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Shock for Brisbane RMAA conference
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Shock for Brisbane RMAA conference
RM almost dead! Long live Knowledge Management, says software chief
by Mike Steemson
You might not have guessed it from the accent, but it was an Englishman who set the virtual cat among the information pigeons at the Records Management Association of Australia conference. He told them that records management is dying, will soon be dead. Long live knowledge management, he said. No-one screamed. Somebody laughed!
Judging by statements in other papers during September’s three-day Brisbane faq-fest(1), he struck at one or two nail heads. None of the others speakers said it so brutally, but there were echoes.
The conference was themed "Making Information Work" but it was actually mostly about making information managers work, a topic with resonance way beyond the high, wide and handsome walls of the Queensland capital’s new, gazillion-dollar convention centre on the south bank of the Brisbane River.
 Frank McKenna |
U.K. Newcastle-born Sydney-sider Frank McKenna (2) started it. Well he would, wouldn’t he! He’s one of the founders of Australia’s burgeoned RM software industry and captain of his own GMB company’s RecFind flagship system. Mr McKenna first shook the 350 delegates by answering his own question: "Does records management software have a future as a discrete application? In the long term, in five years plus, it has none!"
He set the "real" future at some five years ahead, around the year 2,003. He conceded coolly: "You may view this as a surprising utterance from someone who makes his living from records management software. However, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that records management software is a dinosaur due for extinction."
Of course, he had a reason. He put up another question: "Will records management software exist as part of a grander scheme, part of a larger more comprehensive application, a knowledge management system?" Again, he answered it himself: "In five year plus, it will be mandatory. All enterprises will be using knowledge management software incorporating records management principles." He based these assumptions on feedback from what he called "RecFind’s 50 per cent share of the Australian installed base of records management systems".
Then came the real shaker. He warned everyone to hold onto their seats, saying: "Is there a future for records managers beyond the year 2,003? I’m sorry to have to tell you that, no, there is no future for you beyond the next five years …" There were no screams, a few nervous titters, someone actually laughed!
Mr McKenna’s Irish forebears passed him down good thespian genes, as well! He had paused for seconds, and continued "… unless you are prepared to take on the job of knowledge manager!"
The Sizzle Factors
He based his dramatic statement on research into use by RM software clients of their systems’ "sizzle features designed to dazzle and win over the techno-heads and consultants". At present, only a small percentage of clients used these features which could access corporate data bases, the Internet, electronic document management and imaging. By 2,003, 100 per cent of them would be using all these functions fully.
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"IT professionals will assume the responsibilities of records professionals within five years."
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He explained: "Even though I am a firm believer that the term ‘records’ includes all corporate objects, the majority of the business community simply does not agree and cannot be convinced. I am therefore of the firm belief that records management functionality will be incorporated into knowledge management solutions and that IT professionals will assume the responsibilities of records professionals within five years. This is simply the inevitable result of a battle between ‘low-tech’ and ‘high-tech’.
"The fact that the records management community and organisations like RMAA and ARMA (and I am a member of both) have failed to sell their solution as high-tech, state-of-the-art is their greatest failing. I firmly believe that the situation is now irreversible and that the only future for records managers is within the IT community, as knowledge managers."
It was pretty extreme stuff. He’s nearly right, too, I reckon. I think it will take longer than five years, but there’s no doubt the original, close "records management" form and function is doomed. Several other speakers, as far as I know without any advance notice of the McKenna bombshell, thought so too. One, Chris Simpson, Records Manager of Queensland’s Ipswich City Council, believes they will become records management "technicians" working behind the scenes "out of sight, out of mind". The head of Brisbane software house Advanced Data Integration, Chris Gorry, spoke of the move from records management to "information resource management" coming with the dramatic change in organisation communications.
Another Chris - what a popular name it was a generation or so ago! - the Director of Corporate Services at Logan City Council, one of Queensland’s largest local bodies, Chris Rose, forecast change more optimistically : "Records are basically recorded information, therefore records management is actually information management. As we move into the information age, its proper management will become extremely important. Herein lies both a great challenge and an excellent opportunity for records managers."
 Roger Worthington |
Choice: Custodians or dinosaurs
Mr McKenna shared the debating platform with one of his software competitor, another English-born Australian ERM pioneer, Roger Worthington (3), chief executive of Brisbane’s QCOM company. He swore there had been no collusion between them, but agreed with his rival almost entirely, challenging the profession: "You can be the custodians of information, or you can be the dinosaurs. What will you be?"
He said records managers faced their biggest opportunity ever. The evidence was the all around, booming PC usage in homes and offices, soaring e-mail, world wide web and electronic commerce figures, "blue chip" high-tech stocks and shares. He said: "This is the biggest opportunity you are ever going to get. It’s no longer coming. It’s here!
"What do you as custodians need to do to grasp the opportunity? You have to learn about the technology: servers, networks, PCs, laptops, palm computers, wearable technology. You have to learn the jargon: object management, metadata, templates, electronic commerce, workflow, imaging, contact management. Then you have to sell your employers the notion that there needs to be a discipline that only the Records Management profession has, to be trusted with the organisation’s most valuable resource - information."
Mr Worthington urged: "Don’t say ‘I don’t understand the technology’. You can learn. It’s only jargon. It’s still dealing with things you have known for ever. Don’t say ‘I’m not as clever as these IT people’. At what? Writing programs? That’s not what I’m talking about. Your strengths are self discipline, rigour, persistence. These are not traits of the IT professional, as a rule, but they are the traits of records managers."
He seriously suggested that records managers should change their title to "information custodians". They should make a take-over for the information assets of their organisations. He exhorted: "You know all the reasons why you should do it. But many of you don’t. Why? The Guardians’ job is yours for the asking. Go ask for it!"
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"Documents are no longer only static, thin sheets of dead trees."
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Industry in Revolt
So, the industry is revolting! But why? Other speakers had suggestions. The boss of the DocTrieve software company, Earl Woolley, said: "Documents are no longer only static, thin sheets of dead trees. The power is the knowledge contained in the document and that knowledge must be used, re-used and multiplied. Endless information requires endless space. Virtual space is the only option".
Chris Gorry thought it was because "time is now the essence in communication". He said: "The movement of information between organisations and individuals within the organisation has reached new levels. We no longer wait days for information. We expect responses the same day and in many instances within minutes. The tools we now have - e-mail, facsimile gateways, etc., make ‘immediate’ forms of communication available to everyone."
To cope, standards for automatic information management were being developed allowing workflow engines to communicate with one another, passing information for business processing between themselves. He said: "The need for the receiving organisation to register or determine manually the tasks required will be reduced or removed completely. Although it will be information critical to the corporate system, the records department will most likely never see it."
He said the role of records managers was no longer restricted to registration, housekeeping and retention processes, adding: "The modern records manager is being asked to assist in the utilisation of the information to undertake the business processes. The challenge is for him or her to be aware how information is used within the organisation, not merely how it should be registered."
Australia Post Marketing and Communications Manager, Christine Corbett, had statistics to prove the theories. In the past 35 or so years, the total "messaging market" had increased eight times, in Australia from three billion to 24 billion a year. The market would grow a further 40 percent by 2005. She showed that these percentage rises applied all over the developed world. But in the past two years, business to business snail-mail showed "virtually zero growth" -- the impact of the new technologies. Though it too is soaring in volume, business correspondence now relies on faxes, the telephone … and e-mail.
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Model for Information Guardians
Victoria State consultant and RMAA Company Secretary, Julie Apps (4), set out an answer in her paper on "Traditional Methods versus the Future". She showed that records, physical or electronic, could become knowledge and be used to meet an organisation’s objectives simply by applying discipline and organisational functions to meet business needs, accountability and expectations.
She set out a fine model for the new records management, knowledge management, information guardians, or whatever they/we are to be called: "The architecture of the structure is to move away from the central and/or decentralised records management structure of maintenance and storage activities and towards a consultative and management role in terms of record-keeping. The devolution structure requires the service provider to become innovative in the approach to management of information, rather than merely physically undertaking routine tasks associated with custodial issues.
"The records management centre must be adequately resourced with trained and innovative staff who understand their role and responsibilities if the service is to be of on-going value. The model relies very heavily on access to technology to enable the records management centre to change its focus away from actual manual tasks towards a consultative and monitoring role."
The software would be required to show compliance with records management policies, procedures, standards and business rules and operate a structure that recorded and maintained information intellectually. Ms Apps said:
"The records management centre function would change from being a filing station and custodian of all records to that of an advisory and policy unit with limit hands-on involvement with current records."
Kemal Hasandedic, the Records Policy Officer in one of North Queensland’s fastest growing councils, Thuringowa City, works by his own two-edged maxim: "Ask the users what they want, give them the tools to do what they need and what we records management professionals require."
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"If I do not understand the IT gobbledegook I am given, I ask for a simpler answer."
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It works particularly in his dealing with his IT colleagues as he gets to grips with systems. He declared: "I do not proclaim to be an IT technocrat. I ask questions of IT professionals and get a second opinion from outside my organisation. Then, using my new-found knowledge, I encourage IT to be a party to changing the organisation. I try to ask semi-intelligent questions and if I do not understand the gobbledegook I am given, I ask for a simpler answer for my overworked brain."
He believed in "shooting from the hip" and saying what he believed to be right. But he did not set out to tread on technologists’ toes. Everyone had a safety zone and if threatened within it, reacted in various manners. He advised delegates to "suffer … sorry … enjoy" training sessions on behavioural management or understanding the human psyche. They would put it to good use.
"My relationship with IT has not been plain sailing. Far from it! But face to face meetings where both parties threw cards on the table have sorted out differences and misunderstandings. And fortunately, the IT personnel find it refreshing when someone keeps them informed and is honest with them," he said.
Training to raise morale
Training consultant Joy Siller, director and principal consultant for Siller Systems Administration, had some pretty scathing things to say about training amongst records management professionals. She identified one of the benefits as being to "improve morale leading to a reduction in absenteeism and turnover".
I would certainly put that near the top of my wish list.
She questioned whether the common belief that lack of RM training was solely the fault of top management. She said that in a Brisbane survey, poor regard for RM staff by senior management was cited as a major reason for a lack of training. In a New South Wales Archives Authority inquiry only 49 percent of government agencies reported records management training.
She commented: "In both surveys, a number of other reasons were given for the low rate of training: Inadequate funding; apathy of RM staff; staff cuts-backs and resistance to change and new techniques suggested in training programmes."
She went on: "Could it be that the problem lies not just with the lack of senior management support but also with inadequate planning by those designing and choosing the records management training programme?
"Could it also be that senior management sees a lack of proper planning and results from records management training and this perpetuates the lack of support? It may be the responsibility of the records manager to take a pro-active role in establishing a strategic and result-based training programme to convince senior management of its worth."
 Alan Howell |
I reckon Alan Howell (5), the Preservation Manager at the State Library of New South Wales knows what he’s talking about when he addresses the technical challenges that face record-keepers. He is chair of the Australian Co-operative Digitisation Project’s Technical Advisory Group (try making a pronounceable acronym out of that!) and convenor of the Australian Library and Information Association’s special interest group for preservation of library materials.
In his paper "Historical technology: Love it or lose it", he pleads for greater co-operation by information resources for the management and availability of information. He told delegates:
"The cultural and information sectors cannot afford to work in isolation either from each other or from their users. It is ineffective, inefficient and institutional suicide to do so. We need to move the locus of our work out from the institutions and into the community. More cross-sectoral liaisons, building on the work to date but driven by partnerships with users, are required to demonstrate the benefits of this approach.
"Similarly, it is also counter-productive to work without cognisance of the major developments overseas. We need to develop more international linkages that foster common cost-effective strategies and benchmark our strategies against the best in the world." Mr Howell was talking about libraries in particular, but his advice fits just as neatly into the worried, work-threatened world of records and information management.
1. Faq-fest: A forum for Frequently Asked Questions. Geddit? Geddit?
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2. Frank McKenna, Managing Director of the GMB Group, P. O. Box 867, Crows Nest, NSW 2065. Tel: +612 9439 2811; e-mail: f.mckenna@gmb.com.au; URL: http://www.gmb.com.au.
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3. Roger Worthington, Managing Director of QCOM Pty Ltd., 457 Upper Edward Street, Brisbane, Queensland 4000. Tel: +617 3839 3544; e-mail: qcom@qcom.com.au; URL: http://www.qcom.com.au.
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4. Julie Apps, e-mail: julieapps@austarnet.com.au.
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5. Alan Howell, Preservation Manager, State Library of New South Wales, Macquarie St, Sydney, NSW 2000. Tel: +612 9273 1676; fax: +612 9273 1265; e-mail: consacc@slnsw.gov.au; URL: http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/
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 Michael Steemson |
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