I think this is a very interesting and helpful podcast. I particularly like the note of caution that comes into the conversation around the 38th minute. My concern, though, is that your depiction of microsoft is akin to setting up a straw man. The progress made between sharepoint 2007 and sharepoint 2010 suggests that, far from being an afterthought, microsoft has thought very hard and imginatively about RM and are making good progress. I am lookning forward to your next podcast about the integration of sharepoint and traditional EDRMS products.

Clare

Firstly, the people involved in putting together the MoReq 2010 document must be commended for their efforts and obvious passion in what they do, not that I am forgetting about the folks who originally developed the MoReq spec.

I must be quite honest that 520 pages is daunting and I am not sure I have the energy to go through the document and give it the justice that it deserves.

Be that as it may, what I would like to put the table is that even though records managers face an ever incredibly difficult task, that at the end of the day they cannot address multiple system(s) issues unless they address the problems at a process level. Many of these problems are because businesses continue to go out and buy system after system that they think are a panacea for all their EDRM issues. The only way to understand the problem is to understand the process and then try and fit it to the system(s).

in addition, no matter whether a record is one item or format or an aggregation, you can only have one record (in a business context) just like you can only have one original – is a printed pdf of a signed purchase order the record, is the scanned copy of the hardcopy the record or is the transaction in an ERP the record? How many records or copies of the record do we want to manage? Simplistically I only have one birth certificate or passport or drivers licence – why would a business want multiple copies of a record or aggregation of a record?

Turning to the new MoReq 2010 I am not so convinced that line of business system vendors will incorporate electronic records management functionality into their systems – what is the benefit imperative to them? Just as is what is the bottom line benefit to a business forcing a vendor to be MoReq 2010 complaint? What was the benefit in the original MoReq 2 and if there was such how many BS vendors requested certification?

I fear that the world-wide community of records and information management practitioners is creating standards that are slowly becoming a rocket science monster that is going to destroy us.

If I was to want to implement a records management “system” today where would I start – ISO15489; ISO/TR 15801; ICA-Req; GARP; SEDONA; et al! There is just too much to comprehend and I would strongly advocate a call to go back to basics.

Only once you have mastered the basics can you start looking at all the problems of aggregation, compound records, multiple business systems and EDRMS and EDMS and ECM and, not forgetting the 800lb gorilla in the room, SharePoint!

Finally, what I have promised myself, despite feelings of suicide may be a serious option, is that I intend over the next 6 months fighting my way through every single page of the 520 in MoReq 2010 with the hope that I can understand exactly what it is and what it is trying to achieve.