My last post was a bit of an overview of the current Records and Information Management (RIM) project I’ve been working on. This one is a bit more detail on some of the challenges that are sure to be faced - consider this your warning if you’ve been asked to tackle your company’s non-existent records program.
5. You can’t please everyone, but you MUST!
With all the differing requirements from the different business areas, different divisional and operations offices around the world you will get some requirements and “nice to haves” that conflict with others. Stick with the objectives outlined in the project or program charter. Also leaning towards corporate objectives as opposed to user requirements will make the project more prevalent, BUT, user requirements cannot be ignored totally. You won’t get users to adopt your program if they aren’t getting anything out of it.
4. HOARDERS!
Don’t be surprised when you find VP’s and Department heads with boxes piled up to their ceilings of old invoices and an Operations Manager with every email he’s ever sent and received for the past 20 years stored on CDs. The higher up the chain you go the harder it will be but training and patience is the key when dealing with hoarders.
3. That minor in linguistics will finally come in handy.
Be prepared to decipher lingo from Accounting, Legal, IT, Tax, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable. All groups will call the same thing something different and you need to identify those and consider this in any kind of taxonomy or classification scheme that you come up with. Also, if you have division offices with their own accounting department they will likely call a PO something completely different that what Corporate Accounting calls it.
2. Quantifying the Good, justifying the Bad, and making a case for the Ugly.
Completing a Cost-Benefit Analysis and determining Return on Investment (ROI) are certainly great tools for explaining to Executives why they need a RIM initiative. However, coming up with the numbers for things like how much time your payroll staff will save from no longer having to look for old boxes of payroll records, or how much more efficient your tax group will be once they have a defined electronic records structure, is easier said than done. These are often considered “direct-soft benefits” with a disclaimer that the numerical value of this, if one was even provided, is difficult to determine.
1. Keeping Your Eyes on the Prize.
There are so many rules, regulations, laws, business requirements and overlapping initiatives when you are beginning to get into the weeds of a records and information management project/program. So much so, it is often difficult to stay on top of what’s most important. From a Project Manager’s perspective I say stick to the Charter. This may seem obvious to some, but to others it can be a revelation that is your light at the end of a very long tunnel. If you’re lucky enough to have a RIM Program or Department, stick to the Charter. If you don’t have a Charter, get one, and get it signed by the Executive Sponsor ASAP. Without agreed upon objectives you don’t have a prize to keep your eyes on in the first place.
There’s a heap load of other challenges to be faced. This is some of the more notable challenges I’d expect to see on most RIM project or program initiatives. If you have a different Top 5, do tell!
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