RIM, Resolutions and ROI

72% of organizations surveyed stated that they are very committed to records management program improvement.

Great, so what does that mean? Is this another New Years' resolution that will never amount to anything kind of like promising to reduce your stress level? Are companies putting this on their hope to get to list for this year? April is Records and Information Management (RIM) Month, which makes it a great time to make good on that commitment.

And if those companies want to survive in this ever-changing world of technology, updated rules and regulations and more stringent security, records management improvement should be high on their organizational must absolutely get this done list.

So the short answer is that improving RIM is NOT just another resolution that you can let lapse. As a leader in the industry, our goal is to improve the records management programs of our clients; making them more defensible, secure, consistent and organized to remain compliant in the face of ever-changing requirements. Keeping your records management program compliant is so important that an entire month is dedicated to it. Across the globe, the industry is promoting the need to keep your RIM program up-to-date, and emphasizing the tangible value effective RIM practices can provide every organization. The fact that a non-compliant RIM program costs a company 3 times more than a compliant program provides ROI validation that this is no ordinary resolution!

To help us reach our goal, the Iron Mountain compliance benchmark report A View into Unified Records Management, has defined five records management best practices areas as:

Policies and Procedures rules and processes that support and guide your RIM program components (record creation, retention, destruction, access and storage).

Retention Covers the preservation and destruction of assets throughout their lifecycle supporting your efforts to manage, control and locate/retrieve your information.

Index and Access Having a quick, effective way to identify and retrieve your records for rapid discovery

Privacy and Disposal Decrease your risk by protecting your sensitive assets and how to properly destroy records.

Audit and Accountability Taking ownership of your RIM program and integrating it into your company's formal internal audit process.

These areas were identified over years of working with thousands of customers in the public, private, government and non-profit organizations sectors on a global basis and provide the foundation for a compliant RIM program that will protect your company and its assets.

So when you think back to January and remember your New Years' resolutions, make sure this one sticks. You'll find that it will help you with many of your other resolutions too saving your company time and money while reducing your stress level. It will be worth it, that's why there's a whole month dedicated to it. Learn how your RIM program can deliver business value; not just for April, but for years to come.

For more on RIM month, keep visiting our blog and check us out on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more tips and advice on keeping your RIM resolutions!

LINK:	http://blog.ironmountain.com/2013/records-management-and-storage/rim-r...
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