is a Certified Records Manager (CRM), he is a recipient of ARMA’s Distinguished Service Award, is a Past President of ARMA, International and was inducted into the Company of Fellows of ARMA, International (FAI) in 2005. He is currently the National Manager of Records and Risk Management for a law firm, Littler Mendelson and has been involved with information management for more than 28 years.
This Web Seminar focused on the necessary elements and methodologies one needs to conduct for the implementation an effective Records and Information Management (RIM) operations needed to conduct Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system. To accomplish this Mr. Eiring stated that an intensive set of tasks needed to be conducted, which were comprised of Planning, Analysis and Design; RIM policies and processes; Technology; Compliance; Training and User Support plus Migration operations of information for the ECM system being implemented for business.
All of these processes, as Mr. Eiring informed the audience, should be incorporated into the project plan from which ECM operations would be developed. This step is the most crucial, as it needs buy-in and support from upper management and needs to deal with the constraints of the budget which is allotted to the implementation of the ECM operations; along with the incorporation of analysis results of the current RIM operations that are in place along with the needed operations required to make the transition to the new technological methodologies that the business will be required to conduct for the implementation of business’s ECM operations. All of these operations, as Mr. Eiring indicated, should center upon the RIM policies and procedures that the business should be conducting for compliance to the laws that govern the organization’s industry.
Just as important, as Mr. Eiring further indicated, is the need to implement methodologies through which the migration and management of all information, such as old legacy data, will be addressed by the business once the ECM operations are implemented. To which, with respect to the old electronic records such the legacy systems, Mr. Eiring stated that electronic vaults for the maintenance of data may have to be created.
Mr. Eiring also stated that training and user support of staff on the new workflow and technological systems being incorporated for the implementation of the ECM system was crucial to the success these operations. He recommended that this training should begin at the outset of implementing the ECM operations and conducted upon a weekly basis thereafter. If weekly training for staff on the new operations was not feasible, he stated that training for staff on the new business operations should not exceed a two week period before being resumed upon the important tasks from which the organization would be reliant for it business operations. Furthermore, Mr. Eiring indicated that it was necessary to conduct this training until staff possessed a complete and comprehensive knowledge upon the work that was being conducted for the business operations of the organization.
Mr. Eiring concluded his presentation by indicating that an analysis of the true costs associated with the ECM operations, as opposed to that outlined within the budgeted plan, needed to be conducted and presented to upper management for the cost of conducting business. These costs needed to address the methodologies needed to ensure compliance to laws regulating the industry and the effective management of resources for the success to the organization’s ECM operations.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On May 24, 2010 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Jeffery Johnson who currently serves as the Senior Vice President and General Manager for Iron Mountain’s Government Services and is responsible for managing the company’s business and strategic initiatives with the Federal Government. Mr. Johnson and his team work closely with customers to bring Iron Mountain’s technology, services and solutions to the Federal Government industry operations. He also serves as a Board Member or Advisor for several for profit companies and is the Chairman of the Board for Information (I) Compassion, a Virginia non-stock corporation.
Mr. Johnson’s presentation focused on strategies for developing successful Records and Information Management (RIM) programs for eGovernment operations. He began this presentation by defining Open Government as being Government 2.0 and being transparent. He then discussed today’s RIM environment and the Federal Government’s desire to attain Government 2.0 operations for transparency: much of has arisen from tighter regulations, which is also part of the RIM environment. Mr. Johnson also discussed shrinking agency budgets, the desire for more efficient operations due to the reduced funding and the exponential growth of information as also being other elements within today’s RIM environment that the Federal Government faces. All of which, as he indicated in his presentation, effective RIM operations is key to successful to eGovernment.
Mr. Johnson’s presentation then focused on a pyramid diagram he divided into three parts and called the Roadmap to Successful eGovernment, which he attributed the success to the need to conduct effective information management. At the bottom of the pyramid Mr. Johnson listed Compliant & Cost Effective Storage and indicated that the operations of this level were tied to the second or middle portion of the pyramid that he listed as Unify Hardcopy Records & Digital Information Management. He also reviewed a number of Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) that have come into existence due to litigation and subsequent legislation, as well as those promulgated by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pertaining to RIM storage operations. In a likewise manner, he tied the second portion of the pyramid to the top portion that he listed as being Knowledge: to which he looked to the interaction of Information Technology (IT), Legal, RIM and Compliance Officer staffs for the implementation of operations needed for successful eGovernment.
Mr. Johnson’s presentation then focused on what he called Benchmark Research: 5 Best Practices. These best practice areas resided with Policies and Procedures, Retention, Index and Access, Privacy and Disposal, plus Audit and Accountability operations.
Mr. Johnson concluded his presentation by indicating that all this work should focus on the Big Picture with the philosophy that “There is room for improvement.” And, that given this, there should be Four Tracks of eGovernment RIM operations, which relied upon Consistency, Accountability, Adoption (of new methods of operations to address compliance) and Accessibility.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On April 5, 2010 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Ted Ardelean. Mr. Ardelean has 20 years of experience in marketing and planning and works at Océ Business Services where he specializes in solution development and marketing, financial analysis, and strategic planning. Prior to this he was the analyst for solution development at Canon, Incorporated where he led financial industry product development for office products. Mr. Ardelean has worked in a variety of industries, including consulting where he developed and marketed management consulting and outsourcing services.
This Web Seminar focused on how the consolidation of business hard and electronic (e-) mail streams into a digital format and its e-distribution could more effectively enhance operations. Additionally, Mr. Ardelean’s presentation touched upon the importance of Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals’ involvement in development of this digital mail system.
Mr. Ardelean indicated that the deployment of this Information System (IS) solution needed to be centrally located and conducted by the mailroom, where all incoming hardcover and electronic mail needed to be sent. From here the mailroom staff would need to scan all the incoming hardcover mail and place the information into a centralized digital IS database. In a similar manner, the e-mail stream for the business would be routed through the mailroom where it and other e-records would be placed into the centralized digital IS database. Mr. Ardelean also indicated that this process would discourage staff from using the business IS systems to conduct personal business: thereby, although it was not mentioned, freeing up memory and reducing the time it takes to conduct backups for the security of information.
Mr. Ardelean continued his presentation by stating that the involvement of RIM professionals was important in curtailing administrative risks involved with information governance, the change of management and confidentiality issues through which policies and procedures should be developed and implemented to control RIM operations: along with the typical RIM tasks (i.e., retention, classification, disposition and storage issues). Furthermore, he indicated that collaboration between the RIM and IS professionals was needed to procure information security through whatever operations were necessary to combat any risks to the loss of information that are associated with the use of today’s technology (such as obsolescence, hackers, etc.).
The benefits of implementing such an operational system, as Mr. Ardelean stated within his presentation, would be the easier control and accountability of the business’ information operations. It may also be inferred that this IS model of operations would create a transparent set of business operations from which the duplication of information would be reduced, if not eliminated altogether, and the enhancement of business operations through greater access to information by the staff.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On December 9, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Jesse Wilkins. Mr. Wilkins is a Certified Document Imaging Architech (CDIA) and a CDIA+. He is a principal consultant with the Access Sciences Corporation where he focuses on electronic records management, messaging technologies, collaborative tools, plus process and system design. Mr. Wilkins serves on the ARMA, International Board of Directors and on numerous task forces and committees. Moreover, he has conducted numerous presentations at ARMA, International and Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), International events from 2003 through 2009. Mr. Wilkins is also the recipient of the AIIM Education Award.
This Web Seminar focused on the need for records managers and organizations to incorporate the advent of new Information Technology (IT) innovations such as Web 2.0, Twitter and Blog applications into organizational business operations. The reason he cited was because people were going to use the advent of these new IT applications to conduct business anyway. As such, Mr. Wilkins explored issues that organizations needed to address in the development of policies and procedures for responsible Records and Information Management (RIM) operations of its business data on these applications for compliance with the new laws governing data and information.
Given this, Mr. Wilkins covered some of the advantages organizations would gain by taking this proactive course of incorporation for these new IT applications. Additionally, he addressed the security concerns of organizations for confidential and privileged information through the use of various methodologies, such as the use of information silos, for the development of policies needed to procure the responsible RIM operations which keyed off of compliance to the laws governing IT data operations.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On October 6, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Ms. Cydni Tetro. Ms. Tetro possesses experience in overseeing the Novell Directory Services (NDS) Product Management Group and managed the NDS Technical Support and Escalation Team. Currently, she directs the strategy and execution of NexPage’s Product and Marketing Initiatives, including product marketing and strategy, customer support, brand management, market research and marketing communications. Ms. Tetro holds a master’s degree in Business Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Brigham Young University.
This Web Seminar focused on the ever increasing amount of information that is created by organizations to conduct business and of the need to manage it for compliance of the law. For example, Ms. Tetro indicated that the size of the digital universe in 2007 was 281 exabytes: which is 1 billion gigabytes. Ms. Tetro further informed the audience that the estimated size of the digital universe by 2011 was going to be 10 times that figure. She also indicated that the business climate of today is founded upon the expanded obligation to control information from federal regulations and the increased difficulty to control the information that is stored on the “edge” – individual Personal Computers (PCs) and scattered share drives. Despite the overwhelming requirements to manage all of the records being created by this information, Ms. Tetro informed the audience that it would be a mistake for organizations not to do anything because of the complexity or because they were waiting to perfect a solution before doing anything: i.e., they need to be proactive in the management of their information.
While her presentation was grounded upon 2 case studies to control unmanaged records and information, a good portion of her seminar centered upon a large accounting firm which was a member firm of Grant Thornton, International and utilized a C3 concept to manage its records through Collaboration, Cleanup and Compliance. This Grant Thornton Approach represented a good model through which organizations could control and manage its records and information. She told the audience that the firm conducted its collaboration through a centralized SharePoint share drive set of repository operations. The cleanup process occurred through a set or operations in which users were required to process their electronic (e-) mail within 30 days (through which a notice process to the user and then supervisors after another 30 days was conducted prior to the outright deletion of the e-mail from the organization’s centralized system occurred). Finally, with respect to compliance, she informed the audience that this firm conducted operations that were founded upon an E-Discovery Reference Model which could be accessed at www.edrm.net .
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On September 30, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. John O’Brien. Mr. O’Brien is a Certified Records Manager (CRM) with more than 25 years of experience in every Records and Information Management (RIM) facet of operations. With practitioner and senior executive insights, Mr. O’Brien’s consulting and educational roles focus on RIM fundamentals to balance accountability, with business practices that may be defended though comprehensive knowledge management. As director of government records service and principal archivist in Hong Kong, Mr. O’Brien emphasized the need for authenticity in electronic records management. He has served as President and Certification Maintenance Regent for the Institute of Certified Records Managers (ICRM) and sits on the ARMA, International Relations Committee.
This Web Seminar, as the title suggests, focused on the 7 key questions that clarify and provide focus for executives in their understanding of RIM at the strategic level of operations, while providing a guideline for project activities at the tactical level. The 7 key questions which Mr. O’Brien identified and discussed operational activities that would address them were as follows:
1) What information has been, or needs to be captured for business operations? -
Which data gathering and inventory operations will be able to determine.
2) What is the functional relationship of the information to business? – Which an analysis of its functions, records content and needs assessments will determine.
3) How can information be arranged to optimize its use? – Which the design of classification systems will be instrumental in achieving.
4) How long should the recorded information exist? – Which the comprehensive development of retention and disposition schedules will determine.
5) What characteristics of media and physical form must be considered? – Which the development of migration and preservation strategies will address and accomplish.
6) What controls on access and use must be implemented? – Which a definition for compliance and security needs assessment will constitute the bases from which plans and the implementation of operations may be conducted.
7) What metadata can reduce the impact on people? – From which an extraction and a definition of descriptors will make a determination possible.
Mr. O’Brien concluded his presentation by indicating that because RIM is rarely positioned within business operations for organizations to realize its potential, it is up to the RIM professionals to proactively connect the dots for this realization. As such, Mr. O’Brien indicated that these 7 RIM Questions have proven to be a useful framework in strategically focusing on important issues through which a RIM program may position themselves in achievement and realization of this potential.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On September 21, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Ken Neal. Mr. Neal possesses more than 20 years of corporate communications experience. He has also implemented programs for International Business Machines (IBM), BearingPoint and, currently with, Oce Business Services. Mr. Neal is a certified advanced speaker with Toastmaster International and has published articles on effective communication in US Business Review. He has provided presentations on effective communication at the 2008 ARMA, International Conference and Expo, the New York Real Estate Institute and the National Council on Economic Education.
This Web Seminar focused on the techniques that Records and Information Management (RIM) professionals could utilize in conducting effective business communications to gain support for RIM programs. To achieve this Mr. Neal indicated that RIM professionals needed to conduct communications which met the personal needs of their audience, be credible within the communications being conducted and communicate persuasively. He also indicated that RIM professionals needed to cater these communication techniques to target three types of groups: senior management, Information Technology (IT) and staff level audiences. Mr. Neal stated that everyone is in sales of sorts and that communications needed to be persuasive, even though people resist the idea of being persuaded to do something.
For example, Mr. Neal indicated that senior management is interested in revenues or budgets or fixing something that is not working: not in retention schedules. Hence, one needs to communicate persuasively by saying things that will make people want to support your ideas or operations. With senior management all the necessary details will need to be covered, as well as the completion date of any project that you plan to embark upon. Mr. Neal also stated that one has inform others how long they have been involved with RIM operations and inform the audience of their accomplishments on how much they have saved or how much savings resulted from programs that they implemented. Additionally, Mr. Neal stressed that one should focus their communications on personal needs that addressed wining through the use of sports or business relationships, security which is life’s glue through the powerful benefits of conducting best practice RIM operations, and acceptance through the clarification on how the program will meet the organization’s overall strategic objectives-rather than that of any one subdivision or unit.
Furthermore, Mr. Neal stressed the need for one to acquire credibility through honesty, as credibility will add great strength to the communications that one conducts. For example, he stated that no one trusts someone who cheats on the golf course, so being trustworthy is a highly important trait that one must posses. He also cautioned people not to gossip and asked the audience if they would trust someone who was always gossiping to them about somebody of not to gossiping about them to somebody else.
Finally, Mr. Neal covered the difference between expressive communications that is based upon emotions and strategic communications that is founded upon selling – not just telling. Mr. Neal indicated that the latter of these needed to be focused upon what was trying to be achieved. Finally, he also told the audience to be brief, well organized and focused on the bottom line in their strategic communications.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On August 26, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Bill Tolson. Mr. Tolson possesses more than 20 years of experience in storage and archiving solutions, product marketing and consulting. More recently, as the Director of Legal Solutions Marketing at Mimosa Systems, he is responsible for the strategy and implementation of Mimosa’s legal and regulatory archiving solutions. Mr. Tolson has been a featured speaker at several archiving events, including the Government Technology Conferences, Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), International Exposition and Conference, ARMA International Annual Conference and Expo, and the TechTarget Email and File Archiving Seminar Series. He is also the author of the E-Book The Know IT All’s Guide to eDiscovery and co-author of Email Archiving for Dummies.
This Web Seminar, as the title suggests, focused on the 10 most common mistakes companies have made that raise the cost of discovery and risk the loss of litigation. These mistakes and some best practice preparation for e-discovery were covered by this seminar so that organizations would learn of some useful suggestions to cost effectively respond to the discovery requirements of the courts. The 10 mistakes outlined by Mr. Tolson were as follows:
1) An organization’s not fully understanding the responsibilities of a Legal Hold, pertaining to court and internal notices for a hold on information and the speedy implementation of the hold to preserve information: inclusive of backup tapes.
2) An organization’s failure to create or follow appropriate retention policies, which of itself and when coupled with a lack of legal hold policies, will exclude an organization from some if not all Safe Harbor 37 (e) amendment protection on the inadvertent destruction of information that occurs during the regular course of business.
3) An organization’s lack of knowledge on where the data for litigation resides, which raises the cost for the search of the data and risks the loss of litigation due to spoliation of the data.
4) An organization’s failure to develop an E-Discovery cross-functional response team to process the required by litigation ahead of time.
5) An organization’s failure to communicate or educate employees on their E-Discovery responsibilities and the consequences the organization will face in litigation for noncompliance.
6) An organization’s simplistic action of delegating E-Discovery matters to the Information Technology (IT) staff.
7) An organization’s failure to produce Electronic Stored Information (ESI) in a format that is reasonably usable.
8) An organization’s failure to obtain legal advice on ESI retention, the applicability of rules and regulations governing information retention and an assessment of the current laws pertaining to litigation hold requirements.
9) An organization’s assumption that “Smoking Guns” don’t exist because the information the organization was aware of was deleted and the organization’s failure to conduct an Early Case Assessment of any existing smoking gun data so that its legal strategy could be adjusted accordingly.
10) Was a reiteration by Mr. Tolson on an organization’s failure to understand its responsibilities for a Legal Hold and its inability to implement effective legal hold operations ahead of time.
Given this, Mr. Tolson indicated that organizations need to develop policies and tested operations resulting from policies for properly reacting to Legal Holds. He also stated that a regular analysis of an organization’s E-Discovery policies needs to be conducted to learn if adjustments need to be implemented to meet the ever changing laws. Mr. Tolson further indicated that organizations should design communication plans to facilitate collaboration between IT and its legal counsel. He also stressed that organizations need to plan preparations for the “Meet and Confer Session” contained within the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 26(f). Finally, Mr. Tolson concluded his presentation by indicating that organizations should possess a working knowledge of its current protection under the Safe Harbor amendment FRCP 37(f) so that procedures pertaining to the protection against liability for the inadvertent destruction of information may be followed.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On August 13, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Fred Diers. Mr. Diers has been a global records management program director for News Corporation. As a consultant and practitioner, Mr. Diers has developed global information compliance programs for multinational organizations. More recently, Mr. Diers has served as the Vice President of governance risk and compliance for the Judge Group. Mr. Diers is a Past President of ARMA International and the International Records Management Council. Additionally, Mr. Diers is a Certified Records Manager (CRM), he also was been awarded the ARMA Emmett Leahy Award and ARMA International’s Distinguished Service Award, as well as being elected, recognized and receiving the title of being a Fellow of ARMA, International (FAI).
This Web Seminar focused on the need for additional governance regulations, tougher rules of evidence and management accountability to adequately meet the proliferation of electronic records and organizational risk. This necessity rested upon a new set of information governance rules that set the foundation which require organizations to implement a sustainable Records and Information Management (RIM) program.
As such, Mr. Diers’ presentation indicated that RIM’s role has become one of the foremost operations within an organization that everyone within the organization was responsible for compliance with, not just that of the records manager. Mr. Dier also stressed that given today’s circumstances that records managers needed to work with Information Technology (IT) staff to conduct reduction control on the volume of information, via the identification of stakeholders throughout the organization, the application of RIM operations and preservation methods that would allow efficient access to information and kept the information for the required amount of time that an organization needed to keep it for compliance with the laws
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On July 30, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Ms. Mary Droese. Ms. Droese has held various marketing and product management positions in the high-technology industry for more than 25 years where she has worked for a pioneer in electronic solutions (DST Systems), where she currently oversees its product management organization.
This Web Seminar focused on the implementation of encryption methods to develop robust security system operations to proactively respond to growing security concerns associated with Information Technology (IT) operations. In this Web Seminar Ms. Droese examined the security benefits that organizations gain by applying encryption methodologies to their IT operations that on the loss of information that was accidentally distributed or misplaced information which became accessible to people whom it should not have been made available to (thereby compromising the sensitivity of that data).
Additionally, Ms. Droese indicated that organizations which utilize operations that mandated the use of 8 to 14 characters within their password access activities, utilizing both alpha and numeric characters, is like using encryption within the work that they are conducting. All these methods as Ms. Droese pointed out, would go far in the protection of an organization’s privileged, confidential and sensitive data.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On July 16, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Jim McGann. Mr. McGann possesses extensive experience with the electronic (e-) discovery and information management markets. He has worked for leading software firms such as Information Builders, Mirror Worlds Technologies, the French based engineering software provider Dassault Systemes and more recently with Index Engines as Vice President of its Information Discovery organization. Additionally, Mr. McGann holds a degree in mechanical engineering from Villanova University.
This Web Seminar outlined a new approach for collecting and organizing historical data to make it accessible through an organization’s archival system. Mr. McGann indicated that new laws and regulations pertaining to Electronic Stored Information (ESI) and its metadata required more comprehensive Information Technology (IT) operations. These comprehensive operations needed to make it possible for organizations to pull information from old tapes, cull information that needed to be maintained for a longer amount of time, categorized for the elimination of duplicate information and the migration of information on old IT systems that was required to be kept to the current applications that are being used by organizations. To accomplish this, Mr. McGann indicated that technological applications now exist that will assist organizations with this task.
Mr. McGann also indicated that these retroactive Records and Information Management (RIM) operations would strengthen an organization’s RIM work that was inclusive of its important historical records. Additionally, Mr. McGann indicated that the application of RIM policies to information that existed on backup data tapes would eliminate the amount of irrelevant backup tapes that needed to be maintained by an organization in their e-archives.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On November 16, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Pieter Nauta. Mr. Nauta has worked at Astrocamp in Southern California teaching kids about science and astronomy. Currently, he works with Laserfiche, where for the past 4 years he has developed and presented technical training to users and vendors throughout the United States and internationally as a technology trainer.
This Web Seminar focused on the implementation of a new technological process of combining Electronic Records Management (ERM) and Document Management System (DMS) operations into a hybrid system within an organization’s Enterprise Content Management (ECM), that Mr. Nauta called Transparent Records Management (TRM), for conducting business. ECM, as he pointed out, is the popular way that organizations are utilizing to go paperless, via the imaging of hardcover documentation that exists to make information available throughout an organization.
Mr. Nauta briefly examined the ERM and DMS processes. He likened ERM as being analogous to a library card system that requires records management filing for retention management but which is intimidating to the general population of employees within an organization. While the general employee population is more comfortable in conducting business work with latter, DMS produces challenges to managing retention on the amount of time that information is required to be kept.
Hence, as Mr. Nauta stated, planning would needed to be conducted for the implementation of the TRM system, in which collaboration with the organization’s Information Technology (IT) staff, as well as a representative from every sector of the organization would need to conducted. He also indicated that it should be planned to the level of functionality to where even the imaging technicians would not be troubled with the need to know the specifics associated with ERM retention operations during the course of the work which they were charged with conducting.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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On November 6, 2009 I viewed this ARMA Web Seminar that was facilitated by Mr. Martin Tuip. Mr. Tuip possesses many years of experience in the e-archiving and regulatory compliance industry. He has been working with Microsoft Exchange since 1996 and is a published author. Mr. Tuip is also the webmaster of www.sharepointserver.com and www.exchange-mail.org . He has held e-archiving positions at KVS (*Khoros Visualization System), Symantec, Quest Software and Mimosa Systems. Additionally, Mr. Tuip has received the Microsoft Exchange “Most Valuable Professional” (MVP) Award 10 times.
This Web Seminar focused on the importance of recognizing e-mail as a business record and the challenges of managing the ever increasing amount of e-mails that are created to conduct business. Mr. Tuip astutely began his presentation by stating that any document or e-mail containing information about business operations constitutes a records: and that this was inclusive of any of their attachments. His presentation further stated that the current laws regulating civil lawsuits required organizations to properly manage all of their records. As such, Mr. Tuip informed the audience that organizations needed to create projects for the proper storage and management of their e-records. For this, he indicated that organizations needed to develop solutions that keyed off of retention schedules and operational policies which were developed for compliance to the laws that regulate business operations, especially that of legal holds.
Mr. Tuip’s presentation indicated that many solutions failed to efficiently and cost effectively address the challenges of Records and Information Management (RIM). For example, he stated that solutions based upon no quotas as to what is kept, that is also associated with backup tape solutions, was a very expensive method of compliance: which he based upon the costs associated with the storage of data operations which has seen an exponential growth over the years for business operations, duplicate content, plus the expense that is tied to longer recovery and e-discovery operations. With respect to forced quotas, Mr. Tuip informed the audience that this method, which was attempted with mailbox policies, is an old school solution as limited mailbox quotas are counterproductive. He told the audience that forced quotas forces users to create personal folders or do underground e-archiving in yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc. Furthermore, Mr. Tuip stated that Microsoft Exchange was not designed for long-term storage of the information that users were placing into their personal folders and that personal folders are a primary target of lawyers in e-discovery operations: that could result in a number of smoking guns which will contribute to the loss of a lawsuit case for an organization.
Mr. Tuip’s then focused on Best Practices for E-Archiving. These practices resided foremost upon an analysis of the laws and data for the development of records retention and policies for an organization’s RIM operations. The second portion of these best practices resided upon policy execution through which E-Mail Archival, File Architecture and Data Base (DB) process design for operations occurs. The third portion of these best practices was founded upon Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) Deployment for E-Mail, Unstructured (user/PC generated) and Structured (DB) data. With the final portion of these best practices founded upon ongoing training, audits, updating of policies and procedures, plus the operations required for the destruction of information that had met its legal retention.
*My educated guess on the abbreviation of KVS.
Review by Joseph V. Valdez, II |
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