In our world, technology is always evolving. The technology that supports the record management industry continues to change every day. Our industry must adapt to these changes in order to remain productive and relevant. Accurate records, documents, and information management is essential for future generations to have the ability to learn from our history.
One of the most crucial responsibilities of record archives and record keepers is to maintain all of this data so that the people who come after them will have factual and precise materials to research and reference. This type of reference material is vital for criminal records, health hazard documents, environmental clean-up, and historical accuracy. Many years from now, it will be the records and archives that tell the true story of everything that happened before. It is critical that they are well maintained and the methods that we use to stay up-to-date with modern capabilities.
Trends That Are Changing The Records Management Industry
Change is something that we cannot avoid. When it comes to record management, we should not remain stagnant in the old strategies and methods. To be effective, our methods and practices must be flexible and adaptable to the changing times. This means looking at new ways of services like data entry, network design, and library services. Let’s take a look at some of the trends that are changing the record management industry.
- Digital Retention: Properly managing and meeting retention periods has always been a challenge for any agency or business. In the recent past, we all came to trust digital records as the gold standard of longevity. However, it turns out even these digital documents and records have a life cycle of their own. As older technology becomes obsolete, we are losing access to electronic forms of vital records. There are solutions like migration and conversion, but another hurdle in this struggle is that many agencies and institutions are reluctant to update their systems. The truth is that these agencies and their service providers will have to learn how to adopt these new advancements or risk becoming stagnant.
- Continued Education: The foundational methods and practices of record management will always be valuable, but it is now necessary that we remain educated on modern techniques. Making sure that all of your employees involved with record and information management have the ability to continue their education will pay off for your agency in the long-term. Services like this are among the training offered by BNF Technologies.
- Automation: One way to address the ever-changing world of technology is to implement strategies like automation. Automated services can remove some of the guesswork out of updating your records management programs. Record retention is one of the most significant hurdles for any agency. Automating practices like capture, categorization, and retention schedules can reduce costs and make customer service a straightforward solution.
- Open Standards: There has been a growing demand from the public sector for open standards and open sourcing. Governments across the world have been slow to adopt these policies and procedures, but they are starting to see their benefit. Open standards will help reduce costs, address accessibility, and minimize vendor and platform lock-in.
- The Cloud: Cloud-based platforms and tools like Software as a Service (SaaS) have become a quickly growing influence in our industry. These applications are somewhat controversial among record manager and providers, but their advantages are difficult to debate. Providers of cloud services are increasingly addressing the concerns of record managers like security, data processing privacy, and data sovereignty.
As technology continues to grow and alter the way we perform record management tasks, we have to learn new strategies for adapting to them. The life cycle of active records and documents is paramount among all other concerns, and the digital world brings us many avenues for conducting this journey from document creation to retention or destruction. Even the disposal of records has to be handled with care in this digital age of recovery. Whatever the future has in store, BNF Technologies will be there to support your agency with superior record management solutions.