Is Your Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) Working?
Electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) are automated software applications that typically assist organizations with the creation, use, management, storage and disposal of data. Other functions of an EDRMS can be to automate processes like approvals and workflows and to integrate and communicate across various business software and systems. In many cases, the demonstrated use and effective implementation of a comprehensive EDRMS system is one of the major hallmarks of an effective data governance strategy.
One of the main challenges when implementing and managing an EDRMS system is figuring out what makes an EDRMS system effective – in other words, what are some of the KPIs and benchmarks that an organization must hit in order to accurately measure the success of its EDRMS systems?
These questions are particularly important given the potential disruption entailed in introducing new policies, procedures and workflows and the potential costs inherent in an unsuccessful system implementation – both of which can serve as critical management obstacles to adoption and hindrances to the effective use and deployment of EDRMS systems. Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the senior management of any organization is likely to require a demonstration of effective ROI both at the adoption and implementation phase.
Demonstrating ROI is never going to be a wholly scientific exercise. Nevertheless, certain performance metrics can be useful towards stating the EDRMS system case. These include:
Efficiency. One of the hallmarks of an effective EDRMS system is increasing the ability to find important official records. An example of efficiency increase is the demonstrated decrease the internal flow of multiple e-mails addressing the same objective or task (which makes the official record that is subject to a retention or a destruction obligation more difficult to identify).
Success at Internal Adoption. Do your employees and contractors know how to use the system and do they feel empowered to engage with it – an example would be an increase in for example, chat functions or the attachment of critical, collaboratively created documents into a shared file rather than sending around multiple versions.
Adapting the EDRMS System to Company Culture. Knowing as much as possible about your (or the client’s) company culture allows you to more accurately asses whether positive changes emanate from an effective EDRMS system deployment or from other factors and will allow you to adjust your system accordingly. The more specific knowledge you have, the better.
Knowledge Preservation LLC’s dedicated and experienced staff takes a holistic approach to information governance that includes asking the deep questions that are required to allow both us and your staff to understand both your goals and internal challenges – and to allow you to gain an understanding of which benchmarks and values are important to your organization.
For additional information, please feel free to set up a consultation with our CEO, Phyllis Elin who will help you to create and manage the system that most closely fits your needs and to identify the metrics that allow you to understand whether the system truly fits both your values and creates the ROI that you need.
#informationgovernance #electronicdata