When it comes to records creation, management, and oversight, many work-related technology platforms are a double-edged sword. These platforms – which can be anything from productivity suites to communication technologies – typically offer features that make it easy for users to modify, customize, and create content, documents, and records in line with their and their team’s particular needs. That flexibility can facilitate successful business outcomes. It can also, however, create confusion, misunderstanding, and inconsistency across the organization and lead to huge headaches for records managers.
It’s particularly problematic when the IT department’s only involvement is just to keep the platform running, so that there’s no cohesive guidance or oversight throughout the organization.
Microsoft SharePoint, a web-based team collaboration tool, is a great example here. It’s a powerful and popular tool that lets users create their own mini intra-organizational sites tailored to their own needs. It can help teams to facilitate and manage communication and information.
However, the inconsistency between SharePoint sites within an organization will make it increasingly difficult to find information over time. That’s because every group will end up using SharePoint slightly differently from each other. This inconsistency could even inadvertently break security and privacy controls because the individuals and teams creating their own SharePoint sites don’t have the understanding or plan in place to ensure sufficient access and security controls are in place.
For records managers, the inconsistencies can make collecting and consolidating records more challenging than it needs to be, and built-in records management capabilities in platforms like these are often insufficient to meet the organization’s needs. Indeed, government IT news website GCN reports that many officials view SharePoint as something of a “cautionary tale” when it comes to records management:
“People spent millions and millions and millions of dollars cleaning up SharePoint over the course of a decade because they hadn’t thought of governance issues associated with it on the front end.”
Third-party tools and plug-ins offer one possible solution. As one records official tells GCN, I think, as a community, we’re still struggling with how to catch up with the rapidity and ever-changing landscape more than we had been before. And we don’t have the luxury of time.”
Utilizing the right tools in tandem with the software can add necessary records management functionality without the agency having to invest the time or resources into major technology overhauls. That said, like the platforms themselves, these tools are a double-edged sword. They can solve one problem but can create others.
Ultimately, a good governance program is key. It’s not the tool or technology that’s the problem, per se. Instead, it’s the lack of frontend planning and oversight. If there’s not some sort of organization-wide, forward-looking governance plan, usage of the technology will fracture over time and make records storage, collection, and retrieval into a nightmare. A good governance strategy can enable organizations to leverage the benefits of technologies like SharePoint while avoiding long-term problems and frustrations.
About PSL
PSL is a global outsource provider whose mission is to provide solutions that facilitate the movement of business-critical information between and among government agencies, business enterprises, and their partners. For more information, please visit or email info@penielsolutions.com.