What is ERM?

According to Wikipedia, “An electronic records management system (ERM) is a computer program (or set of programs) used to track and store records… ERM systems commonly provide specialized security and auditing functionalities tailored to the needs of records managers.”

That’s a pretty basic definition – good to know if you’re just curious, but not so useful if you’re actually trying to implement an ERM of your own. Are you even a records manager? What are you tracking and storing? A set of what kind of programs? What security and auditing functionality do you need?

Let’s start at the beginning.

The first question is the simplest. Are you a records manager? To answer a question with a question, do you have records? This can include accounts payable or receivable, human resources, taxes, legal documents, patient records… pretty much anything you produce that you need to keep track of. If so, the answer is yes, you are indeed a records manager.

The second question gets into the heart of how records management works. What are you tracking and storing? An important word to learn at this point is “metadata” – basically, data about data. The specifics will vary by user and use, but it’s going to be some sort of identifying information about what you are storing that can be used to find it. For example, patient accounts might have the name and date of birth of the patient, while payroll tax records might be the type of tax and the period for which it was paid.

Records management (RM) started out using this metadata to keep an electronic index of the location of physical data (think of a library catalog organized by title and author). Though physical data is still certainly a part of ERM, that principle has now evolved to include Enterprise Content Management (ECM - while ECM as a whole is a lesson for another day, it includes electronic capture, management, storage, preservation, and delivery of records; metadata can be expanded to a full-text search of the record). In a nutshell, ERM indexes the metadata and returns the location of the actual data (be it on the server or in a warehouse) to you in a click – way less time and trouble than getting a paper cut digging through six filing cabinets! Of course the key to a successful classification scheme is ease of use, but that may take some trial and error.

Next… a set of what kind of programs? Here at IMS, we use two: VCK, provided by Andrews Software, for our boxes and files, and FileBound from Marex Group for our digital projects. VCK keeps track of everything in our warehouse by a barcode and a database. If a client requests a file, we can quickly pull up the location and walk back to get it. FileBound works much the same way, except it is universal (we use it for our office records, while our wide array of clients use it for their own industry -specific needs) and it pulls the digital documents up for us.

The difference between these programs is probably obvious. Using the physical record doesn’t require a lot of new technology – at most, a lamp and some reading glasses will have you ready to go. However, some basic storage needs such as temperature, humidity, and a disaster plan still apply. A digital record requires a viewer that will open a variety of document types, and it has to constantly evolve to keep pace with ever-changing software and hardware requirements. Using a SaaS (Software as a Service) provider like FileBound eases some of that burden by taking on the software maintenance and data backups.

That said, there is also a major similarity between the two: each requires layers of security, both physical and virtual. What security and auditing functionality do you need? The boxes and the server both require protection from intruders, and the data in the system must be guarded from unauthorized access. Access, authorized or not, must leave a trail for auditing as well as for investigating any issues that might arise.

What none of these questions ask is why ERM? We’ve already mentioned the time and money you can save by not having to hunt down your files in a vaguely organized storage area. Keeping your records in a controlled index organized by context can mean increased efficiency across the board. What we haven’t discussed is that keeping better track of your business records can keep you in compliance with government regulations such as HIPAA or the Red Flags Rule, or that knowing what you have can push you into adhering to best practices by helping you create broad policies and specific procedures within your organization. A guided workflow can mean more innovation for your business.

Which brings us back to a lesson for another day…

(some information in this article was provided with assistance from aiim.org)