Administrative & Operations: WHAT?!? Document Management and Sustainability?!

Reviewing the slide show for our 6th module, Administration and Operations, I noticed an item subject to sustainability which was "Records Management". This definitely caught my eye because this is exactly what I do for a living currently. Day in and Day out I consider my efforts and objectives of my consulting engagements to be revolved around making everything electronic, search-able, and disposing of records as necessary. Not once have I considered what I do sustainable. Enlightening!

So, according to our objectives of Records Management Consulting, I consult a company on the design and implementation of their Records Management program. The primary objectives have to do with, first, legal matters. The driving force in Records Management is the destruction of Records that an organization is no longer required to keep, as determined by legal statutes or by organizational policies. This reduces the risk of the company and diverts the risk of self-incriminating evidence. The next benefit to be achieved is the organization of the organization's content. This is more commonly referred to as Document Management. We will most likely convert every document to electronic format, organize it in a intuitive structure, and set permissions and security. Along this process, it is our goal to reduce the number of documents that remain in a physical format. If possible we would convert them all to electronic. For further understanding of Document Management and Records management practices, I recommend the AIIM website. http://www.aiim.org/

I would like to present some insight into the Records/Document Management practice. I have been involved with many different clients and the consulting company that I work with has consulted many oil and gas companies. I know...we can go crazy on the oil and gas industry, but that is not our discussion here. We have been involved in moving the company along the technology curve and bringing many companies up to date technologically. As I have previously stated, our efforts have been in the Records Management arena. At a specific company, there were physical documents and records that dated back 75 years! It is arguable that documents are vital to a company at this age, but the argument is very rarely won (almost never). You can imagine the number of documents that could be trashed and destroyed over the 75 years worth of paper. Well, we did just that. We got rid of so much. This company was a  70 floor building, and had 10 floors for their corporate operations. Two floors were dedicated to physical documents. Our efforts rid 1 and a half floors of unnecessary documents. You can imagine the energy that was required to keep those documents, retrieve the documents, manage the documents, etc.

According to an AIIM article "The average worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper each year and wastes about 1,410 of these pages. With the average cost of each wasted page at being about six cents, a company with 500 employees could be spending $42,000 per year on wasted prints." There are other statistics to conclude that Electronic Records Management adds to the bottom line. Reducing the number of pages printed out as physical documents also adds to the environmental bottom line. Less resources are used.
http://aiim.typepad.com/aiim_blog/2009/07/8-things-you-need-to-know-when-using-ecm-to-go-green.html

With these new lenses to see my work as sustainable, I now walk on and work on with pride! I am green.

Source
http://www.atlanta-ala.com/en/art/642/