Records management (RM) is defined by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) as the field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition of records, including the processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records. Enterprise Innovation brought this interesting topic to us in their article, “Records Management versus Document Management: know the difference.”

Fundamental to RM is the understanding that each record has a life cycle – the stages that every official business record must go through. It encompasses the identification, classification, archival, preservation and destruction of data.

Document management focuses on the effective management of documents, including its storage and retrieval, as well as improving the overall work processes to achieve organizational efficiency.

It isn’t one or the other. An integrated approach that addresses both document management and records management is needed.

Melody K. Smith

Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.